100 French films
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- DirectorJean RenoirStarsMarcel DalioNora GregorPaulette DubostA bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsMarcel DalioNora GregorPaulette DubostA bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.Banned on its original release as 'too demoralising', and only made available again in its original form in 1956, Renoir's brilliant social comedy is epitomised by the phrase 'everyone has their reasons'. Centreing on a lavish country house party given by the Marquis de la Chesnaye and his wife (Dalio, Gregor), the film effects audacious slides from melodrama into farce, from realism into fantasy, and from comedy into tragedy. Romantic intrigues, social rivalries, and human foibles are all observed with an unblinking eye that nevertheless refuses to judge. The carnage of the rabbit shoot, the intimations of mortality introduced by the after-dinner entertainment, and Renoir's own performance are all unforgettable. Embracing every level of French society, from the aristocratic hosts to a poacher turned servant, the film presents a hilarious yet melancholic picture of a nation riven by petty class distinctions.
- DirectorJean EustacheStarsBernadette LafontJean-Pierre LéaudFrançoise LebrunThe chauvinist Alexandre balances relationships with several women in the post-1968 intellectual scene of Paris.Three-and-a-half hours of people talking about sex sounds like a recipe for boredom; in Eustache's hands, it is anything but. There is no 'explicitness': the film is about attitudes to, and defences against, sex and the body. Using dialogue garnered entirely from real-life
- DirectorMarcel CarnéStarsArlettyJean-Louis BarraultPierre BrasseurThe theatrical life of a beautiful courtesan in 1830s Paris and the four men who love her.In Marcel Carné’s rich, literary romance from 1945 ('France's answer to "Gone with the Wind'!"), four men tussle for the affections of one woman, the conflicted, sphinx-like Garence (Carné regular Arletty), an ice maiden in the league of Marlene Dietrich who, in nearly every
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsJean-Paul BelmondoAnna KarinaGraziella GalvaniPierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.Jean-Paul Belmondo mooches up to Samuel Fuller at a cocktail party and, naturally, asks him his thoughts on cinema. Fuller replies: ‘Film is like a battleground. Love. Hate. Action. Violence. Death. In one word: Emotions.’ His succinct and, let’s be honest, utterly hip
- DirectorGeorges FranjuStarsPierre BrasseurAlida ValliJuliette MaynielA surgeon causes an accident which leaves his daughter disfigured and goes to extreme lengths to give her a new face.An incredible amalgam of horror and fairytale in which scalpels thud into quivering flesh and the tremulous heroine (Scob) remains a prisoner of solitude in a waxen mask of eerie, frozen beauty. Having crashed the car which destroyed her face, her doctor father (Brasseur)
- DirectorJacques TatiStarsJacques TatiBarbara DennekRita MaidenMonsieur Hulot curiously wanders around a high-tech Paris, paralleling a trip with a group of American tourists. Meanwhile, a nightclub/restaurant prepares its opening night, but it's still under construction.Tati's Hulot on the loose in a surreal, scarcely recognisable Paris, tangling intermittently with a troop of nice American matrons on a 24-hour trip. Not so much a saga of the individual against an increasingly dehumanised decor, it's more a semi-celebratory symphony to Tati's
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsBrigitte BardotJack PalanceMichel PiccoliA French writer's marriage deteriorates while working on Fritz Lang's version of "The Odyssey", as his wife accuses him of using her to court favor with the film's brash American producer.If Godard could be reduced to a single genius idea — essential to his filmmaking if obviously not the whole story — it might go something like this: To love cinema is to love life. He is the original movie geek, swaddling his films in adoring reference, and embracing,
- DirectorJean VigoStarsDita ParloJean DastéGilles MargaritisNewly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.Some filmmakers have a lifetime in which to develop their art, to explore their themes, to express their world view. Others do it in a single film. 1934’s ‘L’Atalante’ is the single feature from the then 29-year-old French master Jean Vigo and was made as its director
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudAlbert RémyClaire MaurierA young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.Write about what you know, they say. So in 1959 François Truffaut, neglected son, passionate reader, delinquent student and cinephile, wrote and filmed one of the first glistening droplets of the French New Wave: ‘The 400 Blows’, in which Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud)
- DirectorJean CocteauRené ClémentStarsJean MaraisJosette DayMila ParélyA beautiful young woman takes her father's place as the prisoner of a mysterious beast, who wishes to marry her.Cocteau's fairytale set standards in fantasy which few other film-makers have reached. Despite the Vermeer-like compositions, he has some trouble capturing the right tone for the 'realistic' scenes, but the sequences in the enchanted castle - wonderfully designed by Christian
- DirectorJean-Pierre MelvilleStarsLino VenturaPaul MeurisseJean-Pierre CasselAn account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France.Discretion is the better part of valour, they say. And you couldn’t imagine a more discreet tribute to the heroes of the wartime French Resistance than this terrific late-’60s thriller by the ex-Maquis member
