French cinema recommendations

[st.cronin]

I'm trying to learn French, and I'm putting netflix to work in this project. Any recommendations on French language films?

I'd especially like to hear from French speakers, I know there's a few on here.

[Karlifornia]

Man Bites Dog. End of discussion.

[sabotai]

Les Veux sans Visage (Eyes Without a Face). 1962 French horror movie.

Edit: Haute Tension (High Tension), 2003 French horror movie.

[Izulde]

Sade, the French version naturally, with Isild Le Bosco (sp)
Water Drops On Burning Rocks, with Ludivine Sagnier.
-Okay, not really. This movie actually sucks hardcore with the exception of Ludivine's best attributes :D

I'll look through the rest of my collection for recommendations.

[BrianD]

Just curious, but how would listening to the French language track on a random DVD work for something like this?

[st.cronin]

Just curious, but how would listening to the French language track on a random DVD work for something like this?

By itself it probably wouldn't work. This is sort of a supplement. I don't know how much it will help, but it surely can't hurt.

[BrianD]

By itself it probably wouldn't work. This is sort of a supplement. I don't know how much it will help, but it surely can't hurt.

Do you already know some amount of French, or is this going to be your main teaching tool?

[FF]

please please please consider watching any film by jean luc godard. the french new wave was one of the biggest movements in film and im in love with every godard film ive seen.

[st.cronin]

Do you already know some amount of French, or is this going to be your main teaching tool?

I have some cds I'm listening to in my car, plus a text I'm about 4 chapters into. Those are my primary tools.

[sabotai]

Just curious, but how would listening to the French language track on a random DVD work for something like this?

Watch a scene and see how much of it you understand, rewatch with subtitles on to see how close you were. Or, you can watch with French subtitles on and be able to see the words and hear how they are spoken "in the real world".

Things of that nature. If you are creative or resourceful, you can pretty much turn anything into a teaching aid.

[Critch]

Man Bites Dog. End of discussion.

Great movie, worth watching. I'm not sure how good it would be for learning French though, as it's not a French movie, it's Belgian. Belgian French is apparently close to French, but with pronunciation differences and extra Dutch-based words thrown in.

I havent watched a lot of foreign cinema in the last 10 years, but I remember Cyrano De Bergerac with Gerard Depardieu as being great. Betty Blue was great in that it was dirty but arty, so you could perv out and still pretend to be an intellectual.

edit - forgot Delicatessen. Another good French movie of the 1980's, strange.

[st.cronin]

Watch a scene and see how much of it you understand, rewatch with subtitles on to see how close you were. Or, you can watch with French subtitles on and be able to see the words and hear who they are spoken "in the real world".

Things of that nature. If you are creative or resourceful, you can pretty much turn anything into a teaching aid.

I think it will also help tremendously with pronunciation.

So far on my queue I have the following:

Boyfriends and Girlfriends
Man Bites Dog
Red
White
Blue
And God Created Woman
The Girl in the Bikini
Eyes Without a Face
High Tension

[Simms]

Jésus de Montréal (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097635/)

Was nominated for Best Foreign Language film. Great movie, even if you're not religious, but it is French-Canadian, if that makes a difference to you (same language, different dialect).

[Honolulu_Blue]

Amelie.
The City of Lost Children.
Le Femme Nikita.
Queen Margot.

[flere-imsaho]

Jésus de Montréal (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097635/)

Just wanted to add that this is, in fact, an excellent film.

[Desnudo]

Emmanuelle

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071464/

[Karlifornia]

Great movie, worth watching. I'm not sure how good it would be for learning French though, as it's not a French movie, it's Belgian. Belgian French is apparently close to French, but with pronunciation differences and extra Dutch-based words thrown in.

I havent watched a lot of foreign cinema in the last 10 years, but I remember Cyrano De Bergerac with Gerard Depardieu as being great. Betty Blue was great in that it was dirty but arty, so you could perv out and still pretend to be an intellectual.

edit - forgot Delicatessen. Another good French movie of the 1980's, strange.

oops...my bad. Nevermind, then

[duff88]

If you enjoy sports movies:

Maurice Richard

[thesloppy]

Bob Le Flambeur
The Battle of Algiers
Touchez Pas au Grisbi
Rififi

[Groundhog]

I saw a French film named "Barracuda" one night on TV, and it was freaky as hell. Been trying to track down a subtitled version of it for nearly a decade now.

