Share in the comments! The First Day of the Rest of Your Life. 18 of 50. Harvey Keitel plays Roddy, a man who has a camera implanted in his brain by a television studio, run by TR favorite Harry Dean Stanton. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but this film that follows a family through various stages of their lives is very relatable and an enjoyable drama. On the surface, Jean Vigo’s 1934 film about troubled newlyweds living on a barge sounds, well, pretty dull. Posted on April 29, 2014 July 30, 2019 by Jose Gallegos. Based on the “unfilmable” novel by Raymond Queneau, Zazie follows the titular girl (Catherine Demongeot) who, while staying in Paris with her transvestite uncle, dreams of riding the metro. The tradition of the genre carried in the popular 19th century works of Jules Verne, who could forecast technology in an eerily accurate manner. Zazie dans le métro (Dir. Indeed, some of the greatest cinematic experiences out there are ones that narratively meander; they aren’t about what the story is, rather how it is told. Coined by critic James Quandt as a rather pejorative term to recall a series of French transgressive films developed under the turn of the 21st century, it is discussed whether it stands as a genre or not. Le Cercle Rouge is a 1970 crime film set in Paris, France. ESSENTIAL FRENCH FILMS de Kenji ESSENTIAL FRENCH FILMS de Kenji. Yes, Frontier(s) actually had to deal with all of them. If Someone Tells You They've Seen These Sci-Fi Movies, They're Probably Lying To You. Jean-Pierre Melville’s dialogue-light thriller Le Samouraï … This was Rohmer’s second feature film, which consisted of staples of Rohmer’s signature style: images of people traveling, the lack of non-diegetic music, intelligent and prolonged conversations, and themes of unfulfilled desire. Happiness was labeled as a chauvinist fantasy, but that is just a facile way of analyzing her complex film. Rohmer’s fourth entry into his “Six Contes Moraux (Six Moral Tales)” follows three cohabitants of a Saint Tropez villa. In 2011, the French silent film The Artist made an international splash and took home the Oscar for best picture. For ‘proper French’ (i.e. All of this weirdness has a point though, and it’s far simpler than it seems; during a conversation with an old friend, Oscar is asked why he continues to act when no-one is watching. The film was unpopular with French audiences, but it gave a provocative, if not extremely pessimistic, view of bohemian Paris. Le beau Serge (Handsome Serge) and Les cousins (The Cousins) are essential to the New Wave lexicon, creating tense and atmospheric dramas that are coated with Chabrol’s adoration of Hitchcockian themes and suspense. The 50+ Best War Movies Ever Made, Ranked. Being the post-apocalypse, women are a highly sought after commodity to be locked up, traded, stolen, then locked up again. When François finally admits to his wife that he wants to keep his family and continue his affair, Claire accepts, but she later drowns in a lake (either through suicide or an accident, it is never revealed). In this post, we'll give you an essential list of films that made the Nouvelle Vague so exciting. The senseless violence of contemporary life is only heightened by the striking cinematography, particularly haunting during the night-time scenes as long shadows are cast through the Parisian streets. They’re all absolute corkers, no doubt about it; If you love film, you need to see these. But, of course, no one ever wins. The professor and Alpha 60 have abolished love and outlawed any kind of emotion. One of the all-time great films. A largely negative reviewed film, Ma mère’s exploration of taboo foundations makes it a film worth seeing. The majority of these works were optimistic about the potential of technology to improve lives and further man’s reach into the universe. France’s love affair with science fiction goes back centuries with authors like Cyrano de Bergerac addressing an alien utopia in 1657’s Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon. This film sticks with you. Post-WWII France was a different environment for French cinema. The Rules of the Game is a 1939 French film directed by Jean Renoir and starring Nora Gregor,... 17 Ingenious Satirical Movies You Need To Watch, Fantastic Movies Americans Missed Out on Because of the Language Barrier. This charming steam-punk-inspired animation is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. 