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French films Thriller
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Denys de La Patellière directed this respectable example of the suspense thriller, an adaptation of a James Hadley Chase novel which skilfully blends the style of American film noir with that of the conventional, character-driven French thriller. The film stars Michèle Morgan and Daniel Gélin, each of whom turns in a compelling...
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For his remarkable cinematic debut, director Louis Malle brought a fresh and original approach to the film policier, the most popular genre in French cinema of the 1950s. Although it adheres rigorously to the conventions of the crime thriller of that decade, Ascenseur pour l’échafaud offers a stylish variation on a familiar theme...
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Jean Gabin stars in one of his most famous roles, that of Inspector Maigret, in this atmospheric 1950s policier directed by one of France’s most talented directors, Jean Delannoy. Of all the screen actors to have played Maigret, Gabin is by far the best, and in this film (the first of his three film appearances in the role) he brilliantly portrays the ruthless cunning and world weariness...
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Despite the shameful political-incorrectness of its title and some pretty blatant sentimentality, this is an entertaining comedy thriller which achieves a satisfying blend of B-movie gangster fare and slapstick. Probably the most distinguishing feature of this film is that it marks the virtual cinema debut of two acting legends of French cinema: Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Jean Gabin reprises the role of Inspector Maigret for the second time in what is one of the best film outings for Georges Simeon’s famous detective hero. The self-assured and efficient direction comes from Jean Delannoy, one of the pillars of quality cinema of the 1940s and 1950s, who, at the time, was being vilified by the hot-headed young critics of the Cahiers du cinéma...
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With two successful crime dramas under his belt, director Edouard Molinaro stays with the genre and delivers what is quite possibly his darkest and most stylish film. Taking his inspiration from American noir thrillers and their French counterparts – notably the policiers films of Jean-Pierre Melville – Molinaro constructs a well-honed suspense thriller which...
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Just as French cinema was going through its most significant upheaval for decades, FBI agent Lemmy Caution made a welcome return to cinema screens after an absence of nearly five years. Forget the French New Wave; we are back in the safe, familiar world of sauve secret agents, svelte and seductive women, guns and fist fights...
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Le Trou, Jacques Becker’s last film, is undoubtedly the director’s best work and was hailed at the time (particularly by the New Wave directors such as François Truffaut) as a masterpiece. Today, it remains a compelling film, superbly directed and photographed with a remarkable attention to detail. The film bears some similarity to Robert Bresson’s 1956 film Un condamné...
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Probably the one French film that is guaranteed to give you nightmares, Les Yeux sans visage is a magnificent blend of horror and romantic poetry which is also an exploration of the morality of scientific endeavour. It spawned a host of similar films involving crazed surgeons indulging in bodily mutilation, but it remains...
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Along with Claude Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge and François Truffaut’s Les Quatre cent coups, Paris nous appartient marks the debut of another great director of the French New Wave, this time Jacques Rivette. For his first full length film, Rivette combines a familiar thriller theme with that distinctively fresh New Wave blend of contemporary realism and visual poetry...
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Despite its sumptuous colour photography and expansive Mediterranean location, Plein soleil has all the characteristics of a classic film noir and is unmistakably director René Clément’s most confident and inspired foray into the thriller genre. The film is based on a popular novel by Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr Ripley)...
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With one successful film (Les quatre cents coups) under his belt, director François Truffaut was free to indulge himself in two of his personal passions, American gangster movies and male-female relationships. The result is Tirez sur le pianiste, a pastiche of gangster film and film noir which is both visually impressive and funny...
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Le Doulos is a sophisticated policier which shows its roots in classic film noir throughout. The American gangster movies of the 1930s and 1940s had a great appeal to director Jean-Paul Melville and in this film he creates one of the most memorable French film variants of the genre. As in his subsequent film, Le Samourï...
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Despite all the bad press it has received, Orson Welles’ Le Procès (a.k.a. The Trial) is one of the great cinematrographic achievments of the Twentieth Century. It is a film that has until recently been largely overlooked, probably as a result of the barrage of negative criticism which sunk the film when it was first shown in the mid 1960s...
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