Top 100 French Films, a list by GalacticBoy

8.5

/1337348/

84

/28953/

83

/15674/

4.0

/1266692/

76

/66/

95

/14692/

64

/12/

2.5

age 16+

Léon, the top hit man in New York, has earned a rep as an effective "cleaner". But when his next-door neighbors are wiped out by a loose-cannon DEA agent, he becomes the unwilling custodian of 12-year-old Mathilda. Before long, Mathilda's thoughts turn to revenge, and she considers following in Léon's footsteps.

88

8.5

/23015/

82

/594/

82

/538/

4.5

/47250/

95

/19/

96

/114/

Four prison inmates have been hatching a plan to literally dig out of jail when another prisoner, Claude Gaspard, is moved into their cell. They take a risk and share their plan with the newcomer. Over the course of three days, the prisoners and friends break through the concrete floor using a bed post and begin to make their way through the sewer system – yet their escape is anything but assured.

77

8.5

/1012122/

85

/22414/

82

/18055/

4.2

/775374/

75

/127/

93

/2824/

57

/31/

2.5

age 16+

A true story of two men who should never have met – a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects.

89

8.3

/22309/

79

/345/

80

/442/

4.3

/23283/

98

/42/

95

/480/

96

/20/

4.0

In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

83

8.3

/832913/

81

/17297/

79

/12116/

4.2

/1176384/

90

/231/

95

/33833/

70

/32/

3.5

age 16+

At a tiny Parisian café, the adorable yet painfully shy Amélie accidentally discovers a gift for helping others. Soon Amelie is spending her days as a matchmaker, guardian angel, and all-around do-gooder. But when she bumps into a handsome stranger, will she find the courage to become the star of her very own love story?

84

8.2

/39469/

79

/1186/

78

/962/

4.3

/137138/

90

/29/

93

/732/

A man confronts his past during an experiment that attempts to find a solution to the problems of a post-apocalyptic world caused by a world war.

88

8.1

/30285/

80

/599/

79

/589/

4.3

/63121/

100

/43/

93

/288/

4.0

A captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from prison.

88

8.1

/72709/

78

/1143/

80

/1040/

4.3

/60837/

100

/54/

94

/694/

85

/15/

4.0

In a run-down South American town, four men are paid to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin into the jungle through to the oil field. Friendships are tested and rivalries develop as they embark upon the perilous journey.

89

8.1

/115945/

78

/1658/

79

/1507/

4.3

/168895/

100

/62/

94

/1327/

100

/11/

Part-time model Valentine unexpectedly befriends a retired judge after she runs over his dog. At first, the grumpy man shows no concern about the dog, and Valentine decides to keep it. But the two form a bond when she returns to his house and catches him listening to his neighbors’ phone calls.

83

8.1

/29066/

78

/561/

77

/597/

4.0

/22109/

93

/28/

95

/783/

75

/13/

3.5

In a rural French village, an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, and are dismayed to hear that the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts, they think only of getting the water.

79

68

8.1

/4527/

75

/87/

76

/97/

3.9

/5098/

87

/1472/

During the American Civil War, a Southerner is about to be hanged from a bridge for sabotage when something unexpected happens.

86

8.1

/310881/

80

/6457/

78

/3664/

4.3

/780715/

94

/181/

91

/5132/

91

/39/

3.5

age 16+

Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.

79

56

8.0

/4474/

77

/135/

75

/132/

4.0

/3913/

87

/7/

Having been struck by a 150-ton meteorite, Henry has to adapt to living precisely ninety-one centimeters from himself.

87

8.0

/104422/

79

/2457/

79

/2066/

4.2

/208467/

96

/163/

92

/7559/

90

/31/

4.0

age 15+

In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.

86

8.0

/38179/

78

/673/

75

/705/

4.2

/49189/

97

/36/

93

/731/

88

/18/

4.0

age 12+

Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss concerning two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.

79

58

8.0

/2483/

82

/80/

77

/82/

4.0

/3051/

Adrien is a young pianist prodigy. He collapsed psychologically having failed in a renowned competition and henceforth works as a piano tuner. As remedy to this life, he invents a blind person's mask to penetrate into the intimacy of his customers. This subtlety allows Adrien to get back the taste for music. But since he sees things he should not see, Adrien ends up witnessing a murder.