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJacqueline BissetJean-Pierre LéaudFrançois TruffautA committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.If we’re to learn anything from François Truffaut’s delicately cynical, New Hollywood-style satire from 1973 on the joys and pains of movie making, it’s that we
- DirectorJacques DemyStarsCatherine DeneuveGeorge ChakirisFrançoise DorléacTwo sisters leave their small seaside town of Rochefort in search of romance. Hired as carnival singers, one falls for an American musician, while the other must search for her ideal partner.From ‘Jour de Fête’ to ‘Céline and Julie Go Boating’, there’s an enchanting minor strain in French cinema devoted to visually reproducing the heady sensation of going to the cinema. And so it is with Jacques Demy’s
- DirectorHenri-Georges ClouzotStarsYves MontandCharles VanelPeter van EyckIn a decrepit South American village, four men are hired to transport an urgent nitroglycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe.Throughout his professional life, France's Henri-Georges Clouzot suffered comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock - the former's critical reputation languished for it, and he took it hard.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinDita ParloPierre FresnayDuring WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.As relevant as ever, Jean Renoir’s 1937 masterpiece, ‘La Grande Illusion’, is a film about common values and decency – the ability in all of us to act with respect
- DirectorJacques TatiStarsJacques TatiJean-Pierre ZolaAdrienne ServantieMonsieur Hulot visits the technology-driven world of his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, but he can't quite fit into the surroundings.Tati's first film in colour. Yes, his contrast of the glorious awfulness of the Arpels' automated Modernistic house with Hulot's disordered Bohemianism is simplistic. Yes, Hulot as
- DirectorBertrand BlierStarsGérard DepardieuMiou-MiouPatrick DewaereTwo thugs harass assault, steal, murder, Marie-Ange, a jaded, passive hairdresser, joins them as lover, cook, and mother confessor, on her own search for seemingly unattainable sexual pleasure.A huge hit in seventies France, this offbeat comedy follows two youths waving a finger at society. Their pursuits include car theft, robbery, three-way sex, and general impulsive
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsAnne WiazemskyWalter GreenFrançois LafargeThe story of a mistreated donkey and the people around him. A study on saintliness and a sister piece to Bresson's Mouchette.Animal as saint: Bresson's stark, enigmatic parable, a donkey (named after one of the Three Wise Men) is both a witness to and the victim of mankind's cruelty, stupidity -
- DirectorÉric RohmerStarsMarie RivièreMaría Luisa GarcíaVincent GauthierIt's July, and Delphine has nowhere to go for the summer. She feels very bored and "empty", but this won't last; one day she accidently meets someone who seems to be totally made for her...It's July, and Delphine (Rivière), a young Parisian secretary, is suddenly at a loss regarding her holiday; a friend has just backed out of a trip to Greece, her other
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsJacques DutroncAlexandra LondonBernard Le CoqThe final sixty-seven days of Van Gogh's life are examined.This stunningly photographed and skilfully acted film uses an accretion of naturalistic detail to present an emotionally restrained but utterly compelling account of the last three
- DirectorJean-Marie PoiréStarsAnémoneJosiane BalaskoMarie-Anne ChazelTwo neurotics, working for a suicide hotline on the night of Christmas Eve, get caught up in a catastrophe when a pregnant woman, her abusive boyfriend, and a transvestite visit their office.This film ranked #21 in Time Out's list of the 100 greatest French films. Click here to see the full list.
- DirectorBertrand BlierStarsGérard DepardieuBernard BlierJean CarmetAlphonse lives in an empty building. Empty but for one neighbour, the police captain Morvandieu. When the man who have killed Alphonse's wife appears, the three men will be thrown in a serie of event in a surrealist world.Rigorously absurd contemporary film noir which presents every character, incident and situation known to the genre, but none of the customary explanations, motivations or consequences.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsDelphine SeyrigGiorgio AlbertazziSacha PitoëffIn a strange and isolated chateau, a man becomes acquainted with a woman and insists that they have met before.Something of a key film in the development of concepts of cinematic modernism, simply because - with a script by nouveau roman iconoclast Alain Robbe-Grillet - it sets up a puzzle that is never
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsCorinne MarchandAntoine BourseillerDominique DavrayCleo, a singer and hypochondriac, becomes increasingly worried that she might have cancer while awaiting test results from her doctor.‘Cléo from 5 to 7’ was French new waver Agnès Varda’s second feature and is filled with the beauty of Paris’s natural light. ‘Hold on, pretty butterfly!’ says Cléo (Corinne Marchand, pictured), a fretful and
- DirectorJean-Pierre MelvilleStarsAlain DelonFrançois PérierNathalie DelonAfter professional hitman Jef Costello is seen by witnesses his efforts to provide himself an alibi drive him further into a corner.Melville's hombres don't talk a lot, they just move in and out of the shadows, their trenchcoats lined with guilt and their hats hiding their eyes. This is a great movie, an
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsVictor AndréBleuette BernonA group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.A Trip to the Moon (French: Voyage dans la Lune)[a] is a 1902 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, it follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return in a splashdown to Earth with a captive Selenite in tow.
