French film photo galley for 2000

French films of the 2000s

À l'attaque! (2000)

With such films as Marius et Jeannette (1997) and À la place du coeur (1998), Robert Guédiguian distinguished himself as a very capable film director with a particular talent for portraying the hard lives of working class people with a striking sunny realism. In À l’attaque!, he stays with the same theme but pushes the film squarely into the domain of comedy... [More...]

Amazone (2000)

This sixth collaboration of actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and director Philippe de Broca is one to be avoided at all costs. De Broca’s imagination and energy have clearly been depleted by this stage in his career, although it would take an army of Fellinis to make anything special of the trite nonsense that masquerades as a screenplay... [More...]

Code inconnu (2000)

Code inconnu is the first film to be made in France by German director Michael Haneke and follows the form of his earlier acclaimed film 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance. It makes no sense to look for a coherent narrative in either film. Both use the medium of film in an innovative and daring way to make a very personal expression of the way in which Haneke views the world... [More...]

Épouse-moi (2000)

Épouse-moi marks a promising directorial debut for Harriet Marin – a light romantic comedy with an unusual narrative structure, some quirky humour and a solid performance from the delightful Michèle Laroque. This is the kind of film which will appeal far more to non-French than to French audiences, since it offers the kind of sugary romantic fantasy which tends to enchant... [More...]

Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes (2000)

Freely adapted from an obscure play by the famed German director R.W. Fassbinder (written when he was just 19), Gouttes d’eau sur pierres brûlantes makes a deeply pessimistic yet profoundly incisive study of the destructive power of human sexuality. It was directed by François Ozon, who has achieved international acclaim and celebrity... [More...]

Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien (2000)

One of the French film highlights of the year 2000, Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien is a brilliant combination of black comedy and suspense thriller, two genres which have an enduring popularity in French cinema. The film clearly shows it influence from such sources Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen King, whilst the plot is little more than a clever re-working of Hitchcock’s masterpiece... [More...]

La Confusion des genres (2000)

In spite of its convoluted and implausible plot, La Confusion des genres is an engaging film which offers a perceptive and honest reflection on life, love and sexuality in the kind of totally liberated society in which we now live. This intelligent and well-structured film features a talented cast of actors, including Pascal Greggory whose intense portrayal of the brooding Alain is to be... [More...]

La Fausse suivante (2000)

Benoît Jacquot’s daring adaptation of Marivaux’s 18th Century play was not a great commercial success but it makes an unusual, hugely original transposition of a stage work to the big screen. Taking the principle of minimalism to its limit, all of the action of the film is set in an empty, dimly lit theatre... [More...]

La Veuve de Saint-Pierre (2000)

Patrice Leconte’s most ambitious film to date is this haunting period drama which contrasts the simple humanity of a prison captain’s wife with the brutality of the French legal system on an outpost of the crumbling French Empire. The harsh beauty of the snow-covered landscape provides an appropriate setting for what is at heart a melancholic cry of despair... [More...]

La Ville est tranquille (2000)

In this ambitious living fresco, Robert Guédiguian paints what is probably his grimmest picture of the town of Marseilles. The sunny optimism of his previous films - Marius et Jeannette (1997), À la place du Coeur (1998) – is replaced by a sense of dark irony, and there is noticeably less poetry in his realistic portrayal of ordinary men and women facing up to hardship... [More...]

Le Goût des autres (2000)

The most highly rated French film of the year 2000 was this intelligent romantic comedy which marked the directoral debut for multi-faceted Agnès Jaoui. The film was a hit at the 2001 Césars, winning the best film and best screenplay awards, as well as best supporting actor/actress awards for Gérard Lanvin and Anne Alvaro... [More...]

Le Libertin (2000)

Le Libertin is a daring attempt to combine the lavish historical drama (for which French cinema is particularly renowned) with bawdy farce – a film which would almost certainly have ended up with the title “Carry On Diderot” if it had been made in England. Whilst the film is, overall, entertaining and includes some hilarious set pieces (the ‘pig organ’ being perhaps... [More...]

Le Prince du Pacifique (2000)

Despite its sumptuous location and a budget to match, Le Prince du Pacifique is evidently one of those flashy productions whose appeal evaporates within about five minutes of the opening credits. Alain Corneau’s first attempt at a comedy is a total misfire, let down by a completely chaotic screenplay and some needlessly over-the-top performances from the principal cast (who should know better)... [More...]

Le Roi danse (2000)

Anyone who appreciated Gérard Corbiau’s previous musical extravaganzas Le Maître de musique (1991) and Farinelli (1994) will enjoy his latest overblown music fest, Le Roi danse, a film that purports to tells the true story of the most important French composer of the Baroque era, Jean-Baptise Lully. Purports is the mot juste because Corbiau is clearly far more interested... [More...]

Les Acteurs (2000)

You should always be wary of any film which boasts more than half a dozen A-list actors. There is of course the chance that the script is so mind-bogglingly brilliant that any actor would jump at the chance to appear in the film. However, it’s just as likely that the actors have been lured into the enterprise for motives other than the purely artistic and that the film’s only... [More...]

Les Destinées sentimentales (2000)

This lavish period epic is an unexpected and radical departure for director Olivier Assayas, who has acquired a reputation as very modern and unconventional film-maker, the epitome of the film auteur. His previous works include the shockingly realist social drama L’Eau froide and the stylish self-referential homage to the low-budget film-maker... [More...]

Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000)

This characteristically low-key documentary, from one of the last surviving directors of the French New Wave of the 1960s, is a thought provoking and instructive work. It goes way beyond explaining the term “glaneur” and illustrating its various guises in our modern world. It also shows that this is fundamentally a natural human activity... [More...]

Les Marchands de sable (2000)

Having established himself as a film director in the 1990s, through his entertaining and original comedy dramas, such as Les Apprentis (1995), Pierre Salvadori moves into very different territory for his fourth full-length film, Les Marchands de sable. This is a violent, hard-edged crime thriller, very typical of the latest attempt in French cinema to reinvent the film noir thriller genre... [More...]

Les Rivières pourpres (2000)

Mathieu Kassovitz’s first venture into the big budget genre film is a bold attempt to beat the Americans at their own game – a fast-moving, gripping suspense thriller which literally has you on the edge of your seat for most of the film. It proved to be a great commercial success in France (attracting just over three million spectators) and also in the United States... [More...]

Meilleur espoir féminin (2000)

Although he is perhaps best known as a comic actor (in such films as Papy fait de la résistance and Le Père Noël est une ordure), Gérard Jugnot has pursued a parallel career as a director, scoring a number of popular successes. Meilleur espoir féminin is one of his best films to date, a typically Gallic mix of comic farce and sentimental drama... [More...]

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