Jacques Denoël

The Secret Service abducts a "rocket scientist" to better protect him against gangsters acting for Chinese agents.

Julien Couturier and his wife Louise, a young couple from Auvergne who have come to Paris to try their luck for the first time in their lives, become the owners of the "Café du Cadran" ("Clockface Cafe"). On opening day, they meet the people who will become their clientele. It's a busy place, with regular customers served by two waiters, Jules and Victor. While Julien is comfortable in his role as boss, Louise doesn't quite get used to this urban world, where everything moves faster, especially human feelings. She often misses Marcenait, the village in Auvergne where she and her husband ran the "Café du Commerce". Mr. Luigi, a café customer and violinist who performs at the "Café de Paris", has undertaken Louise's cultural education. He teaches her how to dress and do her hair, while recounting his musical successes and travels, skilfully playing on his undeniable seductiveness...

Bad financial conditions compel an aristocratic family to do strange work.

When he finds a package in the metro, given this period of restrictions, Mr. Truche thinks it may be a good deal, he takes it home but discovers a woman's head inside. A friend of Mr. Truche having just disappeared, the superintendent accuses her of having murdered her and discovers the head buried in his cellar. But the girlfriend, whom Mr. Truche loves platonically, returns from the countryside and at the same time we spot the assassin of the unknown woman.

Hopes and love and ambitions and friendship in a group of young jazz-loving Parisians.

Marcel, a simple-minded factory worker, is tricked into buying a high-priced American convertable car by a widow determined not to let it fall into the hands of her late husband's secretary/secret lover. Once in pocession of the car, Marcel only encounters one bad luck episode after another with the excessive gasoline consumtion, his wife trying to sell it to make ammends meet, getting into traffic jams, accidently riding into a car wash with the top down, and more.

Loursat, a lawyer, lives with his daughter Nicole in a sinister and vast bourgeois residence. Abandoned for nearly twenty years by his wife, the brilliant lawyer has sunk into alcoholism and his relationship with his daughter is virtually non-existent. However, one day the corpse of a stranger is discovered in the residence of Loursat. Nicole, who frequents a gang of young people who escape boredom by stealing cars and other objects, is immediately suspected.

Bertal, a despotic and hated theater director, is assassinated before a performance of Macbeth in which he was to play with Aurélia Nobli, his companion and Ludovic Arn, her lover. The police arrive on the scene and the investigation begins. Suspicion first falls on Sigurd, an old actor who had threatened Bertal. But parallels appear between the characters in the play and the actors who play them.

After being hurt in the face, Count de Roger Tinchebraye is forced to hide his disfigured face behind a leather mask. Dispirited for a while, he decides to become a Casanova-like seductor. When he meets true love, cynical Roger does not believe in it and lets pure Judith marry an old marquis. But once Judith's husband dies, he sees Judith again, shows her his disfigured face, which does not discourage the young woman from loving him. Nevertheless, he distances himself from her forever

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.

Mr and Mrs Barbezat,Concierges are to marry their only daughter to a butcher's boy. Both the in-laws and the groom have an obsession: come what may, they are keen on honoring their engagements: promises are made to be kept is their motto. And when, on the wedding day, the unfortunate parents cannot provide the newly weds with...the "Mérinos" mattress which is part of the bride's Trousseau ,they are desperate. The husband will spend the whole wedding festivities trying to keep his word.

Micheline Chevassu is a young, naive woman living in an orphanage. Through classified ads, she has a date with an unknown man. She escapes from the orphanage to go to it, dreaming of the Prince Charming. But comes Nicolas Rougemont, an unattractive middle-aged man... He pretends not to be the author of the letters, who could not come...

1939 : what a beautiful year for Claudia and Jerôme. No sooner do they meet that they are under each other's spell. 1939 : what a horrible year for the two lovers : war breaks out before they can get married. They meet again after the war but the enchantment has vanished. They decide to marry but it will be for reason, not for love. Miracles only happen once.

Pierre, who is a Fine Arts student, and Denise, who is a chemistry student, work for a department store where, wearing wedding suits, they distribute flyers to passers-by. The store manager, Bernard, falls in love with Denise and arranges to take her to an inn not far from Paris, run by the handsome Robert. This one opens Denise's eyes who ends up returning to her home. After a fight between Pierre and Bernard, Denise ends up choosing to stay with Pierre.

Secretly in love with Françoise, the companion of his best friend Marc, Victor decides to go to prison in his place.

Due to financial problems, the boarding-school of Saint-Loup is on the verge of closing its doors. In desperation, Jacquelin, the headmaster, has the idea to invite former students to a fund-raising reunion. Among the alumni, three men whose common point is to have been in love at the time with the headmaster's niece. One is a banker, the second a priest and the last one a globetrotter. All of a sudden, the peace of the assembly is disturbed: Jacquelin's niece has just been murdered.

In 1935, in the Burgundian village of Valromey, Commissioner Desbordes was the very unpopular leader of the anti-alcoholic league. His own brother, Pimpin, is an unconditional defender of the vineyard. Pierre Moreau is, for his part, the representative of a hygienic drink, the "Koku-Kolu". The cafe owner's daughter, Rose, will find the man very to her liking and will manage to seduce him.

Frank Keany is the chief engineer of a uranium mine located under the overwhelming sun of New Mexico and owned by a woman, Moira Warden. She suspects her ex-husband want to take possession of the mine.

An industrialist who prefers painting to business is cheated on by his wife with a painter who prefers business to painting.

Picpus is a street and a subway stop where a number of murders have been committed. Maigret tries to find the killer.

Francois is engaged to Isabelle. While going to buy the engagement ring, he meets Sophie, who puts the ring on her finger and does not manage to remove it. Francois follows in the footsteps of Sophie, who is married to an important merchant, in order to recover his property.

Alain Brécourt, a former pilot who distinguished himself during the war, meets Françoise Clozat, a test pilot. They become lovers, but Françoise learns that Alain is married to a singer. Françoise despairs, but Alain proves to her that he has been living away from his wife for some time. She meets the singer, no longer believes Alain, and attempts suicide during a flight. Her instinct for self-preservation saves her. Alain is the first to turn his attention to her: when she opens her eyes again, she receives the assurance of his love.

Thanks to a bit of string-pulling by his aunt, Jean du Bois d'Ombelles, a young recruit who has blue blood in his veins, hopes to go through a nice and comfortable military service. Unfortunately he becomes Corporal Bourrache's pet aversion. Nevertheless, against all expectations, Jean ends up taking a liking for military life.

Marcel, rich and alone for Christmas, invite Françoise to celebrate with him. Soon, the fairy tale turns into a bad dream.