French film photo galley for 5 Star Films

French films 5 Star Films

Barbe-bleue (1901)

In this early short film, Georges Méliès uses his extraordinary range of talents to create a work of art which is both entertaining and, for its time, a huge technical achievement. This is Méliès’ first attempt at making a film with the narrative structure of a play and should be considered as the earliest example of the kind of plotted film we are familiar... [More...]

Le Voyage dans la lune (1902)

Georges Méliès’ most famous film, Le Voyage dans la lune, is perhaps the best example of his remarkable imagination, artistic genius and talent as a film-maker. Not only did he write, direct and produce the film, he also had a hand in designing the sets and costumes. Although it may appear naïve and fanciful by today’s standards... [More...]

Le Mélomane (1903)

In this hilarious short film, Georges Méliès shows his talent both as a lithe comic performer and as a master of the cinematic art of his day. Méliès uses the technique of multiple exposure (which he invented and used repeatedly in his films) almost to its limit – exposing the film no less than seven times to allow himself to appear seven times in the same... [More...]

Le Locataire diabolique (1909)

For this, one of his later films, Georges Méliès revisits the career that earned his reputation before he turned to filmmaking, that of the stage conjuror. Much of the film is taken up with an elaborate conjuring trick, with Méliès (playing the part of the diabolical lodger) pulling an improbable assortment of large objects out of a small travelling bag... [More...]

Fantômas – À l'ombre de la guillotine (1913)

As artistic director of the Gaumont film company, Louis Feuillade was keen to capitalise on the success of the Fantômas series of novels, written by Pierre Souvestre et Marcel Allain. These novels were a world-wide phenomenon in their day, their readership extending far beyond France, with 32 complete novels published between 1910 and Souvestre’s death on the eve of World War... [More...]

Juve contre Fantômas (1913)

The second instalment in Louis Feuillade’s five-part Fantômas serial sees a substantial shift towards the more familiar action thriller, making this a spectacular contrast to the first film in the series. Although perhaps less atmospheric and menacing than the first film, Juve contre Fantômas has other pleasures... [More...]

Le Mort qui tue (1913)

Le Mort qui tue is the third, and in some ways the most sophisticated, of the five Fantômas films by Louis Feuillade. Not only is it an exemplary silent film for its time, it is also a masterpiece of suspense and intrigue, possibly the earliest example of what we would recognise today as the suspense thriller, or the true French polar... [More...]

Fantômas contre Fantômas (1914)

The plot thickens with this, the fourth instalment in Feuillade’s epic Fantômas cycle, based on the popular novels of Souvestre et Allain. Juve and Fantômas are suspected of being one in the same man (which is quite plausible given Juve’s clever subterfuge in the previous Fantômas film). Later the real Fantômas (or is it Juve after all?) sets up a fund... [More...]

Les Vampires (1915)

After the huge success of the Fantômas serial between 1913 and 1914, Gaumont were more than eager to produce another serial, mainly to fend off competition from the rival French film company Pathé (which had just acquired the rights to an American serial, Les Mystères de New York). Louis Feuillade delivered a crime serial in a similar vein... [More...]

Les Misérables (1925)

Of the numerous film adaptations of Victor Hugo’s celebrated work, Henri Fescourt’s four and a half hour epic is reputed to be the finest, remaining doggedly faithful to the original novel in terms of both content and atmosphere. The film is divided into four parts: (1) L’Évasion de Jean Valjean... [More...]

Le Joueur d'échecs (1927)

Despite its comparative obscurity, Le Joueur d’échecs is one of the great cinematic achievements of the silent era, a sumptuous blend of historical wartime epic, romantic fantasy and farce. Its awesome scale and breathtaking cinematographic innovation (including some daring use of superposition and hand-held camerawork) call to mind another great film of this period... [More...]

Napoléon (1927)

One of the most ambitious films in cinema history, Abel Gance’s epic six-hour long Napoléon is both a stunningly visual work of cinema and a poetically beautiful telling of the life of France’s most famous general. The film was originally to have been made as a six-part series about the full life of Napoléon... [More...]

L'Argent (1928)

Marcel L’Herbier’s L’Argent is now universally regarded as one of the true great masterpieces of the silent era of film, although this has not always been the case. Up until the 1970s, the film was largely overlooked and it was only after its full restoration in that decade that the film was accorded its current status as a major classic... [More...]

La Chute de la maison Usher (1928)

For many film enthusiasts, Jean Epstein’s La chute de la maison Usher represents the pinnacle of artistic achievement in European cinema of the 1920s. Epstein was already an accomplished film-maker by the time he came to make this film, having distinguished himself for his bold experimental techniques in such films as La Glace à trois faces (1927)... [More...]

La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928)

Unquestionably the best film version of the Joan of Arc story ever made. A masterpiece of visual poetry which captures not just the brutality of Joan’s betrayal and sacrifice,... [More...]

Un chapeau de paille d'Italie (1928)

René Clair skilful transposition of Labiche’s play from the 1850s to the 1890s provides an outrageously funny satire on bourgeois attitudes. Although the plot is childishly simple, the film is replete with content, showing the director’s mastery of both visual comedy and film photography. The period setting (la belle époque) was chosen to emphasise the absurdity... [More...]

Verdun, visions d'histoire (1928)

1928 was a year of optimism in Europe. Ten years after the end of the First World War, the spirit of Franco-German reconciliation was in the air and both countries were looking forward to a future of peace and prosperity. As part of the tenth anniversary celebration of the signing of the 1918 Armistice, a series of films were commissioned... [More...]

Monte Cristo (1929)

The last of the great super-productions of the silent era, Henri Fescourt’s Monte Cristo is easily one of cinema’s best, if not the best, adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ celebrated novel. The artistic quality and scale of the film are breathtaking: this is the silent film at its most ambitious, most perfect... [More...]

Un chien andalou (1929)

Through a series of disturbing and perplexing images in which the banal encounters the bizarre, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí propel us through their nightmare world of surrealist fantasy. A film which Buñuel’s insisted defied rational explanation both captivates and shocks its audience. It is a world of pure imagination and creative genius... [More...]

L'Âge d'or (1930)

After their first collaboration on Un chien andalou, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali attempted to make an equally daring film in which surrealism and anti-bourgeois sentiment are combined to shocking effect. However, appalled by Buñuel’s anti-religious ideas, Dali abandoned the project at an early stage and Buñuel went on to make his first solo film... [More...]

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