Crank up the Swank: Favorite French Films

[Snowflake]

Grand Illusion
and
Pepe LeMoko are two of my older favs

I agree with Pru! :snap:

[Snowflake]

Why did my post show up first? What weirdness is thia?

[3894]

Why did my post show up first? What weirdness is thia?


Les Surréalistes have infiltrated!

[3894]

I dedicate this thread to cemeinke's bday. And by French, we mean films in French, not necessarily made in France, n'est-ce pas.

We have to start somewhere, so here (http://www.bestfrenchfilms.com/) is a list of the top 10:

1. «Jean de Florette» and «Manon des Sources»
2. «Gazon maudit»
3. «Le retour de Martin Guerre»
4. «La Cage aux folles»
5. «Delicatessen»
6. «Belle de jour»
7. «La Belle et la bête»
8. «Jules et Jim»
9. «Diva»
10. «Jésus de Montréal»

Of those, I'd agree that «Martin Guerre» belongs on the list. The Marcel Pagnol «Jean de Florette» and «Manon des Sources» are good but not top 10 good.

My top ten would have:
«Cyrano de Bergerac»
«Hiroshima mon amour»
«Ma vie en rose»
«La nuit de Varennes»

I also really liked «Cousin, Cousine» but it's not a great. I need something from the 1930's, maybe «A nous la liberté». I need to think about whether I feel obliged to include a French Canadian, a Caribbean, and an African choice. Probably I don't.

Allez-y. Have at it.

[Prudence]

Les Diaboliques has to be on the list. Has to, has to, has to.

[Not Afraid]

Off the top of my head (with thanks to Google for spelling)

À bout de souffle (Breathless)
Le Dernier métro (The Last Metro)
La Lectrice (The Reader)
La Belle et la bête - Beauty and the Beast
Au revoir, les enfants
May Fools (great soundtrack!)
Amélie

[Snowflake]

Off the top of my head (with thanks to Google for spelling)

À bout de souffle (Breathless)
Le Dernier métro (The Last Metro)
La Lectrice (The Reader)
La Belle et la bête - Beauty and the Beast
Au revoir, les enfants
May Fools (great soundtrack!)
Amélie

How could I forget La Belle et la Bete? Cocteau, fantastic film.

[Stan4dSteph]

Cyrano de Bergerac for sure. Fantastic film.

Au Revoir Les Enfants

[Gemini Cricket]

My Father's Glory
My Mother's Castle
Amélie
City of Lost Children
Brotherhood of the Wolf
My Life in Pink
La Cage Aux Folles
Jean de Florette
Manon of Spring

:)

[Ghoulish Delight]

In case anyone's completely baffled...the server that hosts the LoT apparently had some issues today and needed to be rebooted by the hosting company. I guess in during the recovery, the clock on the server got a bit out of whack, so a bunch of posts got stamped with the wrong time. That's why this thread is in such an odd order...

Back on topic, I can't say that I've seen many French films. As a matter of fact, the only ones I recall seeing are Jean-Pierre Jeunet's (City of Lost Children, Delicatessen, Amile, Very Long Engagement). All of which I loved.

[Alex]

I must admit to being lacking in the area of French cinema (probably because I kept trying to enter that door through New Wave and that just doesn't work for me).

That said I love Chloe in the Afternoon and fortunately for all of you who haven't seen it, it has been remade as a Chris Rock movie coming out later this year (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770772/).

[mousepod]

Alphaville
Pierrot Le Fou
Leon
The 400 Blows

[Not Afraid]

Krzysztof Kieslowsk's Trois Couleurs (Blue, Red, White). Although Kieslowsk is Polish, the films are French.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

En Couer en Hiver, La Femme Nikita, Hiroshima mon amour, City of Lost Children, Delicatessen, Amélie (yeah, yeah, I dig Jean-Pierre Jeunet), Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast.

[€uroMeinke]

Love Jean-Pierre Jueney, Krislowski, Polanski (yeah anothe franco-pole), and a growing appreciattion of Jean-Luc Godard

So to add to those already mentioned:
Repulsion
Bitter Moon
Contempt (Le Mépris)
Un Chien Andelou (Best eyeball scene ever)
Chocolat
Les Liasons Dangereuse (Roger Vadim 1960 and this (http://imdb.com/title/tt0317875/)French Mini series)
Oh and a nod to the Franco Italian - Bertolucci - Last Tango in Paris and The Dreamers

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Oh and a nod to the Franco Italian - Bertolucci - Last Tango in Paris and The Dreamers

I really love a quiet film he did called Besieged starring David Thewlis and Thandie Newton.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Oh yeah, Chocolat was french. I liked Chocolat.

[innerSpaceman]

Hehehe, so far I've seen Chocolat and Amelie.




Considering French is the only foreign language I sort of speak, that's rather pathetic.

[€uroMeinke]

Hehehe, so far I've seen Chocolat and Amelie.




Considering French is the only foreign language I sort of speak, that's rather pathetic.

Triplets of Belleville?

[Sub la Goon]

I second La Femme Nikita!

Betty Blue

Amelie

Day for Night

Moon in the Gutter

[Alex]

Oh yeah, Umbrellas of Chambourg which is interesting as I think musicals in a foreign language are about the toughest thing to cross national boundaries.

[mousepod]

Umbrellas is great - I also love Bay of Angels and Donkey Skin by Demy.

What about Melville's Le Samouraï - Alain Delon has never been cooler.

[€uroMeinke]

Oh yeah, Umbrellas of Chambourg which is interesting as I think musicals in a foreign language are about the toughest thing to cross national boundaries.

Oh I love this one for just the color and art direction!

[Not Afraid]

I forgot about Le Femme Nikita! Love that film!

Now, when is La Lectrice going to come out on DVD so I can see if it is as good as I remember it to be?

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

Wow, I couldn't think of any I've seen.
Damn, I'm retarded.

But, I've seen La Femme Nikita -- Loved it.
Triplets of Belleville
Amelie
Dreamers - Awesome

I'm sure I"ve seen plenty of American films that were originally French... hmmm

[innerSpaceman]

Triplets of Belleville?

ah, oui. merci.









trois.

[3894]

We could have quite le festival de film très swanky. :cool:

We do have a gaping hole, though: no crazy lady tour de forces. You know, beautiful actress plays tragic raving loon to critical acclaim. What do you think of «Adèle H.» or «La Dentellière»?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Triplets of Belleville?Wait, so we're counting French Canadian?

[3894]

Wait, so we're counting French Canadian?

The entire French-speaking world is our oyster.