French film photo galley for 1980

French films of the 1980s

L'Étoile du Nord (1982)

Pierre Granier-Deferre directs this unusual mix of melodrama and psychological thriller, his fourth adaptation of a work by the great Belgian crime novelist Georges Simenon. Whilst the film manages to capture the unsettling mood of the Simenon novel rather well, it feels badly constructed, particularly in its first half... [More...]

Le Père Noël est une ordure (1982)

One of the most controversial comic films to have been made in France in the 1980s, Le Père Noël est une ordure has since matured (as a fine wine might) into one of that country’s most highly regarded cult classics. Admittedly, the film’s caustic humour is unlikely to appeal to all tastes, and some spectators will undoubtedly be shocked by the grotesquely caricaturised... [More...]

La Balance (1982)

One of the best French crime thrillers of the 1980s, La Balance combines the familiar themes of the traditional film noir (running back forty years) with the modern action thriller. Whilst the film has more than its fair share of violence, it is not, as some have commented, a bland rehash of the worst of American detective television... [More...]

La Nuit de Varennes (1982)

La Nuit de Varennes continues France’s long-standing tradition of quality period drama into the 1980s and offers a compelling portrait of pre-revolutionary France. This big budget Franco-Italian production was directed by notable Italian director, Ettore Scola, and features an all-star cast, with production values that most French film directors in the 1980s could only dream of... [More...]

La Passante du Sans-Souci (1982)

In her final film appearance, Romy Schneider gives one of her finest performances – in fact two performances, since she gets to play two quite different characters caught up in a compelling revenge drama. This was the only film where the actress was able to choose the subject of the film – an adaptation of a novel by Joseph Kessel... [More...]

Le Beau mariage (1982)

The second of Eric Rohmer’s Comédies et proverbes, Le Beau mariage is a wryly satirical romantic comedy where the central heroine, a headstrong middle-class young woman, pursues a mad fantasy to its logical conclusion and ends up humiliating herself. It is perhaps the cruellest of Rohmer’s romantic films... [More...]

Le Choc (1982)

Alain Delon and Catherine Deneuve are reunited for a second time in this big budget crime-thriller, a typical early 1980s French film policier. The two actors had previously appeared together (albeit briefly) in Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1972 film Un flic. There’s not much in the way of originality in Le Choc, in either its script or its presentation... [More...]

Le Grand frère (1982)

In many ways, Le Grand frère, epitomes the French crime thriller of the 1980s – an imaginative plot, charged with gritty realism, spiced up with gratuitous (an generally unnecessary) sex, but let down by some pretty shallow characterisation. Although Gérard Depardieu is well used in this film and he manages to give one of his most sympathetic and believable performances... [More...]

Le Quart d'heure américain (1982)

Despite entertaining performances from lead actors Anémone and Gérard Jugnot, this is a somewhat empty romantic comedy which appears to owe more to low budget American comedies than to French cinema. It is not all bad, however, and some of the comic situations are quite amusing. The film derives its unusual title from the so-called "American hours" at French dance parties in... [More...]

Le Retour de Martin Guerre (1982)

One of the better period dramas of the 1980s, this film is particularly noteworthy because of the exceptional performances of its too stars, Gérard Depardieu and Nathalie Baye. Despite the simplicity of its plot, Le Retour de Martin Guerre makes a compelling film, laden with suspense and intrigue. The quality of the set and costume design is also worth mentioning because these contribute... [More...]

Légitime violence (1982)

Although political thrillers were beginning to get a little passé in France by the 1980s (the genre was at its height in the previous decade), some film directors were still able to use the formula effectively to tell an entertaining story whilst making some valid socio-political observations. Légitime violence is a fairly good example of the 1980s néo-polar... [More...]

Les Fantômes du chapelier (1982)

In this exemplary adaptation of a Georges Simenon novel, director Claude Chabrol creates possibly his darkest and most introspective work, in which he explores some of his favourite themes – most notably the idea of a deadly threat hiding beneath a mask of bourgeois respectability. The film is set in a small Breton village where it appears to rain continually and where the hours of... [More...]

Les Sous-doués en vacances (1982)

After the success of Les Sous-doués , the film which established Daniel Auteuil as a popular comic actor in France, a sequel was more than justified and, if anything, that sequel proved to be better than the first film. Les Sous-doués en vacances is a laugh-a-minute comedy which is replete with visual jokes (the best example probably being the infamous “Jaws” send-up)... [More...]

Ma femme s'appelle reviens (1982)

This bittersweet romantic comedy from director Patrice Leconte would be easily forgotten were it not for the contributions from its two lead actors. Michel Blanc and Anémone have a great on-screen rapport and bring both pathos and humour to their portrayals of two lovelorn individuals. Blanc featured in Leconte’s previous hit ( Les Bronzés... [More...]

Passion (1982)

Depending on your predisposition towards Jean-Luc Godard, or your stamina, this is either an intriguing development of Godard’s art form, challenging the fundamentals of film making, or an absolutely appalling piece of cinema. In a sense, this film illustrates a logical continuation of Godard’s cinema and is no less radical than some of his early New Wave masterpieces... [More...]

Pour 100 briques t'as plus rien... (1982)

Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Jugnot make a terrific comic double act in this inspired thriller parody from director Edouard Molinaro. Whilst the film takes a while to get into its stride – at first the film looks more like a social drama than a comedy - it becomes irresistibly funny once the enterprising duo Sam and Paul start making preparations to rob a bank... [More...]

Tout feu, tout flamme (1982)

Jean-Paul Rappeneau may not be the most prolific of film directors, but his films, when they arrive, at a rate of one or two a decade, are usually hailed with a wave of publicity. This was true of Tout feu, tout flame, Rappeneau’s second and final collaboration with high profile actor-singer Yves Montand; the two men had previously worked together on Le Sauvage (1975)... [More...]

Une chambre en ville (1982)

Genial ce film !!! Chante du debut a la fin, il m’a beaucoup emu je l’ai vu dix fois. J’adore deja les comedies musicales mais tout le temps chante encore plus genial !!! Dans la meme veine que les parapluies de cherbourg (du meme realisateur Jacques Demy), les dialogues chantes style vous ne pourriez pas me preter votre brosse a chaussure... [More...]

Banzaï (1983)

One of the weaker films which Coluche made in his brief but often dazzling film career, Banzai has a few exceptionally funny visual jokes but is overall a pretty mediocre offering. The film’s main plot is too weak to sustain the narrative much beyond the film’s mid-point, by which time decent laughs have become somewhat few and far between... [More...]

Coup de foudre (1983)

With two formidable actresses in the leading roles and a female director, Coup de foudre is a rare French film with a distinctly feminine perspective. This is important because the film is about an intimate, yet platonic, relationship between two women, a theme which is seldom explored as thoroughly and candidly in French cinema... [More...]

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