French Cinema
French cinema = films wholly or mainly spoken in French and produced by France (France being one of the producing countries).
Listed in order of preference.
Most distinguished directors (between brackets the number of selected films):
1. The Old Masters
Robert Bresson (13), Luis Buñuel (5), Alain Resnais (5), Jean Renoir (5), François Truffaut (4), Krzysztof Kieslowski (3), Jacques Rivette (3), Jean-Pierre Melville (3), Louis Malle (3), Marcel Carné (2), Henri-Georges Clouzot (2), Jean Vigo (2), Georges Franju (2), René Laloux (2), Claude Berri (2).
2. The New Masters
Jean-Pierre Dardenne (7), Luc Dardenne (7), Jean-Luc Godard (5).
Listed in order of preference.
Most distinguished directors (between brackets the number of selected films):
1. The Old Masters
Robert Bresson (13), Luis Buñuel (5), Alain Resnais (5), Jean Renoir (5), François Truffaut (4), Krzysztof Kieslowski (3), Jacques Rivette (3), Jean-Pierre Melville (3), Louis Malle (3), Marcel Carné (2), Henri-Georges Clouzot (2), Jean Vigo (2), Georges Franju (2), René Laloux (2), Claude Berri (2).
2. The New Masters
Jean-Pierre Dardenne (7), Luc Dardenne (7), Jean-Luc Godard (5).
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- 100 titles
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsClaude LayduNicole LadmiralJean RiveyreA young priest taking over the parish at Ambricourt tries to fulfill his duties even as he fights a mysterious stomach ailment.
- 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.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsFrançois LeterrierCharles Le ClaincheMaurice BeerblockA captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from a German prison in France.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsMaria FalconettiEugene SilvainAndré BerleyIn 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy, and the ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force her to recant her claims of holy visions.
- DirectorPhilip GröningAn examination of life inside the Grande Chartreuse, the head monastery of the reclusive Carthusian Order in France.
- 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.
- DirectorJean-Pierre MelvilleStarsJean-Paul BelmondoEmmanuelle RivaIrène TuncSet during occupied France, a faithless woman finds herself falling in love with a young priest.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsFlorence DelayJean-Claude FourneauRoger HonoratA Joan of Arc's trial reconstruction concerning her imprisonment, interrogation and final execution at the hands of the English. Filmed in a spare, low-key fashion.
- 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.
- DirectorsJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsOlivier GourmetMorgan MarinneIsabella SoupartA joinery instructor at a rehab center refuses to take a new teen as his apprentice, but then begins to follow the boy through the hallways and streets.
- 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.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsRenée FaureJany HoltSylvieAnne-Marie joins a Dominican convent as a novice where she knows Therese. After shooting a man for which she was imprisoned, Therese protests her innocence, reluctant to tell her secret.
- DirectorMaurice ClocheStarsPierre FresnayAimé ClariondJean DebucourtSt. Vincent de Paul struggles to bring about peace and harmony among peasants and nobles in the midst of the Black Death in Europe, carrying on his charitable work in the face of all obstacles.
- DirectorDenys ArcandStarsLothaire BluteauCatherine WilkeningJohanne-Marie TremblayA group of actors put on an unorthodox, but acclaimed Passion Play which incites the opposition of the Catholic Church while the actors' lives themselves begin to mirror the Passion itself.
- DirectorsClaude NuridsanyMarie PérennouStarsKristin Scott ThomasJacques PerrinA documentary on insect life in meadows and ponds.
- DirectorsJacques PerrinJacques CluzaudMichel DebatsStarsJacques PerrinPhilippe LabroDocumentary on the migratory patterns of birds, shot over the course of three years on all seven continents.
- DirectorFrancois LespesIn the Fraternity of Tiberiade, a catholic community in Belgium, 40 young brothers and sisters share a life punctuated by prayer, study and manual labor.
- DirectorChantal AkermanStarsDelphine SeyrigJan DecorteHenri StorckA lonely widowed housewife does her daily chores, takes care of her apartment where she lives with her teenage son, and turns the occasional trick to make ends meet, but something happens that changes her safe routine.
- DirectorsJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsJérémie RenierDéborah FrançoisJérémie SegardBruno and Sonia, a young couple living off her benefit and the thefts committed by his gang, have a new source of money: their newborn son.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsMichel BouquetReinhard HeydrichHeinrich HimmlerThe history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.
- DirectorsJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsJérémie RenierOlivier GourmetAssita OuedraogoRoger uses his son Igor to ruthlessly traffic and exploit undocumented immigrants. When one of the immigrants is killed, Igor is guilt-ridden and wants to care for the dead man's family against his father's orders.
- DirectorJean-Pierre MelvilleStarsHoward VernonNicole StéphaneJean-Marie RobainIn occupied France, an elderly man and his niece are forced to give shelter to a German army lieutenant who seemingly loves their country and culture.
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsGaspard ManesseRaphael FejtöFrancine RacetteA French boarding school run by priests seems to be a haven from World War II until a new student arrives. Occupying the next bed in the dormitory to the top student in his class, the two young boys begin to form a bond.
- 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.
- 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.
