In a village by the Meuse river, located near the French-Belgian border, a factory storekeeper named Basile Matrin leads a dreary life with his wife, Rose. The young Maryse Duval, who had just come back from Paris, has abandoned her dreams of becoming an actress. She will unwittingly turn their life upside down. Basile's great friend and neighbour, who is a reporter for a local newspaper called " Le Quotidien de la Meuse", witnesses the comical drama that is unfolding on the street outside his house, and will unwillingly be drawn into this "Dramedy".
A man leaves prison after a 15-year sentence and returns to his home district to find that it has changed completely, almost beyond recognition. He will find it hard to adjust to a world that is governed by a totally different set of rules...
An actor owes big bucks to the Vegas mob. He's all set to pay them off; he's conned a rich widow into marrying him. But the mobsters blow his cover because they need him for a different scam. The lost heiress to a Vegas casino fortune has been found; she's a truckstop waitress in France. The mobsters' proposition: romance the broad, and get hitched. Or else. Then the crooks can bump her off and keep the casino for themselves...
To his family, François Voisin is nothing more than a humdrum civil servant. In truth, for the past twenty years he has been working as a secret agent. All goes well until circumstances put his secret in danger.
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.
Phillipe and Esther live an apparently idyllic life with their daughter, Elise. In an attempt to preserve this bliss, Phillipe decides that he and Esther should each have affairs, being sure to tell each other openly about them. The plan backfires with tragic results as Phillipe becomes engulfed in jealously.