11. Les bonnes femmes (The Good Time Girls) plays with generic conventions and tone, shifting between Hitchcockian suspense and humor in order to tell the story of four Parisian shop girls who chase after their dreams (often resulting in disappointment and tragedy). Government funding and lighter cameras provided new opportunities for aspiring filmmakers, whose innovations – along with the general climate of European arthouse cinema – would help usher in a new modernist phase of filmmaking. Survivors of the Third World War live underground in the galleries of the Palais de Chaillot region of Paris. Random encounters define the lives of twin sisters Delphine and Solange (real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac), who dream of leaving Rochefort to work in Paris. Eric Rohmer, 1967) – New Wave. He successfully travels to the past and is then sent into the future where he is given a bit of technology for restoring the past to its pre-apocalypse state. Many great ones here. Truffaut argued that French films had no distinct style, primarily due to the power that screenwriters had over the directors. It’s a three-way tie as my favourite film of all time (with Mean Girls and A Clockwork Orange if you’re curious). This list is in 3 tiers: the pantheon; the top 100; then the rest. Based on a novel only Bataille could have come up with, Ma mère is one of New French Extremity’s most taboo-breaking and transgressive titles, a film very hard to watch. Once described to me by a friend as “so arthouse it hurts,” on a first watch it can feel as if Carax is actually trying to alienate his audience; a man called Oscar travels around in a limousine through Paris, dressing up as different characters. 2) The 400 Blows – Directed by François Truffaut, 1959 The French New Wave is undoubtedly one of the defining moments not just for French art, but in the global art landscape. Although The Umbrellas of Cherbourg may have been Demy’s crowning achievement, it was Les demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of Rochefort) that created a truly sublime escapist fantasy. Another movie that is very easy to follow is “Amour,” a 2012 film with Jean-Louis Trintignant and the amazing Emmanuelle Riva, who recently died. The Man finds refuge from the Brute in a run-down hospital where he befriends a doctor who’s also been terrorized by the Brute. My Favourite Resource to Learn French Online, 5 Essential French Grammar Tips for Beginners, 10 Génial French YouTubers to Help You Learn French, 10 Essential French Musicians to Help You Learn French, The Ultimate Guide to Language Learning Podcasts, Guest Post: 5 Essential Tips to Improve How You Learn French Vocabulary, Language Learning Goals: Clear The List – March 2017. Although it didn’t receive the most positive reviews from critics, I’ve included Gemma Bovery on the list because if you’re a native English speaker and you’ve seen the work of Gemma Arterton before, you’re probably curious to see how she fares in a French film, and she does pretty good. Their relationship seem to cure Jay of his depression, until Jay begins to notice something is missing and attempts to know more about the woman. What other classics will you find on this list of the greatest French movies of all time? If you’re reading this that means you have the Internet. The music, the colouring, the story, the style. Under the direction of André Bazin, they wrote articles for Cahiers du Cinéma about their adoration for particular directors (Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Roberto Rossellini, Nicholas Ray, etc. Their films will not appear on this list, except in the case of Zazie dans le métro by Louis Malle (I’ll explain my reasoning later). The film is loosely based on H.G. Le bonheur (Dir. 10 Essential French Films to Fall in Love With to Help You Learn the Language Amelie. Baise-moi (Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi, 2000). It’s also told in parts, each of which focuses on a different member of the family, which makes for an unusual narrative. Mizoguchi's 100+ Essential French Films. I mean, the title even translates to ‘hate’. Eyes Without a Face is a 1960 French-Italian horror film adaptation of Jean Redon's novel,... 15 Obscure Horror Movies from the '60s You Need to See Right Now. Email. L’invitation au Voyage, Les Ripoux, Au Revoir Les Enfants, Les Parapluie de Cherbourg (hope I spelled it correct), The Return of Martin Guerre, Jean de Florette and it’s sequel, Manon of the Spring, Going Places, Belle de Jour, Indochine, The Last Metro, and of course, Day For Night. With this, Truffaut led a group of directors to reject the safety of French cinema and create something altogether more dangerous, more daring. Did I miss your favourite? For Quebecois French, I love Bon Cop Bad Cop.