An internationally popular success at the time of its release, it is the best-known of the hundreds of films made by Méliès, and the moment in which the capsule lands in the Moon's eye remains one of the most iconic images in the history of cinema. It was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century by The Village Voice, ranking at #84, and in 2002 it became the first work designated as a UNESCO World Heritage film. - DirectorHenri-Georges ClouzotStarsPierre FresnayGinette LeclercMicheline FranceyA French village doctor becomes the target of poison-pen letters sent to village leaders, accusing him of affairs and practicing abortion.David Thomson calls Clouzot's a 'cinema of total disenchantment'. This exposé of a malicious small town in France must be one of the most depressed films to emerge from the period of the German Occupation: everyone
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsCatherine DeneuveJean SorelMichel PiccoliA frigid young housewife decides to spend her midweek afternoons as a prostitute.Marlene Dietrich had Sternberg. Anna Karina had Godard. Catherine Deneuve had Buuel, as the revival of 1967’s Belle de Jour reaffirms; the film is a perverse valentine to this coolest of Gallic beauties. Deneuve stars as
- DirectorClaire DenisStarsDenis LavantMichel SuborGrégoire ColinAn ex-Foreign Legion officer recalls his once-glorious life of leading troops in Djibouti.Denis' extraordinary movie centres on Galoup (Lavant) who, while holed up in Marseille, recalls his time as a sergeant-major in the Foreign Legion. In the desert, he drilled raw recruits while quietly nurturing feelings of
- DirectorÉric RohmerStarsJean-Claude BrialyAurora CornuBéatrice RomandOn lakeside summer holiday, a conflicted older man is dared to have a flirt with two beautiful teenage half-sisters despite his betrothal to a diplomat's daughter and the fact that the girls have boyfriends.The fifth and most accessible of Rohmer's six 'moral tales', Claire's Knee is the story of the temptation of an affianced diplomat (Brialy) while on holiday, and its successful suppression. The film was rapturously received as a
- DirectorMathieu KassovitzStarsVincent CasselHubert KoundéSaïd Taghmaoui24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.Twenty-four hours in the Paris projects: an Arab boy is critically wounded in hospital, gut-shot, and a police revolver has found its way into the hands of a young Jewish skinhead, Vinz (Cassel), who vows to even the score
- DirectorJacques RivetteStarsJuliet BertoDominique LabourierBulle OgierA mysteriously linked pair of young women find their daily lives preempted by a strange boudoir melodrama that plays itself out in a hallucinatory parallel reality.They meet, like Alice and the White Rabbit, in a sun-dappled French park, amateur illusionist Celine (Juliet Berto) bounding heedlessly past studious librarian Julie (Dominique Labourier). One dropped scarf and a lengthy
- DirectorChris MarkerStarsÉtienne BeckerJean NégroniHélène ChatelainThe story of a man forced to explore his memories in the wake of World War III's devastation, told through still images.“This is the story of a man marked by an image of his childhood.” So begins Chris Marker’s 1962 elliptical 27-minute time-travel adventure, “La Jetée,” a narrated montage of black-and-white still photographs about a
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsJean-Paul BelmondoJean SebergVan DoudeA small-time crook, hunted by the authorities for a car theft and the murder a police officer, attempts to persuade a hip American journalism student to run away with him to Italy.Of all the dysfunctional, sociopathic loners in the long history of cinema, it’s hard to remember one quite as vicious, belligerent and unpredictable as Sang-hoon, anti-hero of Korean character actor Yang Ik-June’s
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsStéphane AudranJean YanneAntonio PassaliaAn unlikely friendship between a dour, working class butcher and a repressed schoolteacher coincides with a grisly series of Ripper-type murders in a provincial French town.Classically simple but relentlessly probing thriller, set in a French village shadowed by the presence of a compulsive killer. Some lovely Hitchcockian games, like the strange ketchup that drips onto a picnic hamburger from a
- DirectorGeorges LautnerStarsLino VenturaBernard BlierFrancis BlancheA dying mob boss hands over his business to an old friend, Fernand. The boss' assistants want to get rid of the latter. But are the Volfoni brothers and Théo real threats? Ensuing fights and shootouts are more comical than deadly.
