French film photo galley for 1950

French films of the 1950s

Gervaise (1956)

This heart-rending adaptation of Emile Zola’s novel L’Assomoir is widely regarded as one of director René Clément’s best films, and it is unquestionably one of his most poignant and intense works. Clément’s almost unique neo-realist style (similar to that employed in his previous tear-jerker Jeux interdits) is perfectly suited to this dark poem... [More...]

Honoré de Marseille (1956)

One of Fernandel’s better comic outings, Honoré de Marseille is tailor-made for the horse-faced comedian and gives him ample opportunity to regale us with his talent for no-nonsense, inoffensive comedy. There are some very funny jokes, and a wonderful piece of slapstick with Francis Blanche. A number of cheerful musical numbers sung by the film’s star also add greatly to... [More...]

La Traversée de Paris (1956)

The bringing together of two great comic actors of the calibre of Jean Gabin and Bourvil could not fail to be great success, but this film surpasses the audience’s expectations by several hundred kilometres. For both actors, this is a real tour de force. Bourvil is the hapless stooge to Gabin’s outrageously forceful character... [More...]

Le Couturier de ces dames (1956)

The incomparable – and still enormously popular – Fernandel finally finds his match in the form of Suzy Delair in this low-brow but hugely entertaining farce. A popular actor and singer in the 1940s, Suzy Delair has a screen presence that equals that of Fernandel, and it is indeed a rare treat to see two such equally matched comic performers laying into each other with the vigour... [More...]

Le Mystère Picasso (1956)

In 1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot had the idea for making an unusual documentary about the legendary artist Picasso. It is intriguing to speculate how the film might have developed, given Clouzot’s mastery of the suspense thriller genre. When the two great men met, the film Clouzot had envisaged took a spectacularly different turn... [More...]

Si Paris nous était conté (1956)

Often cited as one of Sacha Guitry’s best films, with a cast list most directors can only dream of, Si Paris nous était conté aims to tell the story of Paris through a series of sketches which range from burlesque comedy to poignant drama. The style of the film is similar to Guitry’s previous historical romp... [More...]

Sous le ciel de Provence (1956)

This lesser-known Fernandel comedy is a respectable remake of the classic Italian 1943 film, Four Steps in the Clouds, set in the south of France. The rich colour photography conveys the stereotypical view of Provence, reminding us (as does the plot) of Marcel Pagnol’s rural dramas of the 1930s and 1940s. With a well-written script... [More...]

Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (1956)

Although it has some fierce competition, this is probably the best film made by French film director Robert Bresson. It somehow encapsulates every element of Bresson’s unique kind of cinema at the same time as being one of the most compelling and beautiful films ever made. The story is based on the real-life memoirs of a French Lieutenant... [More...]

Voici le temps des assassins... (1956)

A satisfying blend of melodrama, film noir and suspense thriller, Voici le temps des assassins is amongst Julien Duvivier’s best films. When he was a film critic, François Truffaut cited the film as the director’s best work. It is interesting to compare this film, and others of this period, with Duvivier’s earlier films from the 1930s... [More...]

À pied, à cheval et en voiture (1957)

Popular comedy actor Noël-Noël gives an ebullient performance in this witty if somewhat run-of-the-mill comedy from the late 1950s. The jokes and plot are painfully predictable, but the film does feature a number of memorable visual gags. The film’s appeal to French film enthusiasts may have more to do with the anarchic contributions from some very talented young actors at... [More...]

Assassins et voleurs (1957)

Sacha Guitry was on his deathbed when he wrote and directed Assassins et voleurs, his last film. Guitry’s caustic wit and penchant for irony are very much in evidence and whilst the film is not one of his best, it is certainly one of his most entertaining. The film owes much to the enjoyable pairing of Jean Poiret with Michel Serrault... [More...]

Celui qui doit mourir (1957)

Celui qui doit mourir was the second film that director Jules Dassin made in France – after the influential noir masterpiece Du rififi chez les homes (1955). At the time, Dassin was effectively forced into exile in Europe to escape anti-Communist persecution that was rampant across the United States in the 1950s... [More...]

Ces dames préfèrent le mambo (1957)

Eddie Constantine stars in this somewhat lacklustre pastiche of film noir and American-style action/adventure, a formula that was hugely popular in France in the 1950s. Having played the redoubtable FBI agent Lemmy Caution in a dozen or so similar films, Eddie Constantine became one of the biggest stars in French cinema... [More...]

Jusqu'au dernier (1957)

The 1950s was when French film noir was in its heyday. The genre was both remarkably popular in France and occupied a dominant place in French cinema of this decade. Jusqu’au dernier is one film which epitomises the best and the worst of the French film noir, an almost slavish pastiche of the American gangster film... [More...]

L'Homme à l'imperméable (1957)

In this liberal adaptation of a James Hadley Chase novel, director Julien Duvivier and screenwriter René Barjavel sought to emulate the style of the American and British comedy thrillers, which were then very popular in France. The film’s comic element relies almost entirely on its star, the incomparable Fernandel... [More...]

Le Chômeur de Clochemerle (1957)

With its colourful characters, sunny rural setting and distinctive lead actors (Fernandel, Ginette Leclerc and Rellys), Le Chômeur de Clochemerle is immediately evocative of the films of Marcel Pagnol. It is certainly a very different kind of film to the boisterous farces and musical extravaganzas for which director Jean Boyer is best remembered... [More...]

Le Rouge est mis (1957)

Jean Gabin and Lino Ventura are reunited for the fourth time in as many years in this standard 1950s French thriller. The film was based on a novel by the popular série noir writer Auguste Le Breton, whose works were frequently adapated for French cinema. The characters, the scenario and the dialogue is all familiar stuff... [More...]

Les Espions (1957)

Henri-Georges Clouzot followed his masterful and hugely successful suspense thriller Les Diaboliques (1955) with this perplexing parody thriller, a far less satisfactory work that proved to be something of a commercial embarrassment. Despite a remarkable international cast – which includes Peter Ustinov and Curd Jürgens... [More...]

Les Mistons (1957)

François Truffaut’s first commercial film Les Mistons marks a definitive turning point in French cinema history. By the mid to late 1950s, the French cinema industry had become regimented and standardised, stuck in a rut with its conformity, lack of diversity and over-reliance on star names. Les Mistons heralded a much needed return to the age of the free-thinking independent... [More...]

Les Aventures d'Arsène Lupin (1957)

A colourful and whimsical film, Les Aventures d’Arsène Lupin is Jacques Becker’s attempt to shed some light on the mystery of the great hero of French detective fiction from the pen of Maurice Leblanc. The result is a fairly satisfying film in some ways, but the character of Lupin is, if anything, undermined by Becker’s attempt to rationalise his thinking and methods... [More...]

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