Cinema - French films - 5 Star Films

French cinema: 5 Star Films (Page 1 of 12)

La 317e section (1965)

Pierre Schoendoerffer

In 1954, at the height of the Indochina War, a French platoon comprising four French soldiers and around forty Laotians is instructed to abandon Luong Ba, an outpost on the border with Laos, and relieve Lao Tsaï, a town 150 kilometres to the south. The platoon is led by the young lieutenant Torrens and his adjutant, Willsdorff, who served in the German army during the Second World War... [More...]

35 rhums (2008)

Claire Denis

Lionel has had a hard life. A black immigrant who lost his wife many years ago, he has struggled to bring up his daughter, Joséphine, alone on the modest pay he earns as a train driver. They have lived a peaceful but withdrawn life together - Lionel thinks only of his daughter, and she thinks only of him... [More...]

7 ans (2007)

Jean-Pascal Hattu

When her husband Vincent is sent to prison for seven years, Maïté visits him twice weekly to speak with him and collect his laundry, which she washes and irons assiduously. On one of these visits, Maïté encounters a stranger, Jean, who offers her a lift in his car. Maïté accepts and before she knows what is happening she has embarked on a passionate love affair with a man about whom she knows nothing... [More...]

À bout de souffle (1960)

Jean-Luc Godard

Michel Poiccard is a small-time crook who is on the run after having shot dead a policeman. Hoping to recover some money he is owed by some shady associates of his, Michel returns to Paris. Here, he meets up with Patricia, a young student and aspiring journalist with whom he had enjoyed a brief affair in Nice... [More...]

À nous la liberté (1931)

René Clair

Whilst serving a stretch in prison, Émile and Louis become firm friends and plan a break-out. Although Émile is re-captured by the prison guards, Louis manages to escape and sets about making an honest living. A few years later, Émile finds a way out of his cell and at once falls in love with an attractive young woman... [More...]

L’Âge d’or (1930)

Luis Buñuel

A party of dignitaries arrive on the shore of an island to pay homage to some dead heroes but are outraged to see a couple making love on the beach. The man is dragged away by police, but he manages to persuade them to release him for services he has rendered to the state. The man and the women subsequently meet up at a party, but their attempts to get together are constantly frustrated by their family, guests and other distractions..... [More...]

Alphaville (1965)

Jean-Luc Godard

Posing as the journalist Ivan Johnson, secret agent Lemmy Caution arrives in Alphaville to look for a renowned scientist, Professor von Braun. Caution soon discovers that he has entered a world that is very unlike his own, one where love has been abolished and where any show of emotion is punishable by death... [More...]

L’Année dernière à Marienbad (1961)

Alain Resnais

The location is a sprawling baroque hotel set in beautiful sculptured gardens. At a large social gathering, a stranger, X, accosts a young woman, A, and tries to convince her that they have met before, one year ago, perhaps at Marienbad. X reminds A of her promise to leave her husband, M, and elope with him... [More...]

Antoine et Antoinette (1947)

Jacques Becker

Antoine and Antoinette are a typical working class couple living in Paris in the immediate aftermath of WWII. He works in a printing works; she is a lowly sales assistant in a busy department store. They live in a cramped garret and their combined income is barely enough to survive on. They dream of owning their own apartment and a motorcycle, but they both know that there is little chance of their dreams ever coming true... [More...]

L’Apollonide (Souvenirs de la maison close) (2011)

Bertrand Bonello

In a Parisian brothel at the start of the 20th century there lives a young prostitute whose face is disfigured by a scar that takes the form of a tragic smile. Around her, other, more fortunate, girls make the most of the lot that they have been given - a life marked by joy, pain, fear and rivalry. Outside the walls of the brothel, no one knows what goes on within... [More...]

L’Argent (1928)

Marcel L’Herbier

Nicolas Saccard and Alphonse Gunderman are two business rivals who are locked in a bitter feud. Whilst Saccard is a ruthless speculator, Gunderman is more cautious and honest, and it is the latter who is more successful. Having nearly been ruined by his rival, Saccard attempts to raise new capital for his company, La Banque Universale... [More...]

L’Argent (1983)

Robert Bresson

When he fails to get money from his parents, schoolboy Norbert agrees to use counterfeit notes provided by a classmate. He passes the forged money onto a photographic shop owner, who, later realising they are forged, palms them off on an unsuspecting fuel delivery man, Yvon. The latter is arrested when he unwittingly tries to pass the fake money on to a restaurateur... [More...]

L’Armée des ombres (1969)

Jean-Pierre Melville

October, 1942. During the Nazi occupation of France, Philippe Gerbier, a civil engineer, heads a small network in the French Resistance. Betrayed by one of his colleagues, he is arrested by the French police and sent to a prison camp. Shortly after being transferred to Gestapo headquarters, Gerbier escapes and immediately sets about looking for the man who betrayed him... [More...]

L’Armée du crime (2009)

Robert Guédiguian

In Paris during the Nazi occupation, a labourer named Missak Manouchian leads a group of young Jewish immigrants, of various nationalities: Spanish, Rumanian, Hungarian, Polish, Italian and Armenian. They are united in a single cause, to oppose the Nazis and liberate France, and they are prepared to lay down their lives to achieve this end... [More...]

The Artist (2011)

Michel Hazanavicius

Hollywood, 1927. George Valentin is a star of silent cinema on whom the sun has never ceased to shine. But the arrival of sound looks set to send him into obscurity. Meanwhile, Peppy Miller, a young bit-player, is about to be propelled to stardom. This is the story of two tender souls who fall in love but who face being torn apart by fame, fortune and pride as cinema stands on the threshold of a new era..... [More...]

L’Atalante (1934)

Jean Vigo

This is the story of a young village woman, Juliette, who joins her new husband, Jean, a bargeman on his working barge, L’Atalante. After a while, Juliette grows tired of her new life traversing the canals of France and yearns to visit Paris. During a brief visit to the city, Juliette encounters a young pedler and appears to be attracted to him... [More...]

Au revoir, les enfants (1987)

Louis Malle

At the time of the Nazi occupation of France in 1944, a young boy, Julien, is evacuated from his home in Paris to a Catholic boarding school in the country. He is teased by the other boys because, unlike them, he takes his lessons seriously and wins the praise of his teachers. However, he has a rival, the quiet boy Jean Bonnet, who is teased even more than he is... [More...]

L’Auberge rouge (1951)

Claude Autant-Lara

In the Ardèche region of France in 1883, Marie Martin and her husband manage a remote rural inn. The hostelry is unfortunately situated and the Martins have difficulty attracting customers, so they decide to make their living by less honest means, by murdering their guests and robbing them of their valuables... [More...]

La Baie des anges (1963)

Jacques Demy

Jean Fournier is a modest young bank clerk living in Paris. He is sensible, respectable, and so it is with reluctance that he agrees to accompany his friend Caron to a casino. When he wins a small fortune at roulette, Jean immediately becomes hooked on gambling and makes a snap decision to spend his holiday in Nice – much to the disgust of his father who believes that he will ruin himself... [More...]

Le Ballon rouge (1956)

Albert Lamorisse

A lonely young boy discovers a solitary bright red balloon and the two form an instant bond of friendship. Wherever the boy goes, the balloon is not far behind. When the boy gets into trouble at school, the balloon comes to his rescue. The boy’s new-found happiness appears to be short lived when a gang of other boys are attracted to the balloon, with malicious intent..... [More...]

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