French film photo galley for 1920

French films of the 1920s

Verdun, visions d'histoire (1928)

1928 was a year of optimism in Europe. Ten years after the end of the First World War, the spirit of Franco-German reconciliation was in the air and both countries were looking forward to a future of peace and prosperity. As part of the tenth anniversary celebration of the signing of the 1918 Armistice, a series of films were commissioned... [More...]

Le Bled (1929)

Jean Renoir’s final silent film is this rather ordinary but nonetheless watchable mix of melodrama and comedy, which reflects the French cinema-going appetite at the time for comforting dramas in exotic colonial settings. The film was commissioned by the French government to commemorate the centenary of France’s conquest of Algeria in 1830... [More...]

Les Mystères du château de Dé (1929)

The most well-known film from the great surrealist artist Man Ray, Les Mystères du château de Dé is a hauntingly evocative poem to the transitory nature of life and a reminder of the role that chance plays in the grand scheme of things. The film includes some memorable surrealist touches (including the opening shot of the dice in the mannequin’s hands and the fact... [More...]

Monte Cristo (1929)

The last of the great super-productions of the silent era, Henri Fescourt’s Monte Cristo is easily one of cinema’s best, if not the best, adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ celebrated novel. The artistic quality and scale of the film are breathtaking: this is the silent film at its most ambitious, most perfect... [More...]

Un chien andalou (1929)

Through a series of disturbing and perplexing images in which the banal encounters the bizarre, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí propel us through their nightmare world of surrealist fantasy. A film which Buñuel’s insisted defied rational explanation both captivates and shocks its audience. It is a world of pure imagination and creative genius... [More...]

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