French film photo galley for 1980

French films of the 1980s

Dernier été (1981)

Robert Guédiguian co-directed this, his first film, with Frank Le Wita. It is set in his hometown of Marseilles, a region which provides the location for virtually all of his films to date. The film combines a familiar film noir plot with a striking social realist perspective, the result being an original, poignant and intensely humanist work... [More...]

Diva (1981)

Visually, this is a stunning piece of cinema – and a great debut for film director Jean-Jacques Beineix. The photography is so fast, energetic and just plain classy that it leaps off the screen and grabs you by the throat. There is an amazing and truly breathtaking chase sequence, which takes in the Paris metro, with some very unusual... [More...]

Eaux profondes (1981)

Although somewhat marred by its jarring excesses (particularly the overuse of music to create and emphasise mood), Eaux profondes is a respectable adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel, painting a disturbing portrait of marital conflict in a seemingly respectable bourgeois setting. The director, Michel Deville, is clearly influenced by the thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock and his French counterpart... [More...]

Est-ce bien raisonnable? (1981)

Compared with some of Georges Lautner’s better known films, Est-ce bien raisonnable? must rate as a pretty minor work, lacking the biting wit, energy and sense of fun of Lautner’s earlier achievements. However, some spirited performances from a talented cast just about make this an attractive and mildly entertaining film... [More...]

Garde à vue (1981)

This brilliantly taut psychological thriller from director Claude Miller features a remarkable confrontation between two leading figures in French cinema, Lino Ventura and Michel Serrault. The minimalist style of the film heightens the tension, and an enigmatic portrayal by Romy Schneider, plus an excellent script, make this a stylish and inspired piece of cinema... [More...]

Hôtel des Amériques (1981)

This is a very atmospheric film exploring the complex and strained relationship between a sucessful, but traumatised middle-aged woman and an unfulfilled and emotionally unbalanced man. Deneuve and Patrick Dewaere are both on fine form, aided by some pretty good dialogue. The film suffers a little from André Téchiné’s slightly detached style of direction... [More...]

L'Année prochaine... si tout va bien (1981)

Although it lacks sparkle and originality, this down-to-earth comedy drama offers an amusing and fairly convincing portrait of two young people coming to terms with their adult responsibilities. The film’s charm stems mainly from the sympathetic performances from Isabelle Adjani and Thierry Lhermitte, both actors showing themselves at their best when they are most restrained and playing... [More...]

La Chèvre (1981)

Having established himself as a screenwriter, responsible for some hugely successful French comic films (including La Cage aux folles) , Francis Veber turned to directing, mainly through frustration at not having enough control over a film once it had gone into production. His second film is significant in that not only was it a huge success and has since become a popular classic... [More...]

La Femme d'à côté (1981)

For his last but one film, François Truffaut returns to a subject which was always close to his heart – the capacity of an intense amorous passion to take over and ultimately wreck the lives of its subjects. It is a theme which he explored brilliantly in his earlier film, Jules et Jim, which is almost universally regarded as one of the best French films ever made... [More...]

La Soupe aux choux (1981)

After the phenomenal success of Le Gendarme et les extra-terrestres (1979), director Jean Girault and comic star Louis de Funès were tempted to revisit the genre of sci-fi spoof with La Soupe aux choux. Both films were part of a craze in the 1970s and early 1980s for UFOs and science-fiction, following on the heels of Steven Spielberg’s box office hit Close Encounters of the... [More...]

Le Choix des armes (1981)

Director Alain Corneau shows consummate mastery of the policier genre in this, his third, crime-thriller. Meticulously plotted, skilfully assembled and wonderfully acted, Le Choix des armes is one of the few French thrillers of the 1980s which respected the rules of the traditional polar and which stands as a fine example of the genre... [More...]

Le Professionnel (1981)

Le Professionnel is a good example of the hard-edged yet overly simplistic 1980s French action thriller. With its beautiful, wistful photography and a haunting musical score, it has an artistic tone which few films of the genre bother with. As in many such films of this period, Le Professionnel has a political sub-text... [More...]

Le Maître d'école (1981)

Coluche is the star of this limp comedy which, despite a few amusing sequences, generally fails to satisfy. Instead of making any meaningful observations on the teaching profession, the film lazily falls back on tired old clichés and doesn’t really have much to offer except for Coluche’s winning deadpan comedy... [More...]

Pétrole! Pétrole! (1981)

One of the few films from director Christian Gion that has just about stood the test of time, Pétrole! Pétrole! is a chaotic comedy inspired by the oil crises of the 1970s. In common with many mainstream French comedies of this period, the film has a tendency for abject silliness of the worse kind, but amid the dross there are one or two decent laughs to be had... [More...]

Psy (1981)

The therapy culture, an emerging phenomenon in France in the late 1970s, is an area which is ripe for satire, and Philipe de Broca’s comedy Psy manages to tap into this rich vein with great success. The film was based on a strip cartoon and this shows in the shallow characterisation and overly far-fetched plot developments... [More...]

Une étrange affaire (1981)

A strange film indeed. By adopting the style if not the substance of a traditional French thriller, this film explores the competing pressures of family and work in modern society. The story should be familiar to anyone who works for a medium-sized company, where certain employees are prepared, or expected, to ditch their home life to advance their careers... [More...]

Viens chez moi, j'habite chez une copine (1981)

Exemplary performances from Michel Blanc and Bernard Giraudeau transform a routine comedy into a delightful comic romp, under the skilful direction of Patrice Leconte. Less anarchic than Leconte’s previous Les Bronzés films, Viens chez moi has the advantage of being somewhat better written and better performed... [More...]

L'As des as (1982)

In a similar vein to Oury’s phenomenally successful 1966 film La Grande vadrouille, L’As des as is a lavish action-comedy set at the time of the Third Reich – this time on the eve of World War II during the Berlin Olympics of 1936. This film is unashamedly aimed at the popular mass market but it is, for all that... [More...]

Deux heures moins le quart avant Jésus-Christ (1982)

Enormously popular in its day, Deux heures moins le quart avant Jésus-Christ proved a successful vehicle for French master of comedy, Coluche. Since its release in the early 1980s, many of the jokes have lost their appeal and there is more than a whiff of political incorrectness about the whole thing. However, it just about passes muster as French cinema’s answer to the Monty... [More...]

Espion, lève-toi (1982)

This film is almost the antidote to the conventional spy thriller movie. It is not quite a spoof, but its intentionally confusing plot developments (none of which are fully explained) and truly bizarre characters makes it a respectable parody of the genre at least. Director Yves Boisset’s mastery of the thriller genre is evident from the very first scene and carries him through the... [More...]

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