- DirectorMax OphülsStarsMartine CarolPeter UstinovAnton WalbrookWhen she is reduced to appearing in a circus, a notorious beauty thinks back on her past loves.A biography of the celebrated 19th century adventuress, but not a biography in the conventional sense: the lady's life is chronicled in a highly selective series of flashbacks, framed by scenes in a New Orleans circus where she
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsSandrine BonnaireMaurice PialatChristophe OdentAn erratic young woman's family desperately tries to prevent her increasingly erotic ways.15-year-old Suzanne (Bonnaire) seems unable to progress beyond a rather doleful promiscuity in her relations with boys. Alone of her family, her father (played by Pialat himself) understands her, but when he leaves home for
- DirectorHenri-Georges ClouzotStarsSimone SignoretVéra ClouzotPaul MeurisseThe wife and mistress of a loathed school principal plan to murder him with what they believe is the perfect alibi.Devilishly suspenseful, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s thriller about two women who conspire to knock off a sadistic boarding-school headmaster (Paul Meurisse) – one of the women is his wife, the other his mistress
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsEmmanuelle RivaEiji OkadaStella DassasA French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war.Hiroshima's mushroom cloud has probably inspired more glib statements and images than any other 20th century phenomenon. So it's particularly refreshing to find that it still has some meaning in Resnais' first feature, now
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsNadine NortierJean-Claude GuilbertMarie CardinalA young girl living in the French countryside suffers constant indignities at the hand of alcoholism and her fellow man.Adapted from a Georges Bernanos story, Mouchette describes the life and tribulations of a poor, barely mature peasant girl
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean DesaillyFrançoise DorléacNelly BenedettiPierre Lachenay is a well-known publisher and lecturer, married with Franca and father of Sabine, around 10. He meets an air hostess, Nicole. They start a love affair, which Pierre is hiding, but he cannot stand staying away from her.Those whose knowledge of French nouvelle vague linchpin François Truffaut begins with ‘The 400 Blows’ and ends with
- DirectorÉric RohmerStarsJean-Louis TrintignantFrançoise FabianMarie-Christine BarraultA devout Catholic man's rigid principles are challenged during a one-night stay with Maud, a divorced woman with an outsize personality.From Time Out LondonSix months after the death of Eric Rohmer at the age of 89, the BFI is re-releasing a good-looking new print
- DirectorJacques RozierStarsRosa-Maria GomesAbdel KedadoucheLuis Rego"Maine-Ocean" is the name of a train that rides from Paris to Saint-Nazaire (near the ocean). In that train, Dejanira, a Brazilian, has a brush with the two ticket inspectors. Mimi, another traveler and also a lawyer, helps her. The four of them will meet together later and live a few shifted adventures with a strange-speaking sailor (Mimi's client).
- DirectorJacques AudiardStarsRomain DurisAure AtikaEmmanuelle DevosWill Thomas still lead a life of crime and cruelty, just like his thuggish father, or will he pursue his dream of becoming a pianist?Remaking James Toback's 1978 Fingers, director Jacques Audiard (Read My Lips) has turned the story of Tom (Duris), a petty
- DirectorRené ClémentStarsAlain DelonMaurice RonetMarie LaforêtTom Ripley is a talented mimic, moocher, forger and all-around criminal improviser; but there's more to Tom Ripley than even he can guess.René Clément and Chabrol's collaborator Paul Gégauff got hold of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley decades before
- DirectorAlain CorneauStarsPatrick DewaereMyriam BoyerMarie TrintignantFranck Poupart is a slightly neurotic door-to-door salesman in a sinister part of Paris' suburbs. He meets Mona, a teenager, who's been made a prostitute by her own aunt. Franck would like to change his life and also save Mona from her aunt. Murder is the only solution he finds to achieve his goal... A very gloomy movie, exuding despair and uneasiness, with pathetic characters.Although the setting is changed from Big City USA to the dismal, wintry Paris suburbs, this neo-noir retains the outline of Jim
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsMichel TerrazonLinda GutenbergRaoul BillereyAn anguished foster child takes to mischief and lies as his foster parents do their best to love and care for him. But it might be too little, too late in this emotionally devastating portrayal of the orphaned child.Among the seismic innovations of the French New Wave, it’s easy to gloss over the unsentimental approach of a movie like
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsJean-Luc GodardSabine AzémaAn 8-part documentary chronically the history of cinema: "All the Histories", "A Single History", "Only Cinema", "Deadly "Beauty", "The Coin of the Absolute", "A New Wave", "The Control of the Universe", and "The Signs Among Us".
