André Dupon

In this surreal comedy, Tonio works very hard for every bit of ill-gotten cash he can get his hands on, but he remains a poor criminal in both senses of the word. He and his buddies Bruno and Hercule think they have the solution to their pocketbook woes. The body of St. Bernadette has been miraculously preserved from decay and is a central object of pilgrimage in the shrine where it is kept. Why not steal that and hold it for ransom? The criminal gang is well able to pull this coup off and are soon in possession of one perfectly preserved corpse and a very fancy coffin. It's too bad for them that the church seems to have a limitless supply of these and doesn't want the one they stole back. Bemused, the lads set the coffin adrift on the river, only to be followed by it as they drive back upriver. In the course of carrying out their criminal designs, these lovable lugs encounter a variety of eccentric characters.

In this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon (Beart) has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She plots vengeance on the men who greedily conspired to acquire her father's land years earlier.

In a rural French village, an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, and are dismayed to hear that the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts, they think only of getting the water.

The time is the 1930s and two Soviet spies (both Frenchmen by nationality) have been helping Communist factions during the Civil War in Spain. It is the time of Stalin's iron rule in the USSR, and the two agents are suddenly called to Moscow by the KGB. Knowing that they are in trouble for no fault of their own, fear drives one of them to suicide while the other gets his lover and her child and begins a run for his life, knowing that the KGB will never let him go free.