Anne Campion

In France in 1946, the difficult return to civilian life of five deportees and prisoners of war after having lived through the hell of the Second World War.

This comedy short subject satirizes the Hollywood genre which the French had given the name to of Film Noir.

The film is a 125-minute, black-and-white biography of French priest and diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838), who served for 50 years under five different French regimes: the Absolute Monarchy, the Revolution, the Consulate, the Empire, and the Constitutional Monarchy. Its title comes from one of the main historical nicknames for Talleyrand, that he shares with demon king Asmodeus and English poet Lord Byron.

In April 1945, a group of Nazis and collaborators gather in Oslo to board a submarine headed for South America, aiming to avoid justice. Kidnapped Doctor Guilbert is forced to accompany them.

Between eleven o’clock and midnight one evening, a notorious trafficker Jérôme Vidauban is shot whilst walking in a tunnel in Paris. The case is assigned to Inspector Carrel, who is Vidauban’s perfect double. Using his resemblance to the arch criminal, Carrel manages to infiltrate in Vidauban’s circle of acquaintances and contacts. He becomes embroiled in a bizarre web of intrigue and discovers no shortage of possible murder suspects, all of whom appear to be surprised to see him still alive.

Professor Charles Buisson, astronomer and Nobel Prize winner, has just discovered a nova. He informs the other observatories by telephone. Just as he thinks one of them is calling back, he finds himself on the line with a young woman threatening suicide at the Ruban Bleu cabaret, if her lover hasn't joined her by midnight. Intrigued, the professor decides to go and prevent the unfortunate woman from committing suicide. One of his students, who earns her living as an understudy in a knife act, helps him in his investigation, while the school principal and a policeman suspect him of being a prankster or even of selling drugs. For the scientist, it's an opportunity to discover a world of music-hall that he'd never known before: "I thought I knew the sky chart by heart, but there's one planet that was totally unknown to me: Earth. I'll be back!

Noël is a bachelor who inherits a matrimonial agency. After contemplating selling it, he chooses to manage it.