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsMaria FalconettiEugene SilvainAndré BerleyIn 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.Dreyer's most universally acclaimed masterpiece remains one of the most staggeringly intense films ever made. It deals
- DirectorJean-Pierre MelvilleStarsAlain DelonBourvilGian Maria VolontèAfter leaving prison, master thief Corey crosses paths with a notorious escapee and an alcoholic former policeman. The trio proceed to plot an elaborate heist.Melville's special achievement was to relocate the American gangster film in France, and to incorporate his own steely
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPierre BatcheffSimone MareuilLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.Prelude: a young woman sits compliantly as Buñuel takes a razor and slices her eye open. What follows is a documentary rendering
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsMartin LaSalleMarika GreenJean PélégriMichel passes the time by picking pockets, careful to never be caught despite being watched by the police. His friend Jacques may suspect, while both men may have their eyes on Jeanne, the pretty neighbor of Michel's ailing mother.Released in the same year as Godard’s ‘Breathless’ (1959) and filmed on the same sun-dappled Parisian streets,
- DirectorArnaud DesplechinStarsMathieu AmalricEmmanuelle DevosEmmanuel SalingerPaul Dedalus is at a crossroads in his life. He has to make several decisions; should he complete his doctorate, does he want to become a full professor, does he really love his long-standing girlfriend, or should he re-start with one of his other lovers? Is he avoiding the despairing life his father can't escape from ?My Sex Life... or How I Got into an Argument (French: Comment je me suis disputé... (ma vie sexuelle)) is a 1996 French drama film directed by Arnaud Desplechin. It was entered into the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. It won the César Award for Most Promising Actor (Mathieu Amalric) and was also nominated for Most Promising Actress (Emmanuelle Devos and Jeanne Balibar).
- DirectorJacques DemyStarsCatherine DeneuveNino CastelnuovoAnne VernonA young woman separated from her lover by war faces a life-altering decision.In the garage where he works, Guy (Nino Castelnuovo) plans a trip to the opera. His colleague is unimpressed: ‘All that
- DirectorGérard OuryStarsBourvilLouis de FunèsClaudio BrookSeveral ordinary Frenchmen go on an epic voyage through the occupied country to the free zone as they help British pilots avoid German captivity.La Grande Vadrouille literally "The Great Stroll"; originally released in the United States as Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!) is a 1966 French comedy film about two ordinary Frenchmen helping the crew of a Royal Air Force bomber shot down over Paris make their way through German-occupied France to escape arrest.
For over forty years, until the release of Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis in 2008, La Grande Vadrouille was the most successful French film in France, topping the box office with over 17,200,000 cinema admissions. It remains the third most successful film ever in France, of any nationality, behind the 1997 version of Titanic and Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, both of which were seen by over 20,000,000 cinemagoers. - DirectorSacha GuitryStarsSacha GuitryAdolphe BorchardMarcel LucienA charming scoundrel reflects on his exploits, from childhood through to manhood.At age 12, our hero is sent to bed supper-less for stealing eight sous. When he wakes up his entire family is dead from food
- DirectorMarc CaroJean-Pierre JeunetStarsMarie-Laure DougnacDominique PinonPascal BenezechPost-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy about the landlord of an apartment building who occasionally prepares a delicacy for his odd tenants.The near future: taking a job and a bedsit at a shabby rooming-house above a butcher's shop, ex-clown Louison
- DirectorPaul GrimaultStarsJean MartinPascal MazzottiRaymond BussièresA chimney sweep and a shepherdess seek to escape from the clutches of a tyrannical king.The result of a long collaboration (and tortured production history) between animator Grimault and the respected screenwriter
- DirectorJacques DemyStarsDominique SandaDanielle DarrieuxRichard BerryAmid an ongoing workers' strike, a steelworker falls in love with the daughter of his baroness landlady, even though both are already in relationships.Une chambre en ville is a 1982 French film directed by Jacques Demy. It is a musical in which every line of dialogue is sung. The film won the Prix Méliès, and was nominated for nine César Awards: Best Film, Best Director, Most Promising Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Music, Best Production Design and Best Sound.
