French film photo galley for 1990

French films of the 1990s

Aux yeux du monde (1990)

The plot may be simple and a little unsophisticated, but this is nevertheless a well-made and thought-provoking piece of cinema. This is due mainly to Eric Rochart’s masterful direction and to some class A acting – particularly from the film’s star, Yvan Attal. In his role as Bruno, Attal is simultaneously engaging yet frighteningly unpredictable... [More...]

Conte de printemps (1990)

Conte de printemps is the first instalment in Eric Rohmer’s four-part cycle entitled Contes des quatre saisons (The Four Seasons Tales). All four films involve a romantic theme played against a particular season of the year, the season reflecting the nature of the subject. The style of the film is uniquely Rohmer: an intimate examination of the interaction between a small number of... [More...]

Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)

In one of the best and most spectacular French film of the 1990s, Jean-Paul Rappeneau manages to pull of the definitive film version of the Cyrano de Bergerac tale. From start to finish, this is a lavish, emotionally charged tour de force, which succeeds at so many levels that it just has to be considered a masterpiece of modern cinema... [More...]

Daddy Nostalgie (1990)

A beautifully understated portrait of a father-daughter relationship, Daddy nostalgie affords English-born actress Jane Birkin one of her most memorable screen roles. Here she stars opposite the highly regarded English actor Dirk Bogarde in his final film appearance before his death in 1999. Both actors are at the height of their powers and together they make this a compelling film... [More...]

Gaspard et Robinson (1990)

This bittersweet comedy makes a poignant statement about the importance of friendship and family in an increasingly fragmented society. Beautifully filmed, with an attractive score from Michel Legrand, this is a film which appeals perhaps more to the senses than to the intellect. The on-screen rapport between Gérard Darmon and Vincent Lindon is both touching and entertaining... [More...]

La Gloire de mon père (1990)

In this film and its immediate sequel, Le château de ma mère, director Yves Robert paints beautiful and moving picture of French provincial life at the turn of the century. The boy in the film, Marcel, is none other than the great film director and writer, Marcel Pagnol, on whose autobiographical novel this film is based... [More...]

Green Card (1990)

In the 1980s, Gérard Depardieu established himself as the most high-profile film actor of his generation in his native France. It was not until 1990, with Green Card, his first American film, that he achieved the status of international celebrity. Although made in the United States, Green Card is an atypical romantic comedy which is nearer to French comedy... [More...]

La Baule-les-Pins (1990)

La Baule-les-Pins is the third in a loose trilogy of semi-autobiographical films in which director Diane Kurys draws on her experiences of childhood and adolescence. It follows Diabolo menthe (1977), her promising début film, and Coup de foudre (1983), regarded as her best film to date. Unlike these other two films... [More...]

La Désenchantée (1990)

This early film from Benoît Jacquot (now a highly rated French film director) is a melancholic essay in teenage angst. Like many of Jacquot’s films, it is centred around one character, an insecure and unloved young woman, Beth, who is trapped in a life which has little to offer her. Although the film is very attractively shot... [More...]

La Discrète (1990)

Christian Vincent won critical acclaim for this, his first full-length film, which takes a subtle and intensely ironic look at the psychology and politics of the male-female relationship. At first sight, La Discrète resembles the films of Eric Rohmer, a director who continues to exert an influence over other French film directors... [More...]

Lacenaire (1990)

Daniel Auteuil is on fine form in this slick period drama which paints an accurate and uncompromising portrait of one of France’s most famous criminals. The inspiration for Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”, Pierre-François Lacenaire was the kind of self-obsessed amoral sociopath who was both loved and feared by a country that was still coming to terms with... [More...]

Le Château de ma mère (1990)

Following from the superlative "La Gloire de mon père", this film continues the telling of a young boy’s love affair for the French provincial countryside. Whilst the two films are very similar, it is interesting how well "Le Château de ma mère" manages to capture a subtle growth in maturity in its central character... [More...]

Le Mari de la coiffeuse (1990)

Le mari de la coiffeuse, one of Patrice Leconte’s best films, is a delicate existentialist portrait of passion, in which the need to love and be loved is shown to be every bit as vital as eating and breathing. The sumptuous moody photography conveys a whole range of conflicting moods, drawing the spectator willingly into the emotionally insecure but irresistible universe of a hairdresser... [More...]

Milou en mai (1990)

Whilst not as imposing as some of his earlier films, Milou en Mai is a popular Louis Malle film, having a feeling of warmth and humanity which is not so visible in those films. This is a light satire on bourgeois society, and a very funny one at that. Not quite as blatant as Bunuel’s Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie... [More...]

Nikita (1990)

Although it has not aged particularly well, Nikita was one of the most influential films of the 1990s. It further raised the profile of contraversial director Luc Besson and had great influence on subsequent films of this genre, on both sides of the Atlantic. Watching the film now, it does appear slow and cold in comparison to similar... [More...]

Nuit d'été en ville (1990)

Nuit d’été en ville is arguably director Michel Deville’s most daring film, and certainly one of his most intimate. The narrative could hardly be simpler – a man and a woman talk playfully to find out something about one another between one bout of passionate lovemaking and another (neither of which is shown on screen)... [More...]

Ripoux contre ripoux (1990)

Dynamic duo Philippe Noiret and Thierry Lhermitte are reunited in this respectable sequel to the 1984 hit Les Ripoux. Both films satirise perceived corruption in the French police service, with Noiret and Lhermitte playing a pair of lovable rogues, under the skilful direction of Claude Zidi. This is a nice variation on the policier theme... [More...]

Uranus (1990)

Based on a controversial 1948 novel by the eminent writer Marcel Aymé, Uranus exposes some unpalatable truths about France’s experiences under Nazi Occupation. Contrary to the popular notion that everyone bar a handful of nasty collaborators was a resistance fighter who spent all day blowing up trains of Nazi convoys... [More...]

Atlantis (1991)

Luc Besson’s ode to the beauty of the marine world is as captivating and poetic as anything produced by the famous marine explorer Jacques Cousteau. Although the film does resort occasionally to using captions to assign meaning to its various segments (probably a mistake), this is not a straight-forward documentary... [More...]

Bar des rails (1991)

With this sensitive and brutally unsentimental portrayal of an adolescent’s sexual awakening, Cédric Kahn makes an impressive directorial debut. In stark contrast to most coming of age dramas, even serious French ones, Kahn tacitly eschews the more familiar, rose-tinted stereotypical view of teenage romance and paints something much more believable... [More...]

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