Great French Films
This is a personal list, I am absolutely not trying to make a general list of important French films. (I included Belgian French language films as well, they share a border, and the lines are blurred.)
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- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsFrançois ClercBenoît DuvalAn impudent child plays a prank on a gardener innocently watering his plants.
- DirectorLouis LumièreWorkers leaving the Lumière factory for lunch in Lyon, France in 1895; a place of great photographic innovation and one of the birth places of cinema.
- DirectorAuguste LumièreLouis LumièreStarsMadeleine KoehlerMarcel KoehlerMrs. Auguste LumiereA train arrives at La Ciotat station.
- During the winter, a train arrives at Aix-les-Bains. Through the window we can see the city covered in snow.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsMuch to our amazement, an elegant and masterful illusionist detaches his own head effortlessly from his shoulders for a once-in-a-lifetime performance.
- Two women get out of the carriage and walk towards the entrance to the pavilion.First jump cut. The cameraman notices that his camera is too close to the subject. He stops filming, changes the angle and starts again.
- A black and white short filmed from a boat sailing past houses and bridges.
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsMadeleine KoehlerA short black and white film which documents the activities of a little girl and her cat.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsSatan appears in a convent and takes the guise of a priest. Before long he is causing all manner of perturbation and despair.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsVictor AndréBleuette BernonA group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsCharles ClaudelOctavie HuvierFrançois LallementA man rents an apartment and furnishes it in remarkable fashion.
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené NavarreEdmund BreonGeorges MelchiorInspector Juve is tasked to investigate and capture an infamous criminal Fantomas.
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené NavarreEdmund BreonGeorges MelchiorIn Part Two of Louis Feuillade's 5 1/2-hour epic follows Fantômas, the criminal lord of Paris, master of disguise, the creeping assassin in black, as he is pursued by the equally resourceful Inspector Juve.
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené NavarreEdmund BreonGeorges MelchiorAfter a body disappears from inside the prison, a series of crimes take place, all seemingly by the dead man. With Juve presumed dead, Fandor must investigate alone. Will Fantomas finally be brought to justice?
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené NavarreGeorges MelchiorLaurent MorléasThe press and the public opinion suggest that Inspector Juve may in fact be Fantômas. As Juve is jailed, the actual Fantômas schemes to keep him behind bars forever.
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené NavarreEdmund BreonGeorges MelchiorHaving committed murder in Belgium, Fantomas is sentenced to life imprisonment. Two crimes committed in France suggest to inspector Juve that the Fantomas gang is still at work. He conceives the idea that if Fantomas is set free it will be possible to follow him and capture him and the remaining members of the gang. The villain escapes from prison and makes his way to the railroad station and boards a train where he is tracked by private detectives. When the train stops at a country station, Fantomas alights with the intention of making good his escape, but he finds that he is being followed by two detectives, whom he recognizes. He goes back to his carriage, which leads the detectives to think he is quite safe, but he crosses the train and leaves by the opposite door, jumping into the baggage wagon of the train on the opposite rail. Just at that moment the train moves and a magistrate who happens to have nearly missed the train also jumps into the baggage wagon. Fantomas was who hiding, attacks the magistrate, and after a severe struggle in which he is victorious assumes the disguise of the magistrate and takes his clothes and papers. He continues the journey as the magistrate, successfully rescues certain criminals, who are brought before him to be tried, and manages to blackmail several members of society, with whom he is brought in contact. While here he is recognized by Fandor, the young and clever journalist who happens to come into the district and who has suspicions as to the authenticity of the magistrate. He decides to keep watch upon him. His suspicions are well founded and he identifies the magistrate as none other than Fantomas. After much trouble, he is able to get papers committing Fantomas to prison, but Fantomas' suspecting his immediate arrest, issues an order to the head warden, and tells him that it is Detective Juve's intention to be arrested disguised as Fantomas. The warden is not to tell a soul of the detective's intentional disguise, but is to let him remain in prison until 12 o'clock midnight, when the head warden is to personally release him. The police, not suspecting anything of this, feel quite safe when Fantomas is put in the cell and securely barred and locked. His scheme works favorably and once more Fantomas is at large.
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsMusidoraÉdouard MathéMarcel LévesqueAn intrepid reporter and his loyal friend battle a bizarre secret society of criminals known as The Vampires.
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené CrestéMusidoraRené PoyenA twelve-part serial following the adventures of the masked vigilante Judex as he fights against criminals led by the corrupt banker Favrauxom.
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsMary HaraldRené CrestéGeorges BiscotJacques d'Athys, a French adventurer, returns to his home in Nice after an expedition to Indochina where he has picked up a Eurasian fiancée and a book that, unbeknownst to him, contains a coded message revealing the whereabouts of both secret treasures and sensitive government intelligence. This makes him the target of foreign spies, including a Marquise of mysterious Latin origin, a Hindu hypnotist and an evil German doctor, who will stop at nothing to obtain the book.
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsGabriel de GravonePierre MagnierGeorges TérofA railway engineer adopts a young girl orphaned by a train crash. Years later when she starts getting suitors, he grapples with whether or not to tell her the truth about her parentage.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsJean BörlinInge FrïssFrancis PicabiaAn absolute dada movie. Somebody gets killed, his coffin gets out of control and after a chase it stops. The person gets out of it and let everybody who followed the coffin dissapear.
- DirectorHenri ChometteA black and white short film which documents a trip through Paris by train.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsCharles MartinelliLouis Pré FilsAlbert PréjeanA scientist's invisible ray freezes Paris into immobility.
- DirectorDimitri KirsanoffStarsNadia SibirskaïaYolande BeaulieuGuy BelmontA couple is brutally murdered in the working-class district of Paris. Later on, the narrative follows the lives of their two daughters, both in love with a Parisian thug and leading them to separate ways.
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsAlbert DieudonnéVladimir RoudenkoEdmond Van DaëleA film about the French general's youth and early military career.