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsAlbert DieudonnéVladimir RoudenkoEdmond Van DaëleA film about the French general's youth and early military career.Bambi Ballard's latest restoration of cinema's supreme, grandiloquent epic (63 mins longer than the version premiered by Kevin Brownlow in 1979, tinted and with an extended three-screen climax) is the closest we're ever likely to
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsClaude RichOlga Georges-PicotAnouk FerjacAfter attempting suicide, Claude is recruited for a time travel experiment, but, when the machine goes haywire, he may be trapped hurtling through his memories.One of Resnais' most underrated explorations of the tone of time and memory. Claude Ridder (Rich), a failed suicide, is visited by two men who invite his cooperation in an experiment (already tried with a mouse) to project him
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsMichel SimonJanie MarèseGeorges FlamantMaurice Legrand, a meek cashier married to a nagging wife, has a secret passion: he's a Sunday painter. He falls in love with Lulu, a young woman dominated by Dédé, the pimp who she works for. Dédé pushes Lulu into a relationship with him.M Legrand, a mild-mannered, middle-aged cashier, uses painting as a means of expression, of escape from his shrewish wife and the tedium of his job. After an accidental encounter with femme fatale Lulu (Marèze), he falls madly in
- DirectorJacques AudiardStarsTahar RahimNiels ArestrupAdel BencherifA delinquent Muslim man struggles to get by in prison until he is taken under the wing of a powerful mob boss. But his gradual rise through the mob's ranks brings him in conflict with his mentor.Filmmakers love a good prison. No, scrub that, filmmakers adore a bad prison. You can see why. For writers and directors, the volatile jail is a ready-made theatre, its prisoners and guards with their various conflicts and
- DirectorRené ClairStarsMichel SimonGérard PhilipeNicole BesnardThe Faust story retold, with an aged alchemist accepting the gift of renewed youth from the devilish Mephistopheles.In spite/because of what must have seemed impeccable credentials - Clair, the two leads, a screenplay by dramatist Armand Salacrou, and nostalgic, Méliès-inspired sets by Barsacq - this version of the Faust legend is a turgidly
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsIsabelle HuppertGérard DepardieuGuy MarchandA bored wife leaves her husband for an unemployed, petty criminal.‘Loulou’ is a challenging, absorbing example of the awkward beauty of the late Maurice Pialat. Superficially, it’s a keenly observed, naturalist, semi-improvised, hand-shot ‘slice-of-life’, set in the post-Women’s
- DirectorArnaud DesplechinStarsCatherine DeneuveJean-Paul RoussillonMathieu AmalricThe troubled Vuillard family is no stranger to illness, grief, and banishment, but when their matriarch requires a bone-marrow transplant, the estranged clan reunites just in time for Christmas.A Christmas Tale (French: Un conte de Noël) is a 2008 French comedy-drama film by Arnaud Desplechin, starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Melvil Poupaud, Emmanuelle Devos and Chiara Mastroianni. It tells the story of a family with strained relationships which gathers at the parents' home for Christmas, only to learn that their mother has leukemia. It was in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
- DirectorJacques DerayStarsAlain DelonRomy SchneiderMaurice RonetLovers Marianne and Jean-Paul spend their vacation in a villa on the French Riviera near St-Tropez. Marianne invites her former lover, Harry, and his teenage daughter, Penelope, to stay. Tension rises between them, especially when Jean-Paul seduces Penelope.Four characters. A Mediterranean villa. Sun, sex and… suspicion. The ingredients are fairly simple in this welcome reissue for a star-powered psychological thriller which has remained underexposed on these shores. Perhaps
- DirectorJacques RozierStarsCaroline CartierDanièle CroisyFrançoise GuéganA patient observation on the adventures a group of three young girls spending their three-week summer vacation at a small village, a quotidian that includes cooking, excursions, playing cards and going out with guys, enjoying the simple pleasures life has to offer.Du Cote D'Orouët is a 1973 French film directed by Jacques Rozier. The film is about three young girls that have their summer vacation in a villa on the beaches of Orouët. It was first screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1971.
- DirectorAgnès JaouiStarsAnne AlvaroJean-Pierre BacriAlain ChabatThe lives of 6 people over 35 in Rouen, France, and their relationship to each other.Castella is an industrialist, married, temporarily inconvenienced by the presence of a bodyguard while a sensitive business deal is ironed out. In his own world, he's king. A dutiful (groundbreaking) trip to the theatre is a
- DirectorAlain CavalierStarsPatrick BouchiteyEtienne ChicotBernard CrombeyKlouk drives a station wagon with his friends.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsIsabelle HuppertJacques DutroncNathalie BayeAn examination of sexual relationships, in which three protagonists interact in different combinations.Godard's return to celluloid after a decade of experiment in video is in one sense forced: the sources of finance for his projects were drying up, and he himself admits that the film was made as a passport back into the
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsGaston ModotLya LysCaridad de LaberdesqueA surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.'Our sexual desire has to be seen as the product of centuries of repressive and emasculating Catholicism... it is always coloured by the sweet secret sense of sin,' mused Buñuel in his autobiography My Last Breath. One might
- DirectorJean-Pierre MelvilleStarsJean-Paul BelmondoSerge ReggianiJean DesaillyA burglar betraying other criminals prepares for a big heist with a trusted friend who might be as untrustworthy as he.Darker than Bob le Flambeur, Melville's second foray into the Parisian underworld borrows its epigraph from Céline: 'One must choose: die... or lie?' Appropriately, in a film devoted to the principle of duplicity,
- DirectorBertrand TavernierStarsPhilippe NoiretIsabelle HuppertStéphane AudranA pathetic police chief, humiliated by everyone around him, suddenly wants a clean slate in life - and resorts to drastic means to do so.Purists may object to Tavernier's treatment of Jim Thompson's excellent if sordid and sadistic thriller, Pop.1280, but this eccentric, darkly comic look at a series of bizarre murders is stylishly well-crafted, and
- DirectorMarc CaroJean-Pierre JeunetStarsRon PerlmanDaniel EmilforkJudith VittetA scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.A child smiles delightedly in his toy-filled room as Santa emerges from the chimney-piece, but joy turns to terror as the bearded visitor is followed by more of the same; cut to a man screaming in a laboratory
- DirectorHenri VerneuilStarsJean-Paul BelmondoCharles DennerAdalberto Maria MerliCommissaire Letellier and Inspector Moissac are tracking Minos, a serial killer whose victims are women.Belmondo plays super-cop on the tops of Paris buildings and undergound trains, piling stunt on daredevil stunt and risking his neck for a particularly silly story. Like The Eiger Sanction, there's some mileage in seeing a star
- DirectorMichel HazanaviciusDominique MézeretteStarsJohn WayneBurt LancasterLana TurnerGeorge Abitbol, "the Most Classy Man on Earth", dies sputtering his famous last words: "cr*ppy world!" What the heck did he mean? Reporters Steven, Peter and Dave investigate. La Classe Américaine is a montage of scenes taken from the Warner Bros. catalog and dubbed to fit the narration of what is arguably the greatest story ever told.
