Movies and Film: Ten Fabulous French Films

Ten Fabulous French Films

You can read about them till the moon turns blue, but until you actually sit down and watch them, you can't begin to appreciate the full menu of French films the twentieth century bequeathed to posterity. What we've given you here is a chronological list of our 10 favorite French films made during the sound era.

The key word in that last sentence is our. We're not aiming for historical coverage or stylistic range here. Some "real biggies" are on our list, as are a few more obscure masterpieces that we highly recommend. As with all of the film lists we've provided in this book, though, a few hours of visual pleasure a week will permanently transform you from head-scratching neophyte to discriminating connoisseur.

• L'Age d'Or (The Golden Age, 1930), directed by Luis Buuel.
• La Rgle de Jeu (Rules of the Game, 1939), directed by Jean Renoir.
• Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), directed by Alain Resnais.
• Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows, 1959), directed by Franois Truffaut.
• Bout de Souffle (Breathless, 1960), directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
• Jules et Jim ( Jules and Jim, 1961), directed by Franois Truffaut.
• Les Jeux Interdits (Forbidden Games, 1952), directed by Ren Clment.
• L'Amour l'aprs-midi (Chloe in the Afternoon, 1972), directed by Eric Rohmer.
• Diva (1981), directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix.
• Ma Vie en Rose (1997), directed by Alain Berliner.