"Le Crabe Tambour" ("Drummer Crab") is the nickname for the mysterious central character, Willsdorff (Jacques Perrin), an Alsatian, whose doomed, out-of-date career is recalled through the tales of three naval officers currently serving aboard a French supply ship in the North Atlantic.
In May 1978, the mining town of Kolwezi in Katanga, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo, the former Belgian Congo) is under attack from a group of communist guerillas coming from nearby Angola. The Europeans who work for the Belgian mining company and the Blacks who live in the town are taken as hostages by the invaders, who start a blood bath, shooting Europeans as well as Africans. Many of the Europeans being French, the French decide to organize a counter-attack, and to send a Regiment of Paratroopers from the Foreign Legion. The movie follows the stories of Delbart, a former non-commissioned officer, who was about to go back to France with his African wife and his child, Damrémont, who was Delbart's replacement, Bia, a Zairian doctor, and Annie, an American married to a Belgian engineer as well as Non com Legion officer Federico and the French Ambassador and the Military Attaché.
Jean-Luc Godard mixes video and film in his Grenoble studio, discussing how he secured funding for the film. The action unfolds on two monitors, as a young working-class couple lives in a claustrophobic, high-rise apartment complex and marital discord is set off by the wife’s infidelity.
During a televised debate on the Algerian war in the early 1980s, Professor Paulet denounced the methods of Captain Caron, killed in action in 1957. The widow of the captain, Patricia, decided to file a defamation suit.
During the making of a video film about a communist printing press, a union member and a leftist activist discuss how to present their information, especially how to caption two specific images: one of a protest in Portugal, the other of a strike in France. One of them decides to write to his son, a manual worker living outside of Paris with his girlfriend, telling the young man about his troubles.
In Montmartre, Paris, two friends are leading a happy carefree Bohemian existence. Jean-Luc is a cabinetmaker, Mathieu is a sculptor. Then they both meet the love of their lives and decide to get married. Unfortunately, the objects of their desire are not so eager to be drawn into matrimony.
Bernard, a journalist, and his friend Jules, a butcher by trade, are both passionate about horse racing.
Jérôme and his wife Monika head for the mountains for a hunting weekend with their friend Stanislas, an inveterate seducer, and his latest conquest, Betty. Even before they arrive, Jérôme overhears a tender gesture between his wife and Stanislas.
A chance encounter on a park bench in early spring. Two takes on waiting and love.
