Decade
The best French films of the 1950s
A decade of polished studio films, great thrillers and comedies, ending with the first films of the New Wave.
By Eleanor Hale
The French cinema of the 1950s was prosperous and popular. Studios turned out costume dramas and literary adaptations with stars such as Gérard Philipe, Martine Carol and Jean Gabin, the "cinema of quality" that the young critics of Cahiers du cinéma attacked in print. Yet the decade was richer than its critics allowed. Clouzot made his best thrillers, Becker, Ophuls and Bresson their masterpieces, Tati invented Monsieur Hulot, and in 1959 the critics themselves started making films.
Fantasy comedyLes Belles de nuitRené Clair · 1952
ThrillerLe Salaire de la peurHenri-Georges Clouzot · 1953
Crime thrillerCet homme est dangereuxJean Sacha · 1953
Psychological thrillerLes DiaboliquesHenri-Georges Clouzot · 1955Orphée (Jean Cocteau, 1950)
The myth of Orpheus moved to postwar Paris, with Jean Marais as a poet, Death as an elegant princess and mirrors that open onto the underworld.
Casque d'or (Jacques Becker, 1952)
Simone Signoret as a Belle Époque beauty loved by a carpenter and by a gang leader. A failure in France on release, and a classic now.
Jeux interdits (René Clément, 1952)
A five-year-old girl orphaned during the exodus of June 1940 and a peasant boy build a secret cemetery for animals. Winner of the Golden Lion and an honorary Oscar.
Les Belles de nuit (René Clair, 1952)
A poor composer escapes into dreams of seduction across the centuries, with Gérard Philipe. Clair's lightest comedy of the decade.
Le Salaire de la peur (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953)
Four desperate men drive lorries of nitroglycerine across South American mountain roads. One of the tensest films ever made.
Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (Jacques Tati, 1953)
Tati's gangling Monsieur Hulot on holiday in a Breton seaside resort. Comedy built on sound, space and observation.
Cet homme est dangereux (Jean Sacha, 1953)
Eddie Constantine as Lemmy Caution, undercover on the Riviera. Popular pulp at its most enjoyable.
Touchez pas au grisbi (Jacques Becker, 1954)
Gabin as an ageing gangster who wants to retire with the loot from a gold robbery. A gangster film about tiredness and friendship.
Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955)
A wife and a mistress murder the headmaster who torments them, and the body vanishes. Do not read the ending anywhere first.
Les Grandes Manœuvres (René Clair, 1955)
A cavalry officer bets he can seduce a woman chosen by lot and falls in love with her. Clair's first film in colour.
Lola Montès (Max Ophuls, 1955)
The life of the famous courtesan, told as a circus act, in colour and CinemaScope. A disaster on release and a cult film since.
Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (Robert Bresson, 1956)
A Resistance fighter prepares his escape from a Gestapo prison. Bresson's most accessible film.
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Louis Malle, 1958)
A man kills his lover's husband and is trapped in a lift, while Jeanne Moreau walks the night streets to a score by Miles Davis.
Mon oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958)
Monsieur Hulot visits his sister's family in their absurd modern villa. Winner of the Oscar for best foreign-language film.
Les Quatre Cents Coups (François Truffaut, 1959)
A neglected boy drifts into trouble in Paris. The film that announced the New Wave to the world.
Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
A French actress and a Japanese architect, a brief affair in Hiroshima and memories of love and shame in occupied France. Written by Marguerite Duras.
Where to go next
The New Wave reached full force in the 1960s. For the war years before, see the 1940s.