Claude Sautet

Bridging argot-rich 50s masterworks like "Rififi" and "Touchez-pas au Grisbi" with Jean-Pierre Melville's pared-down thrillers of the 60s, Classe Tous Risques (1960) (the title refers to a type of insurance policy, à la "Double Indemnity," but is also a pun on "tourist class") is a penetrating study of the underworld tough guy at the end of his rope, drawn from screenwriter José Giovanni's first-hand knowledge of the post-war French underworld. (Film Forum)

A brilliant surgeon, Professor Genessier, helped by his assistant Louise, kidnaps nice young girls.... (imdb)

Beautiful violin virtuoso Camille has two obsessions: the music of Ravel, and a friend of her husband's who crafts violins. But his heart seems to be as cold as her playing is passionate. (imdb)

When Nelly, a woman being just divorced, meets by chance M. Arnaud, a mature salesman just retired, begins a strange and special relationship between the two personalities. (imdb)

A restaurant waiter aspires to start an amusement park on the beach.

In 1930 Marseilles two small-time crooks join forces when they meet brawling over a woman. Starting with fixed horse races and fights, they start to find themselves doing jobs for the local gangster bosses. When they decide to go into the business for themselves, their easy-going approach to crime starts to change

Max is a Paris detective, aloof, independently wealthy, and frustrated by gangs of robbers whom he cannot catch. To re-establish his stature and save face, he decides to inveigle a group of petty thieves (led by an old acquaintance) to rob a bank.

Romy Schneider plays Marie, a forty-something working woman whose tiresome existence has prompted her to inaugurate an affair. Marie eventually parts with her lover, aborting the pregnancy resulting from her liaison. She pauses long enough to take stock of her current situation, and to muse on its possible outcome.

Emile (Jean Gabin) and his family travel to the South of France to meet the parents of the man who is to marry his daughter in this family comedy drama. Adelphe (Fernandel) tries to ease the visitors from Paris into the more laid-back life of the South. The two future fathers-in-law slowly becomes friends before a lover's quarrel between their children threatens to jeopardize the upcoming marriage of Antoine and Marie. The two fathers eventually resolve their differences as do their offspring.

Martial's mother owns a chain of supermarkets. He had spent some years in a mental hospital because of pervasive indolence. Hoping that an active task may improve his condition, he is sent to inspect supermarkets in the province. At his first visit the manager had taken a large loan of money belonging to the firm. In the same city Martial starts a relationchip with Francine, without jealousy from her boyfriend Fernand. He decides to stay there for a while. (imdb)

Rosalie is amicably divorced, dividing her time between her mother's house, with her siblings and small daughter, and César's. He's self made, a scrap iron king, outgoing, amiable, in love with her. Enter David, an artist and Rosalie's flame before her marriage. In a quiet, brooding way, he seeks to reclaim Rosalie. César's jealous outbursts and attempts at cunning backfire and send Rosalie into David's arms. César keeps trying: he buys Rosalie's childhood seaside vacation home as a gift, win (imdb)

An inconsolable widower, who was a wealthy banker, is about to jump into the Seine, but a woman stops him. It is his former maid, Suzanne. She reveals to him that the mourned wife deceived him shamelessly. The banker forgets his suicide and decides to disappear.

David Ladislas (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is enlisted to transport mysterious, valuable cargo to a secret location. Given his instructions by tight-lipped gamine Olga Celan (Jean Seberg), David drives blissfully into ignorance and danger as his beautiful companion parcels out just enough information to get to the next checkpoint. The pair travels from Barcelona, Spain, to Lebanon, then to Syria and across the sea again to Greece and Italy, leading to a climactic encounter in Bremen, Germany.

A Marquise who lures motorists to her hotel by sabotaging their cars gets more than she bargains for when one guest turns out to be a bank robber on the run (imdb)

Middle-aged businessman, Simon Léotard finds his future in jeopardy when his partner Julien commits suicide after having accumulated a mass of debts. Simon's unscrupulous business rival Lépidon offers to save him from bankruptcy by buying his company, at a discount rate. Reluctant to fall into Lépidon's trap, Simon decides to resolve the crisis himself. A prostitute, Mado, provides him with the solution to his problems... (imdb)

Former agent of the Second Bureau, Paul Lamiani (Lino Ventura) has become an honest father, a restaurant boss. One day, the DST called him and asked him to reconnect with a man named Raymond (Paul Frankeur), a mobster who was involved in trafficking in documents affecting National Defense.

Five men collaborate to buy drugs, but one steals the money and all the rest are killed as they make mistakes. (imdb)

Criminals rob a French mining town.