- DirectorÉric RohmerStarsPatrick BauchauHaydée PolitoffDaniel PommereulleA womanizing art dealer and a painter find the serenity of their Riviera vacation disturbed by a third guest, a vivacious bohemian woman known for her long list of male conquests.The third of Rohmer's six moral tales, and the first of his films to achieve wide recognition. The collector of the title is a delectable nymphet, footloose in St Tropez, who makes a principle of sleeping with a different man
- DirectorMarguerite DurasStarsDelphine SeyrigMichael LonsdaleMathieu CarrièreAnne-Marie Stretter, wife of a French diplomat, lives in 1930s India. She takes many lovers as systems of oppression decay around her.Duras' main protagonist is Anne-Marie Stretter (Seyrig), a bored consular wife in '30s India, and the film details the languorous desperation that drives her to suicide. But the formal approach to this subject is like nothing
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsStéphane AudranMichel BouquetMaurice RonetA man begins to believe his wife is cheating on him.One of Chabrol's mid-period masterpieces, a brilliantly ambivalent scrutiny of bourgeois marriage and murder that juggles compassion and cynicism in a way that makes Hitchcock look obvious. The obligatory cross-references are
- DirectorAbdellatif KechicheStarsOsman ElkharrazSara ForestierSabrina OuazaniKrimo a 15 years old shy boy falls in love for Lídia who is his classmate.To be able to assume his love for her he decides to take a part in the play that was to be one of his friends.At first, Kechiche’s follow-up to the admirable ‘La Faute à Voltaire’ looks set to be a fairly routine account of life in the Maghrebi hood, with 15-year-old Krimo mooning over Lydia while his ex insists to any kid
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsMusidoraÉdouard MathéMarcel LévesqueAn intrepid reporter and his loyal friend battle a bizarre secret society of criminals known as The Vampires.1915: Slaughter at Gallipoli; first use of gas on the Western Front; Lusitania sunk. And as diversion, this serial saga (in 10 episodes) of a band of robbers whose principals include Satanas, who keeps a howitzer behind the
- DirectorPhilippe GarrelStarsBrigitte SyPhilippe GarrelLouis GarrelThe familiar conflicts of a film director planning to make a movie about his life, and the confrontation he has with his wife, an actress who was turned down for such a project in which she wanted to play herself.This film ranked #84 in Time Out's list of the 100 greatest French films. Click here to see the full list. Director: Philippe Garrel
- DirectorBruno DumontStarsDavid DoucheMarjorie CottreelKader ChaatoufA social movie about current life in the north of France. Freddy and his friends are all unemployed. They pass away time by wandering around on their motorcycles and by directing their aggressive feelings towards Arab immigrants. Freddy is in love with Marie, a cashier at a local supermarket. When she is proposed to by Kader, a young Arab man, Freddy, and his friends have an idea: they decide to punish Kader for what they call "such a provocation." After they have raped another girl, Marie finally commits to Kader, which seals his fate.Making use of locals instead of professional actors lends authenticity to this impressive look at a group of otherwise innocuous teenage lads in a boring northern French town (Bailleul in Flanders), driven to violence by a
- DirectorMax OphülsStarsJean GabinDanielle DarrieuxSimone SimonThree separate stories about the same thing: le plaisir (pleasure).Ophüls' second French film following his return from the USA was adapted from three stories by Maupassant. Le Masque describes how an old man wears a mask of youth at a dance hall to extend his youthful memories. La Maison
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsViviane RomanceMichel SimonMax DalbanAfter an elderly maid is murdered, opinions are manipulated, evidence is planted, violence erupts, and panic ensues.This film ranked #87 in Time Out's list of the 100 greatest French films. Click here to see the full list. Director: Julien Duvivier
- DirectorLeos CaraxStarsMichel PiccoliJuliette BinocheDenis LavantAs a deadly virus which infects people who have loveless sex sweeps Paris, a lonely pariah attempts to steal a potent antidote, only to fall for the mistress of his partner-in-crime. Is the infectious young love the cure to the bad blood?In his second feature (following Boy Meets Girl), Carax combines his personal concerns - young love, solitude - with the stylised conventions of the vaguely futuristic romantic thriller. Loner street-punk Alex (Lavant) joins a
