French films need not be known only to ardent Francophiles. You should also get to know these wonders of cinematography, as they are also the inspiration for big world blockbusters. Here are the top 10 must-see French movies.
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (Amélie, 2001)
Amélie lives in her own world in the middle of Paris. Under the influence of her mother's death and her father's cold emotions, she becomes interested in small things: baking cupcakes, digging her hands into a container of seeds, thinking about how many people in town are having an orgasm at that moment.
Jules et Jim (Jules and Jim, 1962)
In Paris before the First World War, friendship connects Jules, a German, with Jim, a Frenchman. Carefree bohemians become inseparable friends who share everything in life, including women. Fascinated by a photograph of a statue of a woman with a mysterious smile, they meet a young woman, Catherine, with the same smile. A love triangle develops between the trio, lasting two decades, which is not even interrupted by war. An immortal film classic and at the same time one of the most beautiful love stories captured on film.
La Haine (1995)
Hate is a raw, gritty drama about a group of young men of different races from a seedy Paris neighborhood who decide to take revenge on the police for brutally beating up their friend.
Les quatre cents coups (400 coups, 1959)
Antoine is a young boy at the crossroads of growing up. In his search for the right path, no one listens to him, and his misunderstanding of his surroundings leads him into deeper and deeper problems. François Truffaut's feature debut is one of his most personal films and at the same time one of his most beautiful. It is a story about youth, when the questions to which the child cannot find answers are most widely opened.
La vie d'Adèle (2013)
The bold narrative of the passionate relationship between a sensitive high school girl and a free-spirited art student won the director and the lead actresses the Palme d'Or at the last Cannes festival. The magazines Cahiers du cinéma and Sight & Sound awarded the film third place in the list of the best films of 2013.
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Belle de Jour (1967)
The young and beautiful Séverine received a strict petty-bourgeois Catholic upbringing in her youth. The marriage with the Parisian doctor Pierre did not bring changes in her life, although she hoped otherwise. She tries to free herself by escaping into the world of lively erotic fantasies, but these satisfy her only for a short time. She decides to make a radical change in her life: every afternoon, she will transform into a 'beauty of the day', a prostitute who fulfills even the most unusual wishes of her clients...
Le Dîner de Cons (1998)
Pierre Brochant (Thierry Lhemitte) and his group of Parisian dignitaries organize very special weekly dinners - they compete with each other to find and bring the biggest fool, and at the end of the evening they choose the worst. Brochant believes he has landed his 'world champion' this way when his 'fool scout' tracks down François Pignon.
Caché (Hidden, 2005)
Georges, the host of a popular television show about literature, and Anne, a literary publisher, one day find a mysterious package at the door of their Parisian house. It contains a videotape of the entrance to their house and a child's drawing of a bloody face. In the following days, new packages arrive, recordings become more and more related to their privacy.
Intouchables (Friends, 2011)
The lives of wealthy nobleman Phillip and poor criminal Driss could not be more different, but fate intertwines their paths. Disabled Phillipe is looking for a carer and comes across Driss among the applicants. He doesn't really want the job, he just wants to meet the conditions for receiving social benefits, so he tries to portray himself in the worst possible light. But Phillip likes Driss's spontaneity, so he hires him, and their initial mistrust slowly grows into a sincere friendship.
À bout de souffle (Until the Last Breath, 1960)
Belmondo steals a car, kills a cop, and then, when he's not hiding out with Jean Seberg, hunts down his debtors in Paris. He is in between with Seberg, an American student in Paris, who is chasing famous people and a journalistic career. They love each other, but the sixties are starting all around, too wild for real slow love. It is necessary to continue, until the last breath. The film represents the very manifesto of the French New Wave.
