This is topic Your Favourite/Top 5 French movies in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Peter Berrett (Member # 672) on 03-18-2006, 06:30 AM:
 
Hi all

I am very interested in French & to a lesser extent French Canadian cinema.

I would be interested to hear of your top (favourite) 5 French movies overall (in order of preferance).

I'll start the ball rolling with my 5. As I like farce it is no surprise that they are all comedies.

1. La Cage Aux Folles
2. Delicatessen
3. La Vengeance D'une Blonde
4. Les Soeurs Soleil
5. Amelie

With an honorable mention of the following films,

- Cite Des Enfants Perdu
- Gross Fatigue
- Sue Un Air D'Autoroute (I have yet to see the full film but the little I have seen makes me want to see it badly.

About my favourite films.

The number 1 film is La Cage Aux Folles which is a rather cheaply made but extraordinarily funny film. What really makes the film however is the way the two lead actors, Michel Serrault & Ugo Tognazzi, ham up their roles as two gay men. The film was remade as The Birdcage however that film is a pale shadow of the original. An absolute must see film.

Delicatessen is my favouite film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It is a very black comedy centred around cannibalism but Jeunet handles the subject with good humour. He is ably supported by a wide cast of very good French character actors. The film is stylish and arty and some of the scenes extremely memorable. It could never be remade by the US film industry.

La Vengeance D'Une Blonde & Les Soeurs Soleil are two very fuuny films both starring Marie-Anne Chazel. It is hard to split the two but La Vengeance D'une Blonde wins out as Les Soeurs Soleil at one point turns a little into a road movie. Nonetheless both are very funny and the Australian connections in the latter film are lots of fun to see.

Finally Amelie is the final film, more perhaps for its sentimentality, gentleness and beauty than for its comedy. It is just a stunning film that people seem to really like, or to be entirely unable to understand. But it is clearly a classic and to those who can understand it, a film not to be missed.

Regards Peter
 
Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 03-18-2006, 10:21 AM:
 
Le dernier combat
Les parapluies de Cherbourg
Orphee
La belle et la bete
Napoleon
Le voyage dans la lune

Reverse chronological order. Melies is a short, so I listed six. If I had to restrict it to five, I'd drop Orphee since Cocteau's La belle et la bete is already on the list.
 
Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 03-18-2006, 10:47 AM:
 
Anything with Brigitte Lahaie is a must see. [thumbsup] [Big Grin]
 
Posted by Thomas Jonsson (Member # 1902) on 03-18-2006, 10:52 AM:
 
Don Camillo with Fernandel and anything with Louis de Funes.

Thomas
 
Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 03-18-2006, 01:11 PM:
 
Checked my Movielens ratings.

My other top rated French films are:
Les quatre cent coups
La grande illusion
La jetee
Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot
La regle du jeu

Honorable mention:
Alphaville
Belle de jour
Diva

70mm:
Playtime

Brigitte Lahaie or {ahem} Brigitte Lahaie
How'd I forget Maitresse?

[ 03-18-2006, 02:16 PM: Message edited by: Jeffry L. Johnson ]
 
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-18-2006, 04:47 PM:
 
My top five:

Le Salaire de la peur (favourite French movie)
Un chapeau de paille d'Italie
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
Le Cercle rouge
L.627

Honourable mentions not mentioned above:

Pépé le Moko
Le Corbeau
Les Diaboliques
Kean
Un dimanche à la campagne
Secret défense
Jour de fête (François Ede's Thomsoncolor restoration)
 
Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 03-18-2006, 08:03 PM:
 
not in any particular order:

Mon oncle - Jacques Tati
La Jetée - Chris Marker
La Grande illusion - Jean Renoir
Tirez sur le pianiste - François Truffaut

of newer films (since 2000) I haven't had a chance to see too many, but I enjoyed Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien, Le Placard and yeah, I even liked Swimming Pool.

if Spaniards making French films count ... then of course Dali & Buñuel's Un chien andalou would have to be included ... likewise if Poles directing French films count, then Kieslowski's Trois couleurs: Bleu, Blanc and Rouge.

and ... though sometimes tough to watch, Alain Resnais's documentary Nuit et brouillard is a very important element in the French cinema canon.

===

hmm, I did this off the top of my head, I'm sure I'm missing something.
 
Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 03-22-2006, 12:49 AM:
 
1) La Nuit Americaine (Day For Night, 1973)
2) Le Mepris (Contempt, 1963)
3) Jules Et Jim (Jules And Jim, 1962)
4) Le Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion, 1937)
5) Playtime (1967)
 
Posted by Joseph L. Kleiman (Member # 3097) on 03-22-2006, 12:28 PM:
 
1. Le quartre cents coups (The 400 Blows)
2. Le sang d un poete (Blood of a Poet)
3. Et Dieu... crea la femme (And God Created Woman)
4. Le samourai
5. Horoshima mon amour
 
Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 03-22-2006, 01:38 PM:
 
In no particular order:

1. King Of Hearts
2. Delicatessen
3. City Of Lost Children
4. Mad Adventures Of Rabbi Jacobs
5. Alphaville
 
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-22-2006, 02:59 PM:
 
In random order:

Alphaville
Playtime
Last Metro (no other votes for this???!?)
Day for Night
Napoleon
Trip to the Moon (short)

Most of these have been mentioned above.
 
Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 03-22-2006, 03:39 PM:
 
My favorites are:
 
Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 03-22-2006, 03:43 PM:
 
Scott, I can't believe you list a short but didn't list "The Red Balloon" (Le Ballon rouge)!!! You're the one that got me hooked on that POS! Now it's one of my favorites!

Anyway, my favorites (in no particular order) are:

1) "La Cage aux folles" (But both sequels suck. I disagree about "The Birdcage" not being as good.)
2) "Maitresse"
3) "Le Salaire de la peur" / "The Wages of Fear" (I totally agree with Leo. It's my bestest, mostest 'favourite' French movie too!)
4) "Mon oncle"
5) "Playtime" Another Jacques Tati film.
6) "Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot" Still another...

Ok, ok, OK! So I listed 6 features...sue me! HA!
 
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-22-2006, 04:45 PM:
 
Phil, you're right! [Smile] I was thinking more of features than shorts. Add it to my list.
 
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-24-2006, 12:38 PM:
 
quote: Scott Norwood
In random order:

Alphaville
I bet that film was a big influence on Bill Gates, too! Alpha-60's deranged rant as it crashes sounds just like the text on a BSOD...
 
Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 03-24-2006, 07:10 PM:
 
1) Claire's Knee
2) Bed and Board
3) Chloe In the Afternoon
4) Umbrellas of Cherbourg
5) Breathless
 
Posted by Gilbert Travin (Member # 2138) on 04-14-2006, 09:18 AM:
 
Hi all [Smile]
Generally, I prefer old movies, for the "black and white" period

1 - Circonstances atténuantes (1939)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031158/
Also Known As:
Extenuating Circumstances
There are user comments on imdb !

2 - Les enfants du paradis (in two parts, 1945)
Children of Paradise (USA)
First part title: Le boulevard du crime (Boulevard of crime)
Second part title : L' Homme blanc (the white man)
Note that the "paradise" represented the highest part of seat-rows of the theatre also called familiarly hen house (many spectators were no sat, but entrance was cheap !!!)

3- Le salaire de la peur (1953)
Aka The Wages of Fear
Starring Yves Montand.
Yves Montand is a french actor that played in USA movies (he his the french pilot Jean Pierre Sarti in Grand Prix)

4 - Les tontons flingueurs (1963)
Aka Monsieur Gangster (USA)

5 - In color :
Jean de Florette + Manon des sources
Starring Yves Montand as "Le papet"
Film in two parts :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091288/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091480/

Only 5 titles, it is short [Big Grin] [Big Grin]
 
Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 04-22-2006, 06:27 AM:
 
Humm, I used to run a lot of foreign films in my repertory house days, but darned if I can remember specific French ones. I do remember several that others have listed here, so choosing from some of those:

La Cage Aux Folles
Day for Night (Truffaut was a cool dude.)
Femme Fatale
Diabolique
Trip to the Moon (okay, I could only recall 4, and Melies was a pioneer... thanks, Scott)
 
Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 05-14-2006, 07:50 AM:
 
well apart from the Emanuelle films,

1. Chocolat
2. swimming Pool
3. Tais Toi (very Funny indeed)
4. Joyeux Noel
5. The Return of the tall blonde man with one black shoe

I wonder what happend to Sylvia Kristel [Razz]
 
Posted by Paul Gordon (Member # 3320) on 05-14-2006, 08:49 AM:
 
I threw some Quebec films in...hope thats ok

Wages of Fear, 1953
Jesus of Montreal, 1989, Denys Arcand, Quebec
Day for Night, 1973, Truffault
Maelstrom 2000 Denis Villeneuve, Quebec
Le Confessionnal, 1995, Robert Lepage, Quebec

Honorable mention:

La Jettee (1962)
Un crabe dans la tete (2001) Quebec
Le Mepris/Contempt, Godard
Weekend, Godard
 
Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 05-15-2006, 09:17 PM:
 
Well, I have only seen one French movie, which is pretty bad on my part, but, my favorite so far is Amelie. A wonderful film, I thought. I'll have to goto either Hollywood Video or Blockbuster Video to check out some more French movies.
 
Posted by John Koutsoumis (Member # 1855) on 06-15-2006, 08:41 PM:
 
I'm surprised no one's mentioned Luc Besson's 1985 masterpiece
"Subway"
with Isabelle Adjani, Christophe Lambert and Jean Reno.
I've only seen it once, on R1 DVD but it's left a great impression on me.

Alongside that for me is François Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" and Jean-Luc Godard's 'Je vous salue, Marie' a.k.a "Hail Mary" .
Also for a good laugh is Jacques Tati's "Playtime" but only in 70mm [Cool]
 
Posted by Fred Georges (Member # 505) on 07-14-2006, 11:23 PM:
 
1) La Belle et La Bete (Beauty & the Beast)

2) Grand Illusion

3) The Wages of Fear

4) The 400 Blows

5) The Red Balloon [Embarrassed] (In IB Tech)
 
Posted by Ron Curran (Member # 3631) on 07-15-2006, 03:40 AM:
 
It’s strange how we all love so many French movies. I introduced my wife to subtitled films with Les Miserables, which was a new take on a classic tale. (Scope & SRD, incidentally).
 
Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 08-08-2006, 03:37 PM:
 
I only have 4 without some more thought... no particular order.

Charlotte (La jeune fille assassinée)
Betty Blue
La Vallee
Belle du Jour
 




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