[st.cronin]

Emmanuelle

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071464/

Seen it. :D

[lcjjdnh]

Au revoir les enfants is a classic. Also, le Diner de Cons (also known as the Dinner Game) is hilarious.

[cthomer5000]

definitely Amelie, and the Blue/White/Red trilogy is solid, though one of the movies is predominantly in Polish if i recall correctly.

edit: White is the one with a lot of screen time in Polish.

[Mr. Wednesday]

I'll third Amelie.

Brotherhood of the Wolf is a cool French action movie (with bonus Monica Bellucci titties).

[Anguscl]

The Dinner Game is a pretty funny french farce. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119038/

And you should see it in french before the english remake 'Dinner for Schmucks' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427152/ makes it way to theatres in '08

[cartman]

Baise Moi is another one to check out

[cartman]

I think it will also help tremendously with pronunciation.

Dola,

Only you will think you have good pronunciation. Trying to speak good French in France when you aren't a mother tongue speaker is a futile effort. :D

[Coder]

I'd like to chime in and say that this is an excellent supplement to learning a language by studying. I dare say that I'm fluent in English, both as far as speaking and reading/writing goes.

In Sweden, we have subtitles on all television shows and movies, so we "hear" English being spoken just about every day. Without it, I'm positive my English would have been terrible.

[BreizhManu]

Ok I'm going to use the french titles, might be easier for you to find :D

"C'est arrive pres de chez vous" (Man bites dog) is worth watching and despite being from belgium there are no special words.
"Jesus de Montreal" and any other canadian movie (e.g : "le declin de l'empire americain") are great but too hard to understand for a non french speaker, sometimes eve for a french one.

Movies by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet are good choices : "Delicatessen", "La Cite des enfants perdus" and "La fabuleuse histoire d'Amelie Poulain".

"Bleu", "Blanc", "Rouge" are interesting too.

You could also try to watch movies from the Nouvelle Vague, my favorite ones are from Francois Truffaut ("La Nuit Americaine", "A Bout de Souffle", "Les 400 coups", "Le dernier Metro", "Jules et Jim").

Movies by Robert Guediguian are great, still there is the accent from the south (all movies talk about marseille) : "Marius et Jeannette", "La ville est tranquille" (very very dark movie), "Marie-Jo et ses deux amours".

Also movies by Bertrand Blier even if they might be hard to understand because of the use of their own argot (slang) still movies like "Les valseuses" (first movie with Depardieu and Dewaere) "Buffet Froid" "1,2,3 Soleil" are really good.

Finally my two favorite french directors :

- Bertrand Tavernier, he makes movies like documentary usually on a specific subject "L.627" is about the police (fucking great movie, I doesn't look like the US TV shows at all), "Ca commence aujourd'hui" (about schools), "Capitaine Conan" (great movie about WW1), "Que la fete commence" (cynical movie about the regency), "Le Juge et L'assassin" (a serial killer in the 19th century), "L'appat".

- Claude Chabrol, he often makes movies to criticize the bourgeoisie. "La Ceremonie", "Le Boucher", "Que la bete meure", "Violette Noziere", "L'enfer" are classics.

Adding to the list movies written by the duo Bacri-Jaoui : "Un air de famille", "On connait la chanson".

You can also look for movies based on actors then I'd recommend Isabelle Huppert (always great), Sandrine Bonnaire, Patrick Dewaere, Francois Cluzet, Jean-Pierre Darroussin etc...

Good luck.

[Dunleavy]

The Valet looks good but i dont think it's out yet

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x_4KXH-AUGY

[JeeberD]

Water Drops On Burning Rocks, with Ludivine Sagnier.
-Okay, not really. This movie actually sucks hardcore with the exception of Ludivine's best attributes :D


I've never heard of her, but after a quick jaunt through Google I must say her her attributes are indeed excellent!

[Critch]

"C'est arrive pres de chez vous" (Man bites dog) is worth watching and despite being from belgium there are no special words.

Well if that's the case, then I agree with Karlifornia. Man Bites Dog is the movie to choose.

If there's ever been a better Belgian movie, then I haven't seen it.

[BreizhManu]

If there's ever been a better Belgian movie, then I haven't seen it.

Movies from the Dardenne brothers are good too, especially "Rosetta".

[cuervo72]

If you like Audrey Tautou, there is a nice scene in Le Libertin...