French film photo galley for 1940

French films of the 1940s

Panique (1947)

After his largely lacklustre stint in Hollywood during World War II, Julien Duvivier returned to France a changed man, and this is clearly reflected in his first French film after the war, Panique. Disillusioned with the mawkish tendency of American cinema, with its obligatory "Happy End", Divivier set out to make a film that better reflected the times he lived in... [More...]

Paris 1900 (1947)

One of the most important documentary films made in France, Paris 1900 vividly conveys the mood of a world in transition, from the exuberance of the belle époque to the shattering folly of world war. Although much of material in the film is trivial (tastes in fashion, the pastimes of the wealthy elite, and such like)... [More...]

Quai des Orfèvres (1947)

After his three year suspension following the storm that his earlier film, Le Corbeau , unleashed, Clouzot returned to French cinema with a magnificently crafted detective thriller, Quai des Orfèvres. Strong characterisation, tight plotting and moody photography are the strongest traits in Clouzot’s cinema... [More...]

Le Silence est d'or (1947)

The film that marked René Clair’s long-awaited return to French cinema after his brief "exile" in the United States, Le silence est d’or is widely regarded as one of his best works, and probably his most touching. The conflict between the stirrings of the heart and the constraints of loyalty, the age-old dilemma of love versus friendship... [More...]

Anna Karenina (1948)

One of the most ambitious film productions of Tolstoy’s celebrated novel is this version starring the iconic actress Vivien Leigh and directed by the great French film director Julien Duvivier. This was Duvivier’s only British film, although he also made several other... [More...]

D'homme à hommes (1948)

Christian-Jaque’s account of the life of Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, is a masterful composition, meriting a place amongst the director’s best works and a must-see film for anyone interested in the life of arguably the greatest humanist that ever lived. The part of Dunant is played to perfection by Jean-Louis Barrault... [More...]

Dédée d'Anvers (1948)

Simone Signoret gives a notable performance in this atmospheric French film noir, which was directed by her husband at the time, Yves Allégret. The seemingly vulnerable woman with a hard interior and a nasty streak of malice is the character that Signoret plays particularly well, here as in so many subsequent films (notably Couzot’s Les Diaboliques)... [More...]

L'Armoire volante (1948)

Fernandel may be one of the best-loved figures in French cinema but even his most ardent admirers have to admit that the majority of his films are mediocre, shallow vehicles to showcase their star performer, of limited appeal to general film enthusiasts. A few of Fernandel’s films, however, stand out and are not only superlative examples of French cinema... [More...]

L'Aigle à deux têtes (1948)

Political intrigue and 19th century romanticism form the basis for this haunting tale of love from one of France’s greatest creative talents, Jean Cocteau. The film was adapted from a successful stage play of the same name which Cocteau staged in 1946 with the same cast. The story was inspired by the mysterious death of King Louis II of Bavaria... [More...]

La Belle meunière (1948)

La Belle meunière is Marcel Pagnol’s heartfelt tribute to the work of Franz Schubert, a composer he greatly admired. It has not only the distinction of being Pagnol’s sole colour film but also the only film made with the revolutionary Roux Color system, invented by the brothers Lucien and Armand Roux... [More...]

Les Dernières vacances (1948)

Les Dernières vacances was the first of only two full-length films to be directed by the writer and critic Roger Leenhardt (the other being the 1961 film Le Rendez-vous de minuit). An auteur in the truest sense of the word, Leenhardt has an approach to film-making which is very suggestive of the French New Wave of the late 1950s... [More...]

Les Parents terribles (1948)

Whilst Jean Cocteau is generally best remembered for his extraordinary artistic flights of fancy (amply illustrated by his 1946 film La Belle et la bête), he was also remarkably adept at handling more down-to-earth subjects, particularly those involving the darker side of human experience. His most notable success in the latter was his play “Les parents terribles” which... [More...]

Au-delà des grilles (1949)

Au-delà des grilles was an early international success for René Clément, who had previously distinguished himself in his native France with La Bataille du rail (1946), and who would achieve further success with films such as Jeux interdits (1951), Gervaise (1956) and Plein Soleil (1960). The film won an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category in 1950... [More...]

Entre onze heures et minuit (1949)

Although the crime thriller had not yet achieved the popularity in France which it would in the following decade, the 1940s was really where the genre had its origins. At the time few French films attained the calibre of the American film noir classics which film directors were keen to emulate, but a few have stood the test of time and remain excellent examples of the early crime thriller... [More...]

Fabiola (1949)

Fabiola is among the earliest and best of the big budget Roman spectacle film which became popular both in Hollywood and European cinema in the late 1950s, and which has enjoyed a recent revival in the shape of the American blockbuster Gladiator. Whilst it lacks the gloss and extravagance of such films as Ben-Hur, Fabiola fares much better in other areas... [More...]

Jour de fête (1949)

Jacques Tati’s first full-length film, Jour de fête paints a beautifully evocative and detailed picture of life in a provincial French town just after the War. The film is actually a longer version of an earlier Tati film, L’école des facteurs and is notable for a number of reasons. Primarily, the film established Tati as one of the great comic legends of French... [More...]

La Marie du port (1949)

After the commercial failure of Les Portes de la nuit (1949) and the abandonment of Fleur de l’Age, director Marcel Carné soon made a return to form with this suspenseful adaptation of a Georges Simenon novel. The film marks another promising comeback – that of Jean Gabin after service in World War II and an unsuccessful attempt to break into American cinema... [More...]

Le Silence de la Mer (1949)

This was the first notable film from Jean-Pierre Melville, a director who would establish himself as the master of the French crime thriller genre in the 1950s and 1960s. Despite its low budget (most of the film taking place in one room with three characters), this is a compelling film which makes a powerful anti-war statement in the most subtle way imaginable.... [More...]

Occupe-toi d'Amélie (1949)

Possibly the most inspired screen adaptation of a Feydeau farce, Claude Autant-Lara’s Occupe-toi d’Amélie is unquestionably one of the highpoints of 1940s French cinema, a brisk and hilarious piece of anti-bourgeois satire that is as fresh and entertaining today as it was when it was made. Ebullient performances from a very distinguished cast (headed by the magnificent... [More...]

Orphée (1949)

In this film, which can best be described as visual poetry, Jean Cocteau retells the familiar tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, but in a original and fascinating way. Death is represented by an alluring princess in a tight-fitting black dress, chauffered in a Rolls Royce limousine and served by leather-clad motorcyclists. The afterlife is a vista of decaying buildings beneath a pall of starless... [More...]

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