Directors Your 10 favourite French films? (1 Viewer)

[john davies]

1.The Green Ray (Rohmer)
2.La Regle du Jeu (Renoir)
3.Celine and Julie go Boating (Rivette)
4.L'Atalante (Vigo)
5.A Day in the Country (Renoir)
6.Orphée (Cocteau)
7.Pierrot le Fou (Godard)
8.Claire's Knee (Rohmer)
9.Hiroshima mon Amour (Resnais)
10.Les Enfants du Paradis (Carné)

 

[MartinTeller]

Someone's having himself a posting spree...

 

[Brook K]

Love In The Afternoon/Chloe In The Afternoon (Rohmer)
My Life To Live (Godard)
Children Of Paradise (Carne)
Perceval Le Gallois (Rohmer)
Breathless (Godard)
Stolen Kisses (Truffaut)
Mon Oncle (Tati)
Le Million (Clair)
Humanite (Dumont)
Vagabond (Varda)

Again, limiting myself to two from any one director so there's no Rohmer or Godard domination.

 

[john davies]

I've ordered Love in the Afternoon by mail order rental. You've certainly now whetted (?) my appetite. I must see Perceval le Gallois (my compatriot) again. A strikingly original film that i probably didn't appreciate properly several years ago.

 

[MartinTeller]

Haven't seen many (certainly not enough of the classics), but of what I have seen:

La Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain
L'Age d'Or
La Belle et la Bete
Jules et Jim
I Stand Alone
Rules of the Game
Fantastic Planet
Vagabond
The Sorrow and the Pity
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

 

[Lew Crippen]

In no order:

·Grand Illusion
·Breathless
·The 400 Blows
·The Passion of Joan of Arc
·Children of Paradise
·L’Atalante
·Beauty and the Beast
·Belle de jour
·Playtime
·The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

As with all of these exercises, I’d have some different ones next time.

 

[Patrick McCart]

The Passion of Joan of Arc
Napoleon vu par Abel Gance
Les Diaboliques
Un chien andalou

 

[Angelo.M]

belle de jour
the 400 blows
the rules of the game
la grande illusion
the umbrellas of cherbourg
the double life of veronique
la femme nikita
breathless
claire's knee
children of paradise

 

[Simon_Lepine]

The 400 Blows
Children of Paradise
L’Atalante
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Last Year At Marienbad
Le Samourai
La Haine
Beauty and the Beast
Mon Oncle
Pépé le Moko

 

[Brook K]

Note for my list I did not consider The Passion of Joan of Arc to be a French film, nor did I consider the French period Bunuel films as "French films".

John, I might be the biggest Love in the Afternoon fan you'll find. The others I know that are big Rohmer fans don't hold it nearly in the regard that I do and are closer to your opinion, highly ranking movies like The Green Ray, Claire's Knee, and My Night at Maud's that I would put further down my own list.

For me, Love in the Afternoon is similar thematically to Eyes Wide Shut, only with a more realistic and less fanciful setting. These are explorations of male fantasy, particularly sexual fantasy, after marriage. I think it is his most insightful film, and is his most personally relevant to me. Pay careful attention, and there are some strong similarities in the progression of story between LitA and EWS.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Good points Brook—I decided that given the subject matter of Joan, the nationality of the actress and the location of the filming to ignore that Dreyer is a Dane.

I never know what to do with Buñuel in this situations. I decided that both Belle and Discreet Charm were so French in themes, that I’d go with them.

Next time, perhaps I’d add something else.

 

[Brook K]

Not saying I'm right or wrong, just what I decided for my list. Otherwise Passion and 2 Bunuel's would be on it instead of my bottom 3 and I wanted to make room for at least a couple more modern French films. It's really a similar question to the British thread and the debate on whether or not Kubrick's films are British, which ones, etc.

 

[john davies]

A film made in France with French money and French subject is surely...French- whoever the director! After all, so many of the great American films have been directed by non-Americans, and even allowing for auteur theory, film-making is still a collaborative effort. So, yes to Passion of Joan of Arc, Belle de Jour, Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.

 

[Jim_K]

1. Doulos: The Finger Man
2. Le Corbeau
3. The Grand Illusion
4. La Femme Nikita
5. Le Samouraï
6. Le Cercle rouge
7. Le Trou
8. Les Diaboliques
9. Bob le flambeur
10.Wages of Fear

 

[JackMe]

no one has mentioned ...

Retour de Martin Guerre, Le (Gérard Depardieu)

 

[Simon_Lepine]

Nice list Jim, Melville all the way! Since Rialto owns Le Doulos, I hope we get a nice Criterion edition within the next year or so!

 

[Jim_K]

Thanks Simon,

A Criterion version of Le Doulos would be great.

 

[Arman]

Took this ranking out my post (several months ago ... I've seen a lot of French films since then so I'll be making updates on all my lists on the eve of 12/31/2003) in the Personal Top 100 Foreign Language thread:

1. Stolen Kisses (Truffaut)
2. Breathless (Godard)
3. Belle de jour (Bunuel)
4. Children of Paradise (Carne)
5. L'Atalante (Vigo)
6. Pickpocket (Bresson)
7. Jules et Jim (Truffaut)
8. That Obscure Object of Desire (Bunuel)
9. Boyfriends & Girlfriends (Rohmer)
10. Contempt (Godard) & L'Argent (Bresson) & The Discreet Charm of The Bourgeoisie (Bunuel) & Pierrot le Fou (Godard) & The 400 Blows (Truffaut) & Rules of The Game (Renoir) & Chloe In The Afternoon (Rohmer) & A Nous La Liberte (Clair) & The Last Metro (Truffaut) & The Story of Adele H. & Amelie (Jenuet) & A Man Escaped (Bresson) & Shoot The Piano Player (Truffaut) & Claire’s Knee (Rohmer)

 

[Zen Butler]

Children of Paradise
Mon Oncle
White
City of the Lost Children
The 400 Blows
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Beauty and the Beast
The Grand Illusion
Amelie

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

In no particular order (and using their Americanized titles):

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946)
CLEO FROM 5 TO 7
AMELIE
THE WAGES OF FEAR
VIVA MARIA!
RIDER ON THE RAIN
DIABOLIQUE (1955)
EYES WITHOUT A FACE
ORPHEUS (1949)
LA FEMME NIKITA

Runners-up:

BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF
UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG
THAT MAN FROM RIO
DELICATESSEN