A Few French Movies I Have Liked
I do not say that these are the best French films, only that they are a few of the films I have most liked. Frankly, I'll watch anything with Jean Gabin. During the war, Gabin made it to Hollywood, but when they wanted to have him play a character named "Frenchy", he walked away
Pépé le Moko, with the immortal Jean Gabin, even better than the good American rip-off, Algiers.
La Grande Illusion, by Jean Renoir, with Gabin. Also Renoir's Boudu Sauvé des Ondes with Michel Simon.
Gabin is the best Maigret in several films including Maigret tend une piege. By the way, anyone who likes detetective fiction, if he has any taste, will find Simenon's Maigret novels the best.
Les Enfants du Paradis, Marcel Carné's masterpiece, almost too beautiful
L'Homme de Rio, a light adventure flick directed by Philippe Broca with Belmondo, also their film Cartouche, a kid's favoriite with a great score.
Le Quai des Brumes and Le Jour se lève, both Carné films with Gabin
Peau d'Ane, charming movie with Catherine Deneuve based on a fairy tale of Charles Perrault. The film is completely innocfent but the tale concerns a king, whose dying wife made him promise to marry only the most beautiful woman in his kingdom, and she turns out to be his daughter. Also Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, very pleasant.
Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien, a brilliant homage to Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train.
Having formed an early affection for Jean-Luc Godard, I strongly recommend A Bout de Douffle, Alphaville, Pierrot le Fou, Le Weekend, though his satiric "Cinemarxisme" may not be everyone's taste.
This is enough for now.
And just like that…a list appears. And a good one to start the conversation.
A few of the films I liked:
Elevator to the Gallows by Louis Malle.
A Sunday in the Country by Bertrand Tavernier. A lovely snapshot of the twilight of the Belle Epoque, not long before The Great War began.
The Rules of the Game, by Jean Renoir (I think). Released right on the cusp of WWII.
L’Atalante. Life on a Seine Riverboat.
Jules et Jim. I’m a sap for Truffaut. Rounded out my trio of the 3 great Oskar Werner films.
The 400 Blows. Ditto on Truffaut.
Army of Darkness (I think that’s it). About the Resistance, showing how it was less glamorous than the one Sartre & Maurice Chevalier claimed they were a part of.
I thought about adding The Battle of Algiers, from 1962, but I think it may qualify as Italian neo-realist. Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. A French subject, in any case, in French, with some French actors. A film with a decidedly leftist sensibility, it nevertheless is a decent portrayal of the hazards of empire. A good movie to watch as the first part of a double feature with Fred Zinnemann’s Day of the Jackal.
I enjoy most Renoir films but, although I used to likely Truffaut, I now find him precious and pretentious and smug. The lady straw was an interview in which he sniped at Carne. This would be like Billy Eikder taken shots at Lubitsch or Sturgess from whom he learns so much without equaling,
I enjoy most Renoir films but, although I used to likely Truffaut, I now find him precious and pretentious and smug. The lady straw was an interview in which he sniped at Carne. This would be like Billy Eikder taken shots at Lubitsch or Sturgess from whom he learns so much without equaling,
Any recommendations on where to watch French films? My little rural library doesn’t have any, so far as I can tell by catalog searches, and I’m only finding a handful on Amazon (for rent – not included in the streaming service). Is the best strategy to just pick up a DVD or two when one runs across them?
Oddly enough, I have seen a Renoir film, but it’s the American made “This Land is Mine” with Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara, which I enjoyed.
I second Mr. Rosenberg’s “Sunday in the Country” selection. “The Girl from Paris” is a good one that is easily overlooked. “My New Partner” with Noiret and Depardieu and for sheer entertainment most anything with Jean Reno.
Philippe Noiret is almost always good. He has a minor part in a very good film directed by the actor Michel Blanc, Grosse Fatigue. The theme of the film is “celebrity” and it is quite funny.
Where to get films? It used to be that a lot were available through Amazon or Netflix or Youtube, but increasingly little distributors are gobbling up rights and want you to subscribe, often via Amazon Prime. Yesterday I discovered I was paying about $30 per month, in addition to Prime, for channels I rarely or never look at, simply because I wanted to watch a single film. They often have a free week–as Cohen Media/Amazon does, which would mean a clever person could see a film or two and cancel. A clever person could also subscribe for a month or two and cancel after he has watched what he wants. I am obviously not a clever person. There are still a few on Youtube either for free or for $3-4. I don’t like buying DVDs because it is the rare movie I want to watch more than once Youtube does have for rent L’homme de Rio, and Godard’s A Bout de souffle is pretty available, though not perhaps a film for kids. Cohen Media, which I do not think is a rip-off, has a lot of silents–including a big Buster Keaton catalogue–as well as a handful of French and Italian films. It is only $5 per month, and I am thinking of subscribing for a few months and sending myself an email to unsubscribe. Ray gets things from the Minneapolis library but he may also know of other sources.
