En 1954, au début de la guerre d'Algérie, deux hommes, que tout oppose, sont contraints de fuir à travers les crêtes de l’Atlas saharien d'Algérie. Au cœur d’un hiver glacial, Daru, instituteur reclus, doit escorter Mohamed, un paysan accusé du meurtre de son cousin. Poursuivis par des villageois réclamant la loi du sang et par des colons revanchards, les deux hommes se révoltent. Ensemble, ils vont lutter pour retrouver leur liberté.
In the French infantry on the Macedonian Front during the First World War, Conan, an officer of the élite Chasseurs Alpins, is the charismatic leader of a special squad, many from military prisons, who raid enemy lines at night taking no prisoners. Despising career soldiers, his only friend is the young academic Norbert.
Le film retrace les quinze premiers jours de l'opération turquoise qui a duré deux mois du 22 juin 1994 au 21 août 1994. Les 150 militaires des forces spéciales françaises découvrent alors la folie haineuse qui règne au Rwanda. Missionnés par l'ONU, ils doivent rester neutres, mais pour eux que peut signifier « neutre » en plein génocide, d'autant plus que certains d'entre eux retrouvent comme meneurs du génocide certains militaires hutus des Forces armées rwandaises, qu'ils avaient formés lorsqu'ils étaient venus auparavant en tant qu'instructeurs militaires ?
Pierre Martel (Pierre Richard-Willm), a young Parisian businessman, is brought to financial ruin and disgrace through the extravagant lifestyle that he pursues with his lover Florence (Marie Bell). Forced to leave the country, he joins the Foreign Legion, as Pierre Muller, and seeks to submerge his own despair in a new life in North Africa alongside other unhappy refugees such as the Russian Nicolas (Georges Pitoëff). When not on campaign, they lodge in a cheap hotel run by the greedy and lecherous Clément (Charles Vanel) and his sadly stoical wife Blanche (Françoise Rosay), who passes the time by reading the cards to tell her customers their fortunes. When Pierre encounters Irma (Marie Bell) working in a local bar as a singer and a prostitute, he finds her almost identical to his former lover Florence, except for her voice and the colour of her hair. Irma is vague about her past and Pierre becomes ever more obsessed with the apparent reincarnation of his old love. They live together at the hotel, and when Clément forces himself on Irma, Pierre kills him in a struggle; Blanche makes it appear to be an accident. When Pierre's term of service finishes, he and Irma plan a new life together back in France where he has now inherited some money. But on the eve of their embarkation in Casablanca, Pierre happens to meet again the real Florence, now mistress to a wealthy Arab, and his feelings for Irma are shattered. Having duped Irma into returning to France alone, he re-enlists in the Legion. Blanche's cards foretell a brave death for him in his next campaign.
A courtroom-drama about a dead Captain whose memory is publicly accused by a historian on TV, twenty years after his death. The story follows his widow's struggle to prove that he was not a murderer and did not practise torture while he was leading a ground unit during the Algerian war.
Roger, instituteur breton, part enseigner en Tunisie, puis dans l'Algérie en guerre : il prend parti, tandis que son amie d'enfance Gwen, animatrice de radio, choisit la voie de la neutralité.
During the Algerian War, Bruno Forestier lives in Geneva to escape the enlistment in France. Working for French intelligence, he is ordered to kill Palivoda, who is pro-FLN (National Liberation Front of Algeria), to prove he is not a double agent. Refusal and hesitation keep him from carrying out the assassination.
Ludovic Cruchot (played by Louis de Funès), a gendarme in a small French village, has been re-assigned to the seaside commune of Saint-Tropez under the orders of command sergeant major Gerber (played by Michel Galabru).
In 1943 Charles Bailly (Fernandel), a French prisoner of war, decides to escape from the farm in Germany where he works and return to France. He travels through the country, accompanied by his cow, Marguerite. On the way they encounter many people, some sympathetic and some not. The key scene involves Fernandel's character encountering a troop of soldiers on a narrow bridge. The cow won;t turn round to allow them to pass easily and they are forced into single file. Fernandel and the cow pas as if inspecting the troops.
Le capitaine Leblanc, officier de la Légion étrangère, est chargé de conduire un groupe ayant pour objectif de capturer Ben Bled, un responsable FLN. La première partie de l'opération réussit, mais le retour se révèle d'autant plus difficile que la situation politique a évolué en raison des pourparlers de paix.
Jo Weisman, a young Jewish Parisian, and his family are taken by the Nazis and Vichy collaborators in the rafle du Vel' d'Hiv. Anna Traube, a 20-year-old woman, walks out of the velodrome with forged papers; her mother and sister are captured. Annette Monod, a Protestant nurse, volunteers for the velodrome, and assists Jewish doctor David Sheinbaum. From the Vélodrome d'Hiver Jo's family and Sheinbaum are transferred to the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp. Monod comes along. She does what she can to help the children, who are soon falling sick from the camp diet and conditions.
The married Edith Laurin has a love affair with her husband's best friend. When both men serve together at the front her spouse realises he's cuckolded. Because his old friend is also his comrade who fights at his side again the mutual enemy, Laurin doesn't take action against him. After Laurin has died his friend returns home as a cripple.
In Nazi-occupied France, Lucille Angellier and her domineering mother-in-law await news of her husband. A regiment of German soldiers arrives, and promptly moves into the homes of the villagers. Lucille tries to ignore Bruno, the German commander coopting her house, but he soon infatuates her.