We Are All Murderers

1952 film

We Are All Murderers

Directed by| André Cayatte
Written by| André Cayatte
Charles Spaak
Produced by| François Carron
Starring| Marcel Mouloudji
Raymond Pellegrin
Claude Laydu
Cinematography| Jean Bourgoin
Edited by| Paul Cayatte
Music by| Raymond Legrand

Production
companies

Union Générale Cinématographique
Jolly Film
Labor Film Produzione

Distributed by| L'Alliance Générale de Distribution Cinématographique

Release date

* 21 May 1952 (1952-05-21)

Running time

| 115 minutes
Countries| France
Italy
Language| French

We Are All Murderers (French: Nous sommes tous des assassins, Italian: Siamo tutti assassini) is a 1952 French-Italian crime drama film written and directed by André Cayatte and starring Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin and Claude Laydu.[1][2] It was shot at the Boulogne Studios in Paris. The film's sets were designed by the art director Jacques Colombier. It tells the story of René, a young man from the slums, trained by the French Resistance in World War II to kill Germans. He continues to kill long after the war has ended, as it is all he knows. It was entered into the 1952 Cannes Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize.[3]

## Plot

[edit]

René Le Guen (Marcel Mouloudji) is a former resistance fighter trained as a young man as a professional killer. After World War II, he has no qualms in applying these skills and is arrested for murder. Convicted and condemned to death, he is held in a prison cell with other murderers sentenced to death. Men to be guillotined are taken out at night, so they wait in fear and only sleep after dawn. While Le Guen's lawyer (Claude Laydu) tries to achieve a pardon for his client, three of Le Guen's fellow inmates are executed, one by one, in the course of the film.

Cayatte used his films to reveal the inequities and injustice of the French system, and protested against capital punishment.

## Cast

[edit]

* Marcel Mouloudji as René Le Guen
* Raymond Pellegrin as Gino Bollini
* Antoine Balpêtré as Dr. Albert Dutoit
* Amedeo Nazzari as Docteur Detouche (Italian version)
* Jean-Pierre Grenier as Docteur Detouche (French version)
* Julien Verdier as Bauchet
* Claude Laydu as Philippe Arnaud
* Juliette Faber as Francine Saulnier
* Georges Poujouly as Michel Le Guen
* Jacqueline Pierreux as Yvonne Le Guen (French version)
* Yvonne Sanson as Yvonne Le Guen (Italian version)
* Lucien Nat as The Attorney General
* Louis Arbessier as the young court lawyer
* René Blancard as Albert Pichon
* Léonce Corne as the instructor colonel
* Henri Crémieux as Bauchet's lawyer
* Jean Daurand as Girard, the man in the telephone booth
* Yvonne de Bray as the ragpicker
* Guy Decomble as an inspector
* Liliane Maigné as Rachel
* Anouk Ferjac as Agnès
* Paul Frankeur as Léon
* Line Noro as Madame Arnaud
* Marcel Pérès as Malingré
* Renée Gardès as Mother Le Guen

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Crisp p.235
2. ^ Hutton p.92
3. ^ "Festival de Cannes: We Are All Murderers". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-01-18.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Crisp, Colin. French Cinema—A Critical Filmography: Volume 2, 1940–1958. Indiana University Press, 2015.
* Hutton Margaret-Anne. French Crime Fiction, 1945–2005: Investigating World War II. Routledge, 2016.

## External links

[edit]

* We Are All Murderers at IMDb

* v
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Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize

1946–1973|

* The Battle of the Rails (1946)
* All About Eve (1951)
* We Are All Murderers (1952)
* Knave of Hearts (1954)
* Lost Continent (1955)
* The Mystery of Picasso (1956)
* Kanał / The Seventh Seal (1957)
* Mon Oncle (1958)
* Stars (1959)
* L'Avventura / Odd Obsession (1960)
* Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
* The Trial of Joan of Arc / L'Eclisse (1962)
* Harakiri /  The Cassandra Cat (1963)
* Woman in the Dunes (1964)
* Kwaidan (1965)
* Alfie (1966)
* Z (1969)
* The Falcons / The Strawberry Statement (1970)
* Love / Joe Hill (1971)
* Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)
* The Hourglass Sanatorium / The Invitation (1973)
* La prima Angélica (1974)

1980–2000|

* The Constant Factor (1980)
* Kharij (1983)
* Colonel Redl (1985)
* Thérèse (1986)
* Yeelen / Shinran: Path to Purity (1987)
* A Short Film About Killing (1988)
* Jesus of Montreal (1989)
* Hidden Agenda (1990)
* Europa / Out of Life (1991)
* Dream of Light / An Independent Life (1992)
* The Puppetmaster / Raining Stones (1993)
* La Reine Margot (1994)
* Don't Forget You're Going to Die (1995)
* Crash (1996)
* Western (1997)
* Class Trip / The Celebration (1998)
* The Letter (1999)
* Blackboards / Songs from the Second Floor (2000)

2002–present|

* Divine Intervention (2002)
* At Five in the Afternoon (2003)
* Tropical Malady (2004)
* Shanghai Dreams (2005)
* Red Road (2006)
* Persepolis / Silent Light (2007)
* Il divo (2008)
* Thirst / Fish Tank (2009)
* A Screaming Man (2010)
* Polisse (2011)
* The Angels' Share (2012)
* Like Father, Like Son (2013)
* Mommy / Goodbye to Language (2014)
* The Lobster (2015)
* American Honey (2016)
* Loveless (2017)
* Capernaum (2018)
* Bacurau / Les Misérables (2019)
* Ahed's Knee / Memoria (2021)
* EO / The Eight Mountains (2022)
* Fallen Leaves (2023)
* Emilia Pérez (2024)
* Sirāt / Sound of Falling (2025)

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* e

Films directed by André Cayatte

* Twisted Mistress (1942)
* Pierre and Jean (1943)
* Shop Girls of Paris (1943)
* Song of the Clouds (1946)
* The Last Penny (1946)
* Roger la Honte (1946)
* The Revenge of Roger (1946)
* The Unknown Singer (1947)
* Under the Cards (1948)
* The Lovers of Verona (1949)
* Return to Life (1949)
* Justice Is Done (1950)
* We Are All Murderers (1952)
* Before the Deluge (1954)
* Black Dossier (1955)
* An Eye for an Eye (1957)
* Le Miroir à deux faces (1958)
* Tomorrow Is My Turn (1960)
* Le glaive et la balance (1963)
* Anatomy of a Marriage: My Days with Françoise (1964)
* Anatomy of a Marriage: My Days with Jean-Marc (1964)
* Trap for Cinderella (1965)
* Les risques du métier (1967)
* The Pleasure Pit (1969)
* Mourir d'aimer (1971)
* There's No Smoke Without Fire (1973)
* Verdict (1974)
* State Reasons (1978)

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