French film photo galley for Crime/Thriller

French films Crime/Thriller

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...]

La Nuit du carrefour (1932)

Jean Renoir is not normally associated with the crime thriller genre, but in La Nuit du carrefour he manages to turn out a more than satisfactory adaptation of a Georges Simenon novel. Whilst it is apparent that the director is still experimenting with his technique, he shows a surprising maturity and in this film he appears to be defining the ground rules for what would become one of the... [More...]

L'Alibi (1937)

L’Alibi is one of two very popular film noir thrillers made by the French film director Pierre Chenal in the 1930s. The other, Le Dernier tournant (1939), was the first film adaptation of the novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. From a stylistic point of view, both films are rather good examples of early film noir... [More...]

L'Assassin habite au 21 (1942)

Clouzot’s first full length film is a mild contrast with the dark, suspense-laden thrillers for which the director is best known (Les Diaboliques, Le Salaire de la peur ), but it is an excellent example of the early polar genre of the 1940s. L’Assassin habite au 21 is a comedy thriller whodunnit which, although lighter than Clouzot’s later films... [More...]

Picpus (1943)

Made by Continental Films at the time of the Nazi Occupation, Picpus was the first of three films to feature popular actor Albert Préjean in the role of Inspector Maigret. (The other two films were Cécile est morte (1944) and Les Caves du Majestic (1945)). Whilst the film manages to evoke the dark atmosphere of Georges Simenon’s famous Maigret novels... [More...]

Cécile est morte (1944)

In this, the second of the three Maigret films made by the German-run Continental Films during the Occupation, popular film star Albert Préjean reprises his role as the famed pipe-smoking detective, accompanied by his improbable side-kick Lucas. Although, again, the film fails to capture the atmosphere of the Georges Simenon novel on which it is based... [More...]

Les Caves du Majestic (1945)

Albert Préjean stars as the famed Parisian detective created by Georges Simenon in this, the third and last of the Maigret films made by Continental Films during the Nazi Occupation of France. Noticeably different in tone to the preceding two films (Picpus and Cécile est morte), Les Caves du Majestic is more successful at evoking the famous atmosphere of Simenon’s novels... [More...]

Quai des Orfèvres (1947)

After his three year suspension following the storm that his earlier film, Le Corbeau , unleashed, Clouzot returned to French cinema with a magnificently crafted detective thriller, Quai des Orfèvres. Strong characterisation, tight plotting and moody photography are the strongest traits in Clouzot’s cinema... [More...]

Entre onze heures et minuit (1949)

Although the crime thriller had not yet achieved the popularity in France which it would in the following decade, the 1940s was really where the genre had its origins. At the time few French films attained the calibre of the American film noir classics which film directors were keen to emulate, but a few have stood the test of time and remain excellent examples of the early crime thriller... [More...]

La Môme vert-de-gris (1953)

The previously unknown Eddie Constantine became an overnight star in France when La Môme vert-de-gris was released in 1953, one of the most popular films of that year. The French cinemagoer’s appetite for all things American, in particular noirish gangster films, was rewarded by this tongue-in-cheek pastiche of the B-movie genre... [More...]

Touchez pas au grisbi (1954)

Although not quite in the league of Jacques Becker’s best films, Touchez pas au grisbi occupies an important placing in French cinema history. Firstly, it firmly re-established Jean Gabin as a leading figure in French cinema after his temporary decline into near-obscurity during the 1940s. More significantly, it established the crime thriller as a major genre in French cinema... [More...]

Bob le flambeur (1955)

Whilst lacking the sombre hard-edged impact of some of Melville’s latter gangster films, Bob le flambeur is an impressive early outing for the director in his most successful genre. The sense of tension and suspense is there, as in all of Melville’s thrillers, but somehow this is a much lighter, more relaxed approach... [More...]

Gas-Oil (1955)

The main interest value of this lightweight French thriller probably lies in its impressive cast list. Jean Gabin is on fine form and exudes charm and charisma, having managed a spectacular come-back with Jean Becker’s Touchez pas au Grisbi two years earlier. His co-star is none other than Jeanne Moreau, who would soon become one of the icons of French cinema... [More...]

Le Port du désir (1955)

Le Port du désir is a film which was clearly influenced by contemporary American film noir and has much in common with another worthy example of French film noir, Du rififi chez les hommes (directed by Jules Dassin), which was released the same year. What is striking about both of these two films, and what sets them apart from the vast majority of noir-influenced French crime-thrillers... [More...]

Les Diaboliques (1955)

Les Diaboliques is considered by many to be the most suspenseful thriller ever made, easily in the same league as Hitchcock’s better films. Although the film begins quite slowly and innocently, it very quickly becomes thoroughly compelling, to the point that the viewer dare not take his eyes off the screen for a second... [More...]

Les Héros sont fatigués (1955)

War-time heroes reduced to mercenary activities in some remote colonial backwater. The desperation of a passionate woman to escape a loveless marriage and find some meaning in her life. A tale of lost idealism, ruthless greed, hopeless dreams... These are the ingredients which make up Yves Ciampi’s compelling film... [More...]

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