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French films Romance
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In its time, Les Bas-fonds was something of a groundbreaking film, offering an honest and humanist portrait of those at the lowest end of the social spectrum – crooks, gamblers, prostitutes and drunks. The film coincided with the Popular Front taking power in France, a time of great optimism and solidarity among the working classes...
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It is not hard to see why Anatole Litvak’s Mayerling is widely regarded as one of the greatest of cinematic love stories, a 1930s version of Romeo and Juliette. Captivating performances from Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux and some beautiful, genuinely inspired camerawork combine to make this an exquisitely poetic and highly poignant film...
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Often cited as one of Jean Renoir’s best works, Partie de Campagne is a magnificently crafted adaptation of a popular short story by Guy de Maupassant. Renoir’s treatment of the subject is masterful: the achingly beautiful location heightens the cruel irony of Henrietta’s fate. Instead of following her natural desire to pursue the man she is drawn to...
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Louis Verneuil’s stage play Le Fauteuil 47 was first adapted for cinema by Gaston Ravel in 1926. This stylish 1937 re-make was directed by Fernand Rivers and starred four high-profile actors of the 1930s – Raimu, Françoise Rosay, André Lefaurn and Henri Garat. The strong cast brings a touch of class to what is pretty much a conventional French farce in which the...
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An undisputed classic of French cinema, Pépé le Moko combines poetic realism with gangster thriller, making this one of the earliest and best examples of the French film noir genre. The film clearly carries the echo of the film which inspired its director, Howard Hawk’s 1932 masterpiece Scarface (which became the prototype for the American gangster movie of the 1930s)...
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Un carnet de bal is a good example of French cinema of the late1930s, and one of the earliest successful attempts at the episodic film which became so popular in subsequent decades. The multi-part structure of the film (effectively a series of loosely connected vignettes) is a little unsatisfying, but the individual stories are themselves almost perfectly formed...
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This classic tense drama, with a compelling plot by Henri Jeanson, is a fine example of pre-war French cinema. Louis Jouvet, possibly France’s greatest theatre actor, gives one of his finest screen performances, making this as much a celebration of the dramatic art as a captivating study of the aspirations and frustrations of young actors....
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This doom-laden, intensely atmospheric film epitomises the poetic realism of French cinema of the late 1930s. Masters of the genre, Carné and Prévert create a shadowy world where the harsh realities of an unsympathetic world intrude on and ultimately ruin any aspirations to romantic idealism. The hotel of the film’s title can be interpreted as a metaphor the world as...
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La Bête humaine is a powerful study of the darker side of human nature. It comes from possibly the greatest period of French cinema, from a great director, Jean Renoir, at the height of his powers (between the legendary films La Grande illusion and La Règle du jeu). It fits into yet somehow seems to transcend the style of poetic realism that was in vogue at the time...
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There is not a great deal to commend this limp melodrama other than its stellar cast, which includes three of the finest French actors of the period – Charles Boyer, Michèle Morgan and Jean-Louis Barrault. Prior to this film, Michèle Morgan had taken a leading role in just one film, Marc Allégret’s Gribouille (1937)...
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This is a very atmospheric film from one of France’s great directors, Marcel Carné, better known for his legendary film, Les Enfants du Paradis. Maurice Jaubert’s moody opening theme transports us into a world of mists and shadows, more evocative of down-town Chicago in the 1930s than a harbour town in Northern France...
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One of the undisputed all time classics of French cinema, La Règle du Jeu is also widely regarded as Jean Renoir’s best film, a sublime masterpiece of filmmaking technique and satirical verve. Alternating between high drama and music hall farce, it has simultaneously the sophistication of a great work of art and also the sense of anarchistic fun of a student comic play...
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Le Jour se lève is another doom-laden tale which sprang from the combined genius of director Marcel Carné and screenwriter Jacques Prévert. By the time this film was made, there was an all-pervading aura of pessimism hanging over Europe, with the imminence of a World War, and this is noticeable in French cinema of this period...
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Remorques continues the trend in poetic realism which was so popular in French cinema in the 1930s and reunites stars Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan (previously seen together in Marcel Carné’s film Le Quai des brumes) in another ill-fated romance. The familiar formula is perhaps showing signs of fatigue in this film...
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One of the most famous and best-loved of French film musicals, Romance de Paris is probably the closest that French cinema managed to get to recreating the glamour and charm of the traditional Hollywood musical of the 1930s and 40s. It was directed by Jean Boyer, the best (if not the only) French director of the genre. The film musical is not well represented in French cinema—lack of popular...
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Les Visiteurs du soir is one of a series of undisputed masterpieces which came out of the fruitful collaboration between director Marcel Carné and screenwriter Jacques Prévert. The film was hailed as a major cinematographic achievement upon its release in 1942 and was one of the most popular films made under the Nazi Occupation...
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This is the first of Jean Delannoy’s many great film triumphs, and probably his best. In a film laden with menace and mistrust, he tells a complex story that is both satisfying emotionally and immensely watchable. The sets offer an impressive reconstruction of the gambling port of Macao, complete with a bustling casino...
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It was under the Occupation that director Claude Autant-Lara proved his mettle and established himself as one of the finest directors of his generation. His best film, Douce, is a magnificent blend of romance, satire and dramatic irony, beautifully filmed, with some enchanting acting performances. Although the film is set in the late 19th century...
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One of the many towering cinematic achievements that miraculously came out of France’s darkest hour, L’Éternel retour unites the creative talent of director Jean Delannoy and writer Jean Cocteau. The result is an intensely moving film about love, jealousy and malice, captivating in its lyrical charm, yet haunting in its assessment of the worst in human nature...
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Whilst not necessarily the best film of its time, Lumière d’été is certainly one of the most important films made in France during World War II. It allowed its director, Jean Grémillion, to get away with his most vehement assault on the Haute-Bourgeoisie (as Jean Renoir had attempted to do with his 1939 film La Règle du jeu )...
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