French film photo galley for 1950s All genres

French films 1950s All genres

Casimir (1950)

Whilst it now feels dated and painfully lacking in sophistication, this lightweight comedy was an appropriate vehicle for popular actor-comedian Fernandel, allowing him once more to delight his audience with his portrayal of a likeable simpleton who has a knack of getting into trouble. The rambling narrative, bland characterisation and lazy direction do little to endear the film to a modern... [More...]

Juliette ou La clef des songes (1950)

Juliette ou La clef des songes is probably Marcel Carné’s most underrated and misunderstood film, but it deserves to be rated as one of his most inspired and poetic. The film was conceived in 1940, but could not be made at the time because of fears over Nazi censorship. After the success of La Marie du port in 1949... [More...]

La Rue sans loi (1950)

La Rue sans loi is a boisterous farce inspired by the comic creations of Albert Dubout, a legendary cartoon artist of the 1940s. Dubout’s characters such as Sparadra, Anatole and Fifille are brought to life with great gusto by a cast of talented comic performers, including André Gabriello, Paul Demange and an outrageously dragged up Max Dalban... [More...]

La Beauté du diable (1950)

René Clair’s telling of the Faustian myth is a characteristically tongue in cheek rendition of the famous tale, reminiscent in style to his earlier American film, I Married a Witch (1942). Both films rely heavily on special effects and unusual photography to emphasise the supernatural elements of the plot, but in a way that is intentionally comical... [More...]

La Ronde (1950)

Through a series of dove-tailing love vignettes, Max Ophüls offers us an enchanting film replete with some of the greatest acting talent French cinema has known. The brevity of the individual segments of the film does not impair the quality of the characterisation or acting performance, and there are some very impressive moments... [More...]

Lady Paname (1950)

Henri Jeanson is best known as a screenwriter, contributing to some of the finest and most enduring films in French cinema of the 1930s and 1940s, including Hôtel du nord. Lady Paname is the only film he directed and was made towards the latter part of his career. The things which are most noticeable in a Jeanson script are much more noticeable in his own film... [More...]

Le Rosier de Madame Husson (1950)

Le Rosier de Madame Husson is an engaging comic farce based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant. The setting, characters and dialogue are typical creations of Marcel Pagnol, one of French cinema’s greatest writers, and the film captures the charm of life in a rural Provençal community, principally through the well-rounded characters which bring the story to life... [More...]

Les Anciens de Saint-Loup (1950)

Georges Lampin makes a reasonable job of directing a film that seems to have an identity crisis almost from the first scene. The cocktail of film noir, romantic intrigue, thriller whodunit, sentimental nostalgia and mild comedy is a tad indigestible, in spite of some fine contributions from a high calibre cast. Whilst the first half of the film works well... [More...]

Les Enfants terribles (1950)

Jean Cocteau’s provocative 1929 novel enjoyed a difficult transition to the silver screen, and even when this feat was accomplished the film was widely condemned for its allusions to incest. (The Catholic press stated that the film was unsuitable for anyone to watch.) That not withstanding, the film is a magnificent piece of cinema in its own right... [More...]

Ma pomme (1950)

Although too obviously intended as a vehicle for popular music hall performer Maurice Chevalier, Ma pomme nevertheless makes an entertaining comedy whilst telling a thoughtful morality tale about man’s unhealthy affinity with money. The film includes some pleasing performances, notably from Sophie Desmarets (playing a gold digger who has evidently lost interest in money)... [More...]

Manèges (1950)

With Manèges, director Yves Allégret paints his most cynical and intensely pessimistic picture of human nature. A gullible husband is manipulated by his unscrupulous social climbing wife and then morally devastated by his even more odious mother-in-law. Not what you might legitimately call light entertainment... [More...]

Meurtres (1950)

Meurtres broaches the eternally controversial subject of euthanasia with the compassion and wisdom you would not have expected from the time at which it was made. Also surprising is the ruthless manner in which is attacks bourgeois society, ridiculing its obsession with reputation and self-advancement at the sacrifice of everything that gives live its meaning... [More...]

Pigalle-Saint-Germain-des-Prés (1950)

Film musicals are a rare phenomenon in French cinema, with only a few such films (for example, René Clair’s Le Million) bearing comparison with their American counterparts. Of those French films which are nominally classified as musicals most are anything but, with the music often lazily inserted into the narrative as a cheap time-filler... [More...]

Un chant d'amour (1950)

Jean Genet’s inspired and totally unique visual poem evoking homosexual desire and existentialist suffering has achieved the status of an icon of gay cinema, although it is only quite recently that the film has succeeded in reaching a wide audience. After its initial screening in 1950, the film was immediately banned in France and the only copies remained in the hands of wealthy gay... [More...]

Adhémar ou le jouet de la fatalité (1951)

Who better to star in Sacha Guitry’s comic morality tale than France’s most celebrated screen comedian, Fernandel. Although best known for his ebullient comic performances in his films of the 1930s, Fernandel became, in the course of his long screen career, an accomplished actor, sometimes displaying a darker... [More...]

Andalousie (1951)

Andalousie is a film version of one of a number of popular operettas starring the Spanish popular music idol of the late 1940s, Luis Mariano. Although the film now looks somewhat dated and unsophisticated, it was hugely successful in its day, and its blend of comedy, romantic drama and music is not unappealing. Extensive location filming... [More...]

Journal d'un curé de campagne (1951)

In his film adaptation of Bernanos’s tragic novel, Robert Bresson paints a deeply moving picture of the triumph of faith over worldly suffering and the worst in human nature. As the young priest writes his diary, we see the world through his eyes – the cynicism, the hypocrisy, the injustice, the pain. As he struggles to contain his illness... [More...]

Knock (1951)

In this slightly stilted, but still entertaining, film adaptation of de Jules Romains’ popular stage play, Louis Jouvet gives one of his most commanding performances as the irresistibly persuasive Dr Knock. Jouvet had previous played the part of Knock in a film of 1933 (which the Jouvet co-directed) and also on stage in 1923 and 1933... [More...]

L'Auberge rouge (1951)

(1946) and Occupe-toi d’Amélie (1949), Claude Autant-Lara established himself as one of France’s leading directors of quality films in the 1940s. His films not only won the approval of the critics but most proved to be popular commercial successes. Here was a director who had made his mark and was looking forward to a hugely successful film-making career... [More...]

La Nuit est mon royaume (1951)

After his career had fallen into near-obscurity in the 1940s, Jean Gabin made a remarkable come back in La Nuit est mon royaume. This film gave Gabin the opportunity to deliver one of his finest performances. His portrayal of the blinded railway worker is both convincing and intensely moving. Gabin is no longer the idealised romantic hero of the 1930s... [More...]

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