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A list of the most acclaimed and influential French movies, ranked by film industry experts. From classics like 'The Rules of the Game' and 'Children of Paradise' to modern gems like 'La Haine' and 'Amélie', discover the diversity and excellence of French cinema.
Feb 8, 2024 · A comprehensive list of the most acclaimed and influential French films, from classics like Les Enfants du Paradis and La Règle du Jeu to modern masterpieces like Amélie and The Piano Teacher. Discover the rich and diverse history of French cinema with this guide by Time Out critics.
Mar 5, 2021 · Hollywood may be the undisputed king of global film industries, but modern cinema owes its entire existence to the French. In 1895, brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière invented a motion-picture ...
- Leena Kim
- Editor
- lkim@hearst.com
- Daniela Gama
- Senior List Writer
- 'Diabolique' (1955) Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot. Among the best French horror films is Diabolique, a suspenseful Henri-Georges Clouzot feature that stands the test of time as one of the country's most poignant and groundbreaking films.
- 'Cléo From 5 to 7' (1962) Director: Agnès Varda. Whereas Godard is widely regarded as the "father of the French New Wave," the visionary Agnès Varda — who was merely two years his senior — is, for some reason, known as the "grandmother" of the French cinematic movement (she was in her thirties when she earned this title).
- 'The Umbrellas of Cherbourg' (1964) Director: Jacques Demy. Jacques Demy's French New Wave film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg — just like Playtime, it was one of the major inspirations behind Greta Gerwig's Barbie — is undoubtedly worth mentioning when the subject is top French movies.
- 'Breathless' (1960) Director: Jean-Luc Godard. Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless follows a small-time thief named Michel Poiccard (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo), who steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman who pursues him.
- “Other People’s Children”
- “Goodbye to Language”
- “La Sapienza”
- “The Man on The Train”
- “Of Gods and Men”
- “The Beat That My Heart Skipped”
- “Petite Maman”
- “Being 17”
- “House of Tolerance”
- “Faces Places”
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Virginie Efira’s most notable follow-up to “Benedetta” couldn’t be more different. Where she wore her sexuality like a suit of armor in that film, in “Other People’s Children,” she’s all vulnerability, as internal as the medieval nun drama was an external explosion of camp. Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, Efira plays a woman in 2020s Paris assessing...
“Godard forever!” So shouted one devout fan as the lights went down at the Cannes Film Festival before the world premiere of the reclusive French New Wave director’s latest mysterious work. The anticipation was warranted: For decades, Godard has continually showed the movie world how it’s done, with one cinematic mic drop after another that pushes ...
The premise of the “The Sapience” (“La Sapienza”) could easily provide fodder for a clichéd indie drama: an estranged couple travels to the countryside in a desperate attempt to raise their weary spirits, bonds with a pair of troubled teens and by helping them work through their problems, finds a renewed sense of hope. Gag. But in the hands of Fren...
From 1989 to 2002, Patrice Leconte was one of the most electric and beguiling (and under-appreciated) filmmakers in the world. His career-defining hot streak may have peaked with 1999’s singularly romantic “Girl on the Bridge,” but it ultimately came to a boil with “The Man on the Train.” The wise and altogether wonderful story of a chance encounte...
From its early scenes, “Of Gods and Men” inhabits the sacred lives of its monastic subjects. The eight monks residing in a seemingly quaint North African mountain community go through the motions of their daily prayers, the ritualistic hymns echoing monotonously throughout their hallowed chambers. Providing medical assistance and spiritual counsel ...
Jacques Audiard became one of the most celebrated French filmmakers on the planet with “A Prophet” in 2009, but he had already established himself as one of the most compelling French filmmakers long before that. Riffing on (and greatly eclipsing) James Toback’s 1978 “Fingers,” 2005’s “The Beat that My Heart Skipped” is the kind of remake that just...
Céline Sciamma‘s characters open like pores soaked in hot water, and the hyper-real worlds around them — from the apartment complexes of contemporary Paris in “Girlhood” to the ravishing coast of 18th century Brittany in her masterpiece “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” — reveal themselves with such an acute sense of discovery that even the most everyda...
A slow, shaggy, hyper-naturalistic coming-of-age drama that constantly returns to the sheer violence of becoming a man, André Téchiné’s “Being 17” is a movie that isn’t the least bit afraid to dwell on how hard it can be to become who you are. Or, in this case, how much harder it can be when you’re a boy who’s in love with his bully. Co-written by ...
There have been countless French movies about prostitutes, but none feel remotely like Bertrand Bonello’s mesmerizing “House of Tolerance.” Set within the musky parlors and bedrooms of a Paris brothel at the turn of the 20th Century, this hermetically sealed film’s closest relative is Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “Flowers of Shanghai, as both films almost nev...
Notions of finality and (im)permanence cast a long shadow over Agnès Varda’s moving, funny, life-affirming, and altogether wonderful “Faces Places,” which finds the legendary 88-year-old auteur teaming up with a semi-anonymous street photographer named JR for a whimsical tour of the French countryside. The plan is to drive from one bucolic village ...
A list of 39 French films that showcase the diversity and creativity of French cinema in the past 23 years. From Celine Sciamma to François Ozon, from 3D experiments to period pieces, these are the movies that remind us why France is still essential to cinema.
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A personal list of favorite French movies by a user on IMDb, ranging from classics like The Grand Illusion and Children of Paradise to modern gems like Mommy and The Tenant. See the titles, ratings, genres, directors and stars of each film.
6. Children of Paradise. 1945 3h 9m Not Rated. 8.3 (21K) Rate. 96 Metascore. The theatrical life of a beautiful courtesan in 1830s Paris and the four men who love her. Director Marcel Carné Stars Arletty Jean-Louis Barrault Pierre Brasseur.