89

8.0

/124712/

81

/4680/

81

/2832/

4.4

/994684/

97

/338/

92

/98/

95

/48/

4.0

age 15+

On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.

86

8.0

/64765/

78

/1616/

78

/1201/

4.2

/188240/

92

/51/

93

/1101/

90

/21/

4.0

After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.

88

8.0

/133405/

79

/2254/

80

/2260/

4.3

/248873/

99

/72/

94

/2056/

4.0

age 13+

For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.

86

8.0

/26113/

76

/486/

77

/635/

4.2

/45887/

98

/40/

91

/423/

4.0

A committed filmmaker struggles to complete his latest project while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.

82

8.0

/25462/

77

/506/

76

/550/

4.0

/19096/

81

/31/

93

/530/

70

/16/

4.0

In this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She plots vengeance on the men who greedily conspired to acquire her father's land years earlier.

81

8.0

/58386/

79

/889/

76

/787/

4.1

/26715/

82

/34/

95

/974/

73

/21/

Matko is a small time hustler, living by the Danube with his 17-year-old son Zare. After a failed business deal he owes money to the much more successful gangster Dadan. Dadan has a sister, Afrodita, that he desperately wants to see get married so they strike a deal: Zare is to marry her.

86

8.0

/112545/

77

/1686/

75

/1232/

4.1

/51456/

94

/176/

92

/7604/

92

/36/

4.0

age 16+

Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of French fashion bible Elle magazine, has a devastating stroke at age 43. The damage to his brain stem results in locked-in syndrome, with which he is almost completely paralyzed and only able to communicate by blinking an eye. Bauby painstakingly dictates his memoir via the only means of expression left to him.

86

IMDb 26

7.9

/27840/

78

/679/

77

/284/

4.2

/341725/

97

/218/

94

/51/

86

/44/

4.0

age 14+

Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When Nora turns it down, she soon discovers he has given her part to an eager young Hollywood star.

82

7.9

/22047/

79

/982/

79

/1424/

4.0

/35078/

94

/5020/

During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South. From there they will be able to escape to England. First, they must avoid German troops – and the consequences of their own blunders.

79

67

7.9

/3970/

75

/97/

73

/81/

3.9

/5985/

91

/1347/

A high-speed drive through the streets of Paris.

83

55

7.9

/2872/

78

/50/

73

/87/

3.9

/5763/

100

/11/

93

/2/

Proud, eccentric, and antisocial, Monsieur Hire has always kept to himself. But after a woman turns up dead in the Paris suburb where he lives, he feels drawn to a pretty young newcomer to town and discovers that his neighbors are only too ready to suspect the worst of him.

84

76

7.9

/7340/

76

/127/

76

/197/

4.0

/8184/

100

/9/

93

/71/

A gangster escapes jail and quickly makes plans to continue his criminal ways elsewhere, but a determined inspector is closing in.

87

7.9

/33132/

75

/607/

74

/643/

4.1

/55542/

97

/62/

89

/704/

99

/21/

4.0

A weekend at a marquis’ country château lays bare some ugly truths about a group of haut bourgeois acquaintances.

79

70

7.9

/5422/

77

/182/

78

/130/

4.2

/38773/

A young student decides to have no more interaction with the world than is needed to minimally sustain life. His increasingly automaton-like behavior is coupled with a strange clarity of insight about the world around him.

79

72

7.9

/15308/

73

/136/

73

/126/

4.0

/9915/

77

/13/

94

/47/

When five Kurdish prisoners are granted one week's home leave, they find to their dismay that they face continued oppression outside of prison from their families, the culture, and the government.

86

7.9

/31277/

76

/775/

76

/697/

4.2

/60151/

96

/67/

92

/419/

92

/19/

4.0

When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped murderer Vogel. Along with former policeman and current alcoholic Jansen, they plot an intricate jewel heist. All the while, quirky Police Commissioner Mattei, who was the one to lose custody of Vogel, is determined to find him.

