This semi-autobiographical hard-boiled crime drama is a scathing indictment of the death penalty. When an ex-safe cracker (Alain Delon) is released from prison thanks to the aid of a social worker and prison reformer (Jean Gabin), he finds that his attempts to go straight are made more difficult by a suspicious and vengeful chief inspector of police, as well as his former gang who hope to lure him back into life of crime.
"An extraordinary film." - The New Yorker
Winner of the Palme d'Or. Donissan, a mediocre seminarist, haunted by Evil and the failure of his divine mission, mortifies his body and is unable to establish any rapport with his parishioners...until the day the abbot meets young Mouchette, who has ju...