French film photo galley for 1950

French films of the 1950s

Un drôle de dimanche (1958)

This highly entertaining sentimental comedy provides a veritable conflux for some of the finest talent in French cinema, which includes Bourvil, Arletty, Danielle Darrieux and Jean-Paul Belmondo. All four actors are on fine form and the film itself is a pleasing mélange of drama and comedy, sometimes intensely poignant... [More...]

125 rue Montmartre (1959)

Lino Ventura gives one of his legendary tour de force performances in this intricate mystery-thriller, a compelling film which appears to have been influenced by both American film noir and the work of Alfred Hitchcock. This is one of the better films to be directed by Gilles Grangier, who is perhaps best known for his light-hearted comedies... [More...]

À bout de souffle (1959)

This is arguably one of the dozen or so most influential films of the twentieth century. The contrast with everything that went before A bout de souffle is stunning, in terms of plot structure, content, direction and camera work. This is Jean-Luc Godard at his most anarchistic, although – ironically – the film begins as what appears to be a conventional gangster film... [More...]

À double tour (1959)

Claude Chabrol’s third film shows a marked departure from his two earlier films, Le Beau Serge and Les Cousins. For one thing, it is his first film to be made in colour, but, more significantly, it is his first attempt at a psychological thriller. Whilst not as polished as Chabrol’s later works in this genre... [More...]

Archimède, le clochard (1959)

Jean Gabin is on fine comic form in this charming but easily forgettable comedy-drama. Here he plays the third kind of role for which is best known. After the romantic hero and the tough patriarch, Gabin’s third screen persona was that of a proud but loveable past-retirement outsider. Whilst it rarely gave Gabin the opportunity to show his true talents as an actor... [More...]

Asphalte (1959)

Towards the end of the 1950s, French cinema had, to a large extent, become stale and predictable, consisting mainly of American-inspired thrillers, stodgy historical dramas, twee melodramas and uninspired low-budget comedies. This particular applecart of lukewarm mediocrity was on the verge of being kicked over and trodden into the ground by a new generation of filmmaker which was determined... [More...]

Babette s'en va-t-en guerre (1959)

This good-humoured wartime comedy was directed by Christian-Jaque, who is probably best known for his historical adventure films Fanfan la Tulipe (1952) and La Tulipe noire (1964). Producer Raoul Lévy initially offered the directing job to Roger Vadim, but he declined when Martine Carol turned down the leading role and was replaced by Brigitte Bardot... [More...]

Des femmes disparaissent (1959)

It’s hard to believe but Edouard Molinaro, the director of such classic comedies as La Cage aux folles (1978), Hibernatus (1969) and L’Emmerdeur (1973) first cut his teeth as a director with anodyne crime dramas such as this. Des femmes disparaissent is a typical French 1950s thriller, an all too obvious imitation of the American gangster movie... [More...]

Deux hommes dans Manhattan (1959)

Jean-Pierre Melville was the French director who was most successful in transposing the American film noir genre to European cinema, and Deux hommes dans Manhattan is the film which shows its American roots most clearly. The film is set in New York, the dialogue is half English, half French, and most of the cast (excluding the lead characters) are American actors... [More...]

Ein Engel auf Erden (1959)

One of the lesser works from Hungarian filmmaker Géza von Radványi, Ein Engel auf Erden is an absurd fantasy comedy that is memorable only for its cast, which includes some of the best loved actors in French cinema – most of whom were at an early stage in their career. At the time she made this film... [More...]

Hiroshima mon amour (1959)

This is an exceptional film, marking Alain Resnais’ debut as a film director, after a decade of producing eye-opening short documentaries. Indeed, Hiroshima mon amour started out as a documentary about the reconstruction of Hiroshima, and the first fifteen minutes of the film uses documentary footage to great effect to set the scene... [More...]

Le Signe du lion (1959)

Eric Rohmer’s first full length film is this tragicomic tale of one man’s spiral descent into poverty and isolation. Whilst the film shows Rohmer’s inexperience as a filmmaker too clearly and also suffers from some quite obvious flaws – most notably the awkward references to astrology and preordained fate... [More...]

La Femme et le pantin (1959)

La Femme et le Pantin is Julien Duvivier’s spirited but ultimately doomed attempt to update Pierre Louÿs’s raunchy erotic novel of 1898. It is a minor footnote in the career of the great director but illustrates his determination to try to keep up with the times and defy his critics,... [More...]

La Jument verte (1959)

A few years after their successful collaboration on La Traversée de Paris (1956), director Claude Autant-Lara and the popular comic actor Bourvil worked together on this light-hearted farce, based on a best-selling novel by Marcel Aymé. One of Autant-Lara’s more cheerful films, La Jument verte benefits from an exceptionally talented cast... [More...]

La Fièvre monte à El Pao (1959)

A comparatively obscure entry in the Buñuel canon, La Fièvre monte à El Pao certainly does not show the director at his best. Despite some memorable moments (most notably the film’s final five minutes) and commendable acting (particularly from an exceptional María Félix), the film is ponderous and lacking in drama and tension... [More...]

La Vache et le prisonnier (1959)

This is a moving tale about one man’s unceasing initiative and stoical determination to regain his freedom in the face of overwhelming odds – clearly a metaphor for France’s struggle for freedom during the Nazi Occupation. That man is played by Fernandel, one of the true legends of French cinema, better known for his comic roles... [More...]

Le Chemin des écoliers (1959)

Le Chemin des écoliers isn’t so much a film as a head-spinning confluence of some of the most impressive acting talent in French cinema in the late 1950s. Established stars Bourvil and Françoise Arnoul find themselves in the midst of a veritable cavalcade of up-and-coming talent, in the form of Lino Ventura... [More...]

Le Grand chef (1959)

After their great success as Don Damillo and Peppone in the Don Camillo films of the 1950s, Fernandel and Gino Cervi are reunited in this unadventurous little comedy. Although there are a couple of very funny sequences in this film – notably the routine with the jinxed block of ice – it is by and large a pretty damp offering... [More...]

Le Petit prof (1959)

Popular French comic performer Darry Cowl stars in this routine 1950s comedy, which is really just a series of uninspired sketches cobbled together into a full-length film. It’s pretty anodyne stuff, but some of the visual gags work rather well and there’s a decent turn from the almost mythic comedian Francis Blanche.... [More...]

Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier (1959)

Jean Renoir’s first collaboration with French Television yielded this quirky yet faithful adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In contrast to previous cinematic adaptations of that novel, Renoir sets the story in a contemporary setting (France of the 1950s) and manages to make the good doctor (renamed Cordelier) more... [More...]

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