74

7.9

/71089/

80

/2155/

77

/2538/

4.0

/153161/

68

/105/

92

/1910/

56

/32/

2.5

age 14+

In 1940s France, a new teacher at a school for disruptive boys gives hope and inspiration.

85

7.9

/109875/

77

/2063/

77

/1728/

4.2

/137277/

93

/219/

82

/1470/

95

/45/

4.0

age 16+

Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.

85

7.8

/14363/

76

/290/

76

/278/

4.1

/32181/

97

/33/

89

/209/

4.0

A famous poet in postwar Paris, scorned by the Left Bank youth, is in love with both his wife Eurydice and a mysterious princess. Seeking inspiration, the poet becomes obsessed and follows the princess from the world of the living to the land of the dead.

85

7.8

/30852/

78

/838/

76

/749/

4.2

/212739/

93

/54/

89

/321/

87

/22/

4.0

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

84

7.8

/37306/

75

/670/

77

/680/

4.0

/133025/

91

/35/

91

/436/

4.0

Twelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.

84

7.8

/32398/

78

/1965/

78

/1470/

4.2

/232514/

99

/136/

89

/148/

85

/28/

3.5

age 11+

After his mother’s death, Zucchini is befriended by a kind police officer, Raymond, who accompanies him to his new foster home filled with other orphans his age. There, with the help of his newfound friends, Zucchini eventually learns to trust and love as he searches for a new family of his own.

82

7.8

/34367/

76

/863/

74

/856/

4.1

/163633/

97

/73/

87

/838/

86

/9/

This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.

83

7.8

/38867/

77

/786/

76

/892/

4.2

/129658/

96

/46/

89

/628/

The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress forms the basis of this celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. Set in Hiroshima after the end of World War II, the couple -- lovers turned friends -- recount, over many hours, previous romances and life experiences. The two intertwine their stories about the past with pondering the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city.

84

7.8

/26706/

76

/450/

74

/427/

4.0

/36913/

97

/34/

90

/330/

84

/5/

4.0

After dumping a bucket of water on a beautiful young woman from the window of a train car, wealthy Frenchman Mathieu, regales his fellow passengers with the story of the dysfunctional relationship between himself and the young woman in question, a fiery 19-year-old flamenco dancer named Conchita. What follows is a tale of cruelty, depravity and lies -- the very building blocks of love.

77

69

7.8

/2887/

80

/304/

75

/242/

3.9

/8663/

George Abitbol, the classiest man in the world, dies tragically during a cruise. The director of an American newspaper, wondering about the meaning of these intriguing final words, asks his three best investigators, Dave, Peter and Steven, to solve the mystery. (Sixteen French actors dub scenes from various Warner Bros. films to create a parody of Citizen Kane, 1941.)

84

7.8

/23956/

79

/1083/

77

/656/

4.2

/55100/

98

/81/

89

/248/

86

/22/

3.5

age 6+

Celestine is a little mouse trying to avoid a dental career while Ernest is a big bear craving an artistic outlet. When Celestine meets Ernest, they overcome their natural enmity by forging a life of crime together.

79

7.8

/17479/

80

/1093/

77

/502/

4.2

/69668/

86

/7/

95

/7532/

53

/5/

MAL

8.1

/46988/

Four talented alien musicians are kidnapped by a record producer who disguises them as humans. Shep, a space pilot in love with bass player Stella, follows them to Earth. Reprogrammed to forget their real identities and renamed The Crescendolls, the group quickly becomes a huge success playing soulless corporate pop. At a concert, Shep manages to free all the musicians except Stella, and the band sets out to rediscover who they really are — and to rescue Stella.

84

7.8

/117718/

76

/2077/

76

/1829/

4.2

/234406/

96

/57/

93

/1914/

87

/11/

3.5

The wife of a famous composer survives a car accident that kills her husband and daughter. Now alone, she shakes off her old identity and explores her newfound freedom but finds that she is unbreakably bound to other humans, including her husband’s mistress, whose existence she never suspected.

86

7.8

/106760/

77

/2185/

76

/1668/

4.2

/85545/

96

/163/

89

/2109/

90

/31/

4.0

Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.

84

7.8

/254395/

76

/4701/

74

/3421/

3.8

/166117/

95

/321/

87

/6582/

89

/41/