French film photo galley for 1960

French films of the 1960s

Angélique et le roy (1966)

The third in the series of five films adapted from the stories by Anne et Serge Golon sees Angélique torn between her loyalties to her state (whom she must serve to safeguard her children’s future) and her first husband, whom she believes to be still alive. Whilst the sentiment is steeped a little high, strong performances... [More...]

Au hasard Balthazar (1966)

This is a deeply poignant film. Although Christian imagery is present throughout (particularly towards the end), the film is genuinely moving without being sentimental. The viewer rapidly begins to identify with the donkey Balthazar and to see the world through his eyes. Bresson is uncompromising in the cruelty that is meeted out to the donkey and the main human character... [More...]

Du mou dans la gâchette (1966)

Du mou dans la gâchette is one of a seemingly endless series of very silly gangster thrillers made in France in the 1960s, which sought to capitalise on the success of films such as Les Tontons flingueurs (1963) and Les Barbouzes (1964). Like many films of its ilk, this one is seriously handicapped by a sub-mediocre screenplay that has fewer laughs than a Trappist monk convention and... [More...]

Du rififi à Paname (1966)

Despite its slick presentation and solid acting performances, Du rififi à Paname is a difficult film to like. The heavy plotting and uninspired direction render its complex plot incomprehensible in some places, and shamelessly pedestrian in others. Although the film looks good on the surface, it a challenge for the spectator to stay interested in the drama... [More...]

Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

Fahrenheit 451 is a fairly faithful adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s novel of the same name, and conveys the same message about the value of the written word with as much force and conviction. Unfortunately, the film is very badly let down by some pretty major technical and casting problems. This is the first of Truffaut’s two grand forays into science fiction (the second being a... [More...]

La Bourse et la vie (1966)

An exceptional cast elevates what might have been a routine run-around comedy into an enjoyable romp with wide appeal. Somewhat lighter and far less subversive than some of Jean-Pierre Mocky’s later comedies, this is much more in the vein of the traditional burlesque French comedy, of the kind that drew large cinema audiences in the 1950s and ’60s... [More...]

La Grande vadrouille (1966)

La Grande vadrouille is one of the great comic achievements of French cinema. A magnificent action comedy, it had until very recently the distinction of being the most popular film ever shown in France. Its box office sale of 17 million tickets has only recently been topped by the 1997 American blockbuster Titanic. Even today... [More...]

La Guerre est finie (1966)

The stylish ambiguity and other-worldliness, achieved through some stunning photography, in Resnais’ early films would appear inappropriate for a political thriller. Yet, in La Guerre est finie, Resnais’ most political film, the director applies his unique cinematographic vision to create one of the most startling political films of the Twentieth Century... [More...]

La Prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV (1966)

Commissioned for French television, La Prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV is a historical drama which is much closer to the austere naturalism of Bresson that to the conventional period epic popularised by directors such as Jean Delannoy and Sacha Guitry. With its near-documentary style cinematography, the film attempts to paint an intimate portrait of the life of the Sun King at the start of... [More...]

Le Deuxième souffle (1966)

The familiar Jean-Pierre Melville themes of honour, loyalty and redemption underpin this hard-edged policier which sees the formidable pairing of Lino Ventura and Paul Meurisse, two redoutable heavyweights of French cinema of the 1950s and ’60s, the Golden Age of the French film noir. Although it is similar to many of Melville’s other films (most noticeably Le Samouraï... [More...]

Le Grand restaurant (1966)

Le Grand restaurant is an entertaining and lively action comedy starring popular French comic actor Louis de Funès. The film comes from de Funès’ “golden period”, which includes La Grande Vadrouille (1966) and the Fantômas and Gendarme series. Although the plot and dialogue are less satisfactory than some of de Funès’ other films... [More...]

Le Roi de coeur (1966)

Le Roi de coeur is an amazing film, one of those rare fanciful comedies that dares to tackle a genuine social or political issue and makes its point with a simplicity that is totally effective. This is clearly meant as an anti-war film, and, for all its exuberance and madcap silliness, a pretty effective one at that. No wonder it was a great international success when it was first released... [More...]

Les Créatures (1966)

Les Créatures is the most intriguing work – certainly one of the most provocative - from Agnès Varda, arguably France’s greatest woman filmmaker. The style of the film – in particular its mélange of genres (comedy, thriller, fantasy and eroticism) – mirrors that of Varda’s New Wave contemporaries... [More...]

Les Grandes gueules (1966)

A striking combination of action thriller and sardonic western, Les Grandes gueules is probably the French film that comes closest in style and substance to the tough Hollywood cowboy films of the 1950s and 1960s. With its expansive location photography (which makes the best of the Vosges setting), rough characters and rough-and-tumble set-tos... [More...]

Made in U.S.A. (1966)

Having pretty well deconstructed the American crime thriller in Pierrot le fou, Jean-Luc Godard goes even further with his next policier outing, driving the genre to its absolute limits of abstraction and, in doing so, effectively ending his career as a mainstream film director. Guns, gore and gangsters are just some of the familiar film noir trappings which are woven... [More...]

Masculin, féminin (1966)

This is another exquisitely funny and very stylish piece of cinema from one of France’s greatest directors, Jean-Luc Godard. It is also significant in that it is the first of Godard’s films in which the director directly broaches major political issues of the day. 1965, when the film was made, represented a turning point in French political history... [More...]

Paris brûle-t-il? (1966)

By the time he came to make Paris brûle-t-il?, René Clément was one of the most highly regarded film directors in France. Two of his films had won Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category and a further three had won him awards at the Cannes Film Festival. How better to crown these successes than by directing a blockbuster war film depicting the liberation of Paris... [More...]

Belle de jour (1967)

This is a very unusual film, where the director Luis Bunuel plays intriguing games with one’s notions of normal convention and fantasy. As the film progresses and the viewer is persuaded to accept increasingly unlikely events as reality, the distinction between fantasy and reality is ultimately merged. In the end the viewer is forced to ask a disturbing question... [More...]

Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle (1967)

Jean-Luc Godard’s brilliantly perceptive and eloquent study of social decline in the 1960s remains surprisingly fresh and relevant to today’s generation. The film comes from a period where Godard was beginning to depart from the conventional narrative form to a more abstract, free-flowing form of cinema. Whilst this makes the film less accessible than his earlier works... [More...]

Fantômas contre Scotland Yard (1967)

The third instalment in the 1960s series of Fantômas films sees Louis de Funès and Jean Marais united for the final time in the by now familiar blend of slapstick comedy and crime thriller. Although marginally better than the previous two films in a number of areas (notably the plot and the direction), there is little in the way of new material and the kitsch comic strip formula... [More...]

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