15 French Movies That Will Change Your Life
These groundbreaking French films will surprise you with their depth of
perception into the human psyche. They also have really cool posters. See
the posters, read film reviews.
We believe French students can improve their language abilities by watching
these French films for learners. Teachers can also use these as a classroom
aid, because these are probably the best movies to learn French by, in
or out of the classroom. In fact, Franchophiles at any stage of French
learning who hope to improve their pronunciation, pick up some slang and
learn everyday phrases before boarding the plane to France will find a
great resource in these films, which do a good job of surveying France's
rich cinematic tradition.
After all, even American directors happily find cause to send their characters
to Paris. But setting is only half the story for French movies. France's
community life and literary canon based on complex emotions and nuance
has created a society ready to step onto the big screen-and French films
fulfill that promise. Add a demanding and diverse exploration of cinematography,
and its no surprise French movies have enjoyed such influence around the
world. So, get influenced! Read our French movie reviews below, click here to find out how begin streaming French films on your home computer, and choose
a film to watch tonight!
Le samouraï (The Samurai)  
A 1967 thriller, this film defies the genre's conventions with its sense of inevitability.
Languorous shots of the protagonist at rest are interspersed with deftly
executed action sequences. Unlike most films focusing on hit men, Melville
uses star Alain Delon to underscore his hero's vulnerability-even as he
hands out life and death. While no samurai appear in the film, Melville
is clearly indebted to Kurosawa and others, borrowing from those films'
visual sensibility and setting of existential wilderness.
L'amour en fuite (Love on the Run)  
Despite criticism of the film's "clip show" structure, it is a poignant and fitting
end to the Antoine Doinel saga. Doinel earns our sympathy as a child in
The 400 Blows and loses it as he passes through adulthood (and three intervening
movies); here he is given an affectionate farewell. Some viewers who watched
the character (played over thirty years by the same actor) grow up on screen
were disappointed by the matter-of-fact way Doinel departs, but very few
would recommend against watching it.
Le locataire (The Tenant)  
Roman Polanski stars and directs in a film that fuses the psychoanalytic depth
of his earlier Repulsion with the gothic dread and disorientation of The
Ninth Gate. In a story that will ring familiar to fans of the fantastic,
Polanski plays a harried minor bureaucrat ill at ease among his more bohemian
friends. Carefully built anxiety gives way to a terrifying ending as the
mysticism of the past and the paranoia of the present drive him to a terrible
fate.
La Femme Nikita  
This career-making film from Luc Besson hardly needs an introduction. His combination
of character quirks and badass leading ladies has had considerable influence
over the last 20 years of action movies. It's worth revisiting the source,
however, as Anne Parillaud's anguished depiction of Nikita could be a master
class for young actresses looking for how to fuse cocktail dress sensitivity
with combat boot toughness.
Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear)  
Henri-Georges Clouzot writes and directs this suspenseful 1953 film. Set in South America, Clouzot explores homegrown themes surrounding life and death and the plight of the workingman. For men trapped as wage slaves in a town that could stand in for purgatory, an assignment that requires both animal bravery and precision driving is the only way out. The job? Transporting nitro-glycerin over treacherous mountain terrain. Features a classic performance from the extremely prolific Charles Vanel.
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Amélie)  
Don't let the whimsy throw you! This dramatic comedy has gravitas to spare. Amélie leaves a cryptic set of clues for her would-be lover to uncover. As he follows her breadcrumbs on a winding tour of Paris their connection hangs on a thread. Attenuated to life's smallest pleasures and triumphs, Amélie spends half her life in a fantasy world-but must eventually decide whether to live in the real world. Rendered with lovingly lyrical visuals from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Les diaboliques (The fiends)  
Another feature from Clouzot, but in this suspenseful psychological thriller he's
traded the wide-open wilds of South America for a stifling boarding school
run by a pettily sadistic headmaster. The mysteries intensify and double
back on each other with twists and nail-biting sequences that will keep
audiences guessing till the very end. You could call it a missing Hitchcock
film, but that would do a disservice to Clouzot's tightly wound vision of
guilt gone wild.
Un chien andalou (An Andalusian Dog)  
With its thematic overtones of sexuality and religiosity and its loosely constructed,
violent plot, this early work from Luis Buñuel has inspired unpacking from
film students and imitation from directors since it first shocked audiences
around the world. Full of arresting images sequenced in an alternative logic
that continues to invite speculation and debate, Un chien andalou is an
excellent introduction to Buñuel's films. Consider it a litmus test-if you
like it, dig deeper.
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles  
Chantal Akerman, who in her early career was heavily influenced by Buñuel, brings
a visual artist's eye to her depiction of the drudgery of modern urban life.
Taking her cue from the regulated time of the industrial world, Akerman
follows one woman's life through days and weeks that run together. While
the metaphors for the deadening effects of commerce on inner life may be
slightly heavy handed, excellent performances and storyboarding make this
one you can't miss.
Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One)  
A haunting tale of grief made manifest, Tell No One enjoyed wide critical acclaim
following its release in 2006. The combination of high-minded mystery and
close reading of character made established actor Guillaume Canet a director
to watch. A doctor who retreats into his work to cope with the loss of his
wife to a violent murder had old wounds reopened when he receives an impossible
e-mail-creating new questions.
Belle de jour (Beauty of the Day)  
Luis Buñuel's unique visual sensibility and skill for sideways narrative are masterfully
employed in this career highpoint. Carefully interweaving past and present,
reality and fantasy, Buñuel explores the back alleys of a mind that has
driven a new bride to form a secret life as a prostitute who specializes
in the rougher customers. Catherine Deneuve doles out ingénue sexually open
seductress in equal measure, in a complex performance that reveals and obscures
exactly as the script demands.
La cage aux folles (Birds of a Feather)  
Put aside memories of the 1996 Robin Williams film The Birdcage. Compared to the
American version, the energy stays somewhere around the roof beams, but
the characters have a weight many found lacking in the remake. In an inversion
of most out-of-the closet tales, a father who has spent years living openly
gay with his partner has his life turned upside down when its time to meet
his future in-laws.
Delicatessen  
Displaying the keen ability for rendering alien but oddly familiar worlds that
would later help make Jean-Pierre Jeunet a household name, Delicatessen
uses a post-apocalyptic world to evoke powerful questions about our own.
A gruesome mystery intertwines with a story of star-crossed love. A closely
felt feel for his imaginary world lends authenticity to the characters'
choices, deepening the danger at the center of the story-screenplay by Gilles
Adrien (City of Lost Children).
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows)  
While Louis Malle's 1958 tale of the almost-perfect murder has endured accusations
of style over substance, what a style it is! With a soundtrack by Miles
Davis adding slink and suspense to a three-thread story that winds through
a fateful series of events driven by lust. As the story comes to a head,
viewers are left with an effect that to many has seemed under-invested in
what came before. As a mood piece it's a must-see.
Trois couleurs: Rouge
The final film in Krzysztof Kieslowski's triptych was also the last he made. Bringing
a Polish immigrant's eye to French society, Rouge again carefully attaches
social issues to lived in characters. Along with its treatment of privacy
and voyeurism, unexpected love and cynicism, Rouge rewards viewers of the
entire triptych with cameos from actors from the earlier two films. Critically
heralded, Trois couleurs as a series is a magnificent, unwitting swan song
from Kieslowski.
Here is a collection of our favorite vintage movie posters:
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