Speaking of “Sunday in the Country”, Renoir’s “Partie de Campagne” is also quite beautiful if a bit cynical. Some Franco-American films you may have seen are: Luc Besson’s Leon, the Professonional with Jean Reno (I have not seen the 1981 Le Professionel with Belmondo), and Gondry’s “Be Kind Rewind,” which I watched alone. Warning: I laughed so hard I fell off the sofa and almost broke my coccyx. Also his Eternal Sunshine of the Unspotted Mind, starring the otherwise unwatchable Jim Carrey.
One last warning: Don’t make my mistake of thinking any actor or director will only make good films. Last night we watched “Johnny English” with Rowland Atkinson. Atkinson was his usual brilliant self but the movie is just a British Naked Gun or Shot in the Dark.
Vince–I’ll tell you what my sources are, and perhaps you’ll be able to use them, too.
I begin with the public library here in St. Paul and Hennepin County (the latter includes Minneapolis) and often supplement them with Interlibrary Loan service that draws on the university, college, and smaller-town public libraries in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. I’m sure ILL (the library-biz acronym for the service) would go farther afield for me, but I’ve never had to make such a request. Right now I’m going through a 4-disc, 8-film set of the ethnographer-documentarian Jean Rouch’s work from the University of Minnesota. Some library systems hereabouts (e.g., Hennepin County, Ramsey County) subscribe to the streaming service, Kanopy, such that their cardholders can watch movies with that service (I don’t use Kanopy yet because I’m too lazy or forgetful to drive maybe five miles and get my SPPL card tagged in a Ramsey County library)
Probably more useful for you are the many online services that offer movies, with and/or without charges. I use only the freebies from YouTube (which also has for-rent movies), ok.ru (sort of Russia’s YT), rarefilmm.com, and Internet Archive. Some usually rent-charging sites (e.g., dailymotion.com) occasionally has free movies, too.
I search for what I want to see by Googling with a movie’s title, theatrical (not DVD/BluRay) release date, and the search term, “full movie”. I scan the list that pops up to find what I want by noting whether the specified running time is as long (or nearly so) as a movie data source like IMdB or Wikipedia says it is and whether the particular item is subtitled in English (other languages often used are French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish; and there’s auto-translation in many more, though auto-translation rarely knows grammar and spelling very well).
I watch what I get online on my laptop. A lotta guys (as we say here in the GWN) hook their computers up to their 20×30 (40×60?) big screens. Not me, even if I had a big boob-tube.
Be prepared for some frequent annoyances–commercials (which you can skip in a few seconds), a few seconds of black screen where commercials were or could be inserted (usually these occur at 15-minute intervals), and out-of-synch subtitles, which for me put the kibosh on further viewing.
Hope that helps.
I have rarely re-read a book except by accident or, sometimes, on assignment for this site. There is just too much of very high value that I haven’t yet read to go over old ground. With movies it is the opposite. We are generally careful about what we buy but we do buy rather than rent, (and sometimes make mistakes) and will watch movies and old TV programs, especially British, over and over again. We tend to be a bit blasted by the end of the day. We find watching something safe and familiar before bed is comforting. I think that TV connections and streaming services are a rip off and we are well ahead of the game given what I see people generally spending on these subscriptions.
Johnny English was trash of course but entertaining because of Atkinson’s performance. I remember being disappointed in it and therefore reluctant to watch the sequels, but when we had the opportunity to pick them up dirt cheap we did so. Although I have no lasting memory of them I have a lingering impression that the sequels were much superior to the first; still trash, but entertaining trash. I wonder how long Atkinson plans on dropping his trousers for a laugh? When last seen it was decidedly shriveled. Much to my embarrassment this ploy always gets its desired result, although with a groan. A better question might be why do the English, as opposed to the French or Americans, prefer to feature the naked buttocks of middle-aged men rather than voluptuous women. It’s all totally unnecessary, of course, but seems to indicated a preference of some sort.
Vince, As Ray mentions the ILL (Inter Library Loan) service is excellent and will find almost anything you want. When none of the libraries in your region have your request, ILL will link to World-Cat. The trouble is that your local library has to subscribe to these services.
I am cautious about Internet Archive. I’m afraid they may have some movies cut down for television programs, especially the oldies. One doesn’t want the Readers Digest movie version. Just check the time and ensure that it matches the official version.
Two delightful French movies that are also suitable for children are based on the autobiographical novels of Marcel Pagnol. “My Father’s Glory” (La Gloire de mon père) and “My Mother’s Castle” (Le Château de ma mère). The father, a teacher, abhors “superstition” but watch as he mellows.
Michael: The promo for the Return of Johnny English was more entertaining than the first film. I don’t mind trash do long ad it is entertaining.
I definitely endorse the two films suggested by Kellen. Love that Provencal setting.
One of the best thing about those two films was the performance of Yves Montand as a greedy old man. Montand started out life as a Tuscan, and went from dock worker to music hall singer of high renown to glamor boy film actor, and from communist to rightist.