- DirectorChris MarkerStarsAmilcar CabralFlorence DelayArielle DombasleA woman narrates the contemplative writings of a seasoned world traveler, focusing on contemporary Japan.Imagine getting letters from a friend in Japan, letters full of images, sounds and ideas. Your friend is an inveterate globe-trotter, and his letters are full of memories of other trips. He has a wry and very engaging sense of
- DirectorJoseph LoseyStarsAlain DelonJeanne MoreauFrancine BergéIn German-occupied Paris, an immoral art dealer, Robert Klein, leads a life of luxury, until a copy of a Jewish newspaper brings him to the attention of the police, linking him with a mysterious doppelgänger. Will Mr. Klein clear his name?The action of Losey's film takes place against the Nazi deportation of French Jews - a set of circumstances which the film doesn't so much explore as get lost in. Klein (Delon), a Parisian art dealer, is delivered a copy of a
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsRoman PolanskiIsabelle AdjaniMelvyn DouglasA bureaucrat rents a Paris apartment where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.With Polanski becoming a naturalised Frenchman, it was logical that he should start tackling specifically French subjects, and this small-scale return to the territory of Repulsion seemed a promising beginning. But it's
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsMaurice RonetLéna SkerlaYvonne ClechDepressed Alain Leroy leaves the clinic where he was detoxified. He meets friends, acquaintances and women, trying to find a reason to continue living. Will this help him?Arguably the finest of Malle's early films, this is a calmly objective but profoundly compassionate account of the last 24 hours in the life of a suicide. Ronet gives a remarkable, quietly assured performance as the alcoholic who,
- DirectorTim McLachlanStarsLuke AlexanderDana BernardDaniel BettyDeep within a dark forest at a faraway adventure camp, a group of young 'camp leaders' play a dangerous game of 'hide and seek'.A smart marriage of the thriller genre with a compendium of strong ideas about guilt, racism, recent French history and cinema itself, Michael Haneke’s eighth feature is an unsettling, self-reflective masterpiece. It opens
- DirectorJacques TatiStarsJacques TatiNathalie PascaudMicheline RollaMonsieur Hulot comes to a beachside hotel for a vacation and accidentally, but good-naturedly, causes havoc.Tati's most consistently enjoyable comedy, a gentle portrait of the clumsy, well-meaning Hulot on vacation in a provincial seaside resort. The quiet, delicately observed slapstick here works with far more hits than misses,
- DirectorClaude SautetStarsYves MontandMichel PiccoliSerge ReggianiThree friends face mid-life crises. Paul is a writer who's blocked. François has lost his ideals and practices medicine for the money. The charming Vincent faces bankruptcy and his wife, from whom he's separated, wants a divorce.This film ranked #95 in Time Out's list of the 100 greatest French films. Click here to see the full list. Director: Claude Sautet
- DirectorRichard PearceStarsRobert DuvallJames Earl JonesMichael BeachWhen an old woman dies, she leaves a note for her apparent son (Robert Duvall) which tells him that his biological mother died giving birth to him. She begs him to make peace with his half-brother (James Earl Jones) living in Chicago.In a French provincial town, Henri Menard (Bacri) runs the old family restaurant where the clan convenes every Friday night. This Friday, everyone's ego is in for a bruising. A subtle, breezy comedy of manners, Klapisch's
- DirectorJacques BeckerStarsAndré BervilJean KeraudyMichel ConstantinDistrust and uncertainty arise when four long-term inmates cautiously induct a new prisoner into their elaborate prison-break scheme.A secular response to Bresson's A Man Escaped. No question of grace here, simply of grind and grime as four prisoners - joined and eventually betrayed by a fifth - laboriously tunnel their way to a derisory glimpse of freedom.
- DirectorJean GrémillonStarsJean GabinMadeleine RenaudMichèle MorganThe captain of the tugboat Cyclone, André Laurent, rushes off to save the Mirva. He abandons his sick wife Yvonne and the couple celebrating their marriage. In the early morning, the Cyclone tugs the Mirva ashore with Catherine aboard.A number of cross-references apply: Reed's The Key, likewise a melancholy tale of doomed love set against a background of rough seas and salvage vessels; Le Quai des Brumes, the two stars' initial pairing, Gabin here reprising
- DirectorPhilippe de BrocaStarsJean-Paul BelmondoFrançoise DorléacJean ServaisA young private on military leave comes to the rescue of his girlfriend who's been abducted by thieves and brought to Rio de Janeiro. An extravagant adventure ensues.A delightfully preposterous thriller (the McGuffin is some stolen Amazonian treasure), wittier than any of the Bond spoofs that subsequently flooded the market and a good deal racier than 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.