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French Classics
From the New Wave to poetic realism and cinéma vérité, French cinema takes many forms and offers endless delights.
Our subscription collection serves up the perfect primer, featuring undisputed masterpieces and provocative classics.
A Century of French CinemaA Century of French Cinema
Documentary199550 minsDirector: Anne-Marie Miéville and Jean-Luc Godard
Six regions, six films appraised for cultural and historical meaning. Produced by Jean-Luc Godard.
Breathless [À bout de souffle]Breathless [À bout de souffle]
Film noir196090 minsDirector: Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard’s extraordinary debut feature, an insouciant and iconoclastic crime film that paved the way for the French New Wave.
La Belle et la BêteLa Belle et la Bête
Fantasy194695 minsDirector: Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau’s ravishingly restored 1946 film is a cinematic classic. “Five stars. [This] magical exploration of the fairytale is a compelling and bizarre masterpiece” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Celine and Julie Go BoatingCeline and Julie Go Boating
Drama1974194 minsDirector: Jacques Rivette
Jacques Rivette’s biggest commercial hit is an exhilarating combination of theatricality, paranoia and ‘la vie parisienne’, around an entrancing examination of making and watching films.
Chronicle of a SummerChronicle of a Summer
Documentary196190 minsDirector: Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin
The hugely influential and ground-breaking documentary film from filmmaker-anthropologist Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin.
DelicatessenDelicatessen
Comedy1990100 minsDirector: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Jeunet and Caro's endlessly inventive and wildly enjoyable post-apocalyptic black comedy, about a sinister butcher and the circus clown who becomes his nemesis.
Eden and AfterEden and After
Animation & Artists Moving Image196998 minsDirector: Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet’s sensual fantasy follows a group of students who enter a bizarre sado-masochistic realm after taking a mysterious drug.
Les Enfants TerriblesLes Enfants Terribles
Drama1949106 minsDirector: Jean-Pierre Melville
Jean-Pierre Melville’s film of Jean Cocteau's controversial novel about a teenage brother and sister and their intense, closeted relationship.
The Immortal OneThe Immortal One
Drama1962101 minsDirector: Alain Robbe-Grillet
The debut feature from famed novelist and screenwriter Alain Robbe-Grillet is a daring examination of fantasy and memory set in Turkey.
Le MéprisLe Mépris
Drama1963103 minsDirector: Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard conducts an autopsy of love and the creative process, as a boorish film producer dismantles a seemingly strong marriage.
MaitresseMaitresse
Drama1976113 minsDirector: Barbet Schroeder
Gerard Depardieu plays the young innocent who falls for the mysterious maitresse Ariane (Bulle Ogier), a leather clad dominatrix, in Barbet Schroeder’s controversial film.
The Man Who LiesThe Man Who Lies
Drama196893 minsDirector: Alain Robbe-Grillet
Jean-Louis Trintignant is the mysterious stranger who arrives in a French village claiming to be an old comrade of a local resistance hero, in Alain Robbe-Grillet’s piercing fable of war-time myth and memory.
MoreMore
Drama1969116 minsDirector: Barbet Schroeder
The first feature by Barbet Schroeder (Maîtresse, The Valley), More created a sensation when it was released in 1969, quickly becoming a cult classic and famed for its Pink Floyd soundtrack.
OrphéeOrphée
Drama195096 minsDirector: Jean Cocteau
Magical retelling of the Orpheus myth by poet, playwright, artist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau.
Partie de campagnePartie de campagne
Period drama193639 minsDirector: Jean Renoir
On a country picnic, a young girl leaves her family for a while and succumbs to an all-too-brief romance in Jean Renoir's sensuous tribute to the countryside.
La Règle du jeuLa Règle du jeu
Drama1939102 minsDirector: Jean Renoir
Renoir's depiction of an intransigent society teetering towards disaster was derided upon release and only later acclaimed as one of cinema’s most vital films.
Successive Slidings of PleasureSuccessive Slidings of Pleasure
Drama1974106 minsDirector: Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet’s serpentine erotic mystery presented as a surreal investigation into a woman with feared sexual powers.
Trans-Europ-ExpressTrans-Europ-Express
Thriller196695 minsDirector: Alain Robbe-Grillet
This stylish, cult 1966 erotic thriller stars French New Wave icons Jean-Louis Trintigant and Marie-France Pisier.
Two in the WaveTwo in the Wave
Documentary200992 minsDirector: Emmanuel Laurent
Jean Luc-Godard and Francois Truffaut: the story of a friendship, a break-up and the birth of a new cinematic movement that would sweep the world.
The Valley (Obscured by Clouds)The Valley (Obscured by Clouds)
Drama1972105 minsDirector: Barbet Schroeder
Different worlds collide when a chic young diplomat's wife meets an intriguing adventurer and his hippy friends in Barbet Schroeder's striking second feature.