Decade
The best French films of the 1970s
After the New Wave: a decade of political films, policiers, intimate dramas and one very long conversation.
By Eleanor Hale
After May 1968, French cinema split in several directions. Some directors turned to openly political films; others, such as Éric Rohmer and Claude Sautet, made precise portraits of the middle classes. Popular cinema was dominated by policiers starring Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo, many based on real cases, and by broad comedies. A new generation, including Bertrand Blier, Maurice Pialat and Jean Eustache, brought a rougher, franker tone.
Le Cercle rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970)
An escaped prisoner, a released convict and an alcoholic former policeman plan a jewel robbery in the Place Vendôme. The heist is filmed in near silence for half an hour.
Le Boucher (Claude Chabrol, 1970)
In a village in the Dordogne, a schoolteacher befriends the local butcher while young women are being murdered nearby. Stéphane Audran and Jean Yanne, in Chabrol's finest thriller.
Le Genou de Claire (Éric Rohmer, 1970)
A diplomat on holiday by Lake Annecy becomes obsessed with touching the knee of a teenage girl. One of Rohmer's Six Moral Tales, all talk and summer light.
Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, 1972)
Six friends try to have dinner together and are constantly interrupted, by soldiers, dreams and death. Oscar for best foreign-language film.
La Maman et la Putain (Jean Eustache, 1973)
A young man without work, Jean-Pierre Léaud, lives with one woman and courts two others in post-1968 Paris. Three and a half hours of talk, and one of the great French films.
La Nuit américaine (François Truffaut, 1973)
The shooting of a film in the Victorine studios in Nice, with Truffaut as the director. A love letter to filmmaking. Oscar for best foreign-language film.
Lacombe Lucien (Louis Malle, 1974)
A peasant boy turned away by the Resistance joins the Gestapo's French auxiliaries in 1944. Controversial, troubling and honest.
Céline et Julie vont en bateau (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
Two young women in Paris discover a haunted house where the same melodrama plays out every day. Playful and very long.
Les Valseuses (Bertrand Blier, 1974)
Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere as two delinquents on the road. A huge hit and a deliberate provocation.
Flic Story (Jacques Deray, 1975)
Alain Delon as inspector Roger Borniche, hunting the gangster Émile Buisson, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant. A solid true-crime policier.
Le Vieux Fusil (Robert Enrico, 1975)
A surgeon, played by Philippe Noiret, takes revenge on the German soldiers who massacred his family in 1944. Winner of the first César for best film.
La Cage aux folles (Édouard Molinaro, 1978)
A gay couple running a Saint-Tropez nightclub try to look respectable for their son's future in-laws. Remade in Hollywood as The Birdcage.
Where to go next
Continue with the best French films of the 1980s, or go back to the 1960s.