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. 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.
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Plot
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
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