Film Index
French cinema: War
La 317e section (1965)
Pierre Schoendoerffer
In 1954, at the height of the Indochina War, a French platoon comprising four French soldiers and around forty Laotians is instructed to abandon Luong Ba, an outpost on the border with Laos, and relieve Lao Tsaï, a town 150 kilometres to the south...
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Pierre Schoendoerffer
L'Agonie de Byzance (1913)
Louis Feuillade
On 6th April 1453, the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II surround the holy Christian city of Constantinople, poised to attack when the command is given...
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Louis Feuillade
Allons z'enfants (1981)
Yves Boisset
In 1935, Simon Chalumot is just 13 years old when he is entered into a strict military school by his father, a patriotic veteran of the previous war...
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Yves Boisset
Amen. (2002)
Costa-Gavras
During the Second World War, Kurt Gerstein works for the Nazis on various disinfection and purification programmes. To his horror, he learns that a chemical he has developed for benevolent use is intended to be used to gas Jews in the concentration camps...
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Costa-Gavras
L'Armée des ombres (1969)
Jean-Pierre Melville
October, 1942. During the Nazi occupation of France, Philippe Gerbier, a civil engineer, heads a small network in the French Resistance...
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Jean-Pierre Melville
L'Armée du crime (2009)
Robert Guédiguian
In Paris during the Nazi occupation, a labourer named Missak Manouchian leads a group of young Jewish immigrants, of various nationalities: Spanish, Rumanian, Hungarian, Polish, Italian and Armenian... [More...]
Robert Guédiguian
In Paris during the Nazi occupation, a labourer named Missak Manouchian leads a group of young Jewish immigrants, of various nationalities: Spanish, Rumanian, Hungarian, Polish, Italian and Armenian... [More...]
L'As des as (1982)
Gérard Oury
Jo Cavalier is the coach for the French boxing team at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. On the train to Berlin, he is accosted by a ten year old Jewish boy, Simon, who asks for his autograph - previously Jo was a flying hero who served in the flying corps during World War I... [More...]
Gérard Oury
Jo Cavalier is the coach for the French boxing team at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. On the train to Berlin, he is accosted by a ten year old Jewish boy, Simon, who asks for his autograph - previously Jo was a flying hero who served in the flying corps during World War I... [More...]
Atonement (2007)
Joe Wright
England, in the summer of 1935. Briony Tallis is a 13-year-old girl with an overactive imagination who lives in a large country house with her older sister Cecilia... [More...]
Joe Wright
England, in the summer of 1935. Briony Tallis is a 13-year-old girl with an overactive imagination who lives in a large country house with her older sister Cecilia... [More...]
Au coeur de l'orage (1948)
Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Throughout the dark years of Occupation, France continues the fight against Nazi Germany, through its secret army of brave resistance fighters... [More...]
Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Throughout the dark years of Occupation, France continues the fight against Nazi Germany, through its secret army of brave resistance fighters... [More...]
Au revoir, les enfants (1987)
Louis Malle
France, 1944, during the Nazi Occupation. The Christmas holidays over, 12-year-old Julien Quentin must leave his comfortable middleclass home in Paris and return to his Catholic boarding school in the country... [More...]
Louis Malle
France, 1944, during the Nazi Occupation. The Christmas holidays over, 12-year-old Julien Quentin must leave his comfortable middleclass home in Paris and return to his Catholic boarding school in the country... [More...]
Austerlitz (1960)
Abel Gance
In 1804, Napoléon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of France. After the English breach a peace treaty with France, it is inevitable that the two countries will be at war... [More...]
Abel Gance
In 1804, Napoléon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of France. After the English breach a peace treaty with France, it is inevitable that the two countries will be at war... [More...]
Avoir 20 ans dans les Aurès (1972)
René Vautier
It is 1961 and France is locked into a seemingly interminable war with its North African colony of Algeria. The French government of course does not recognise this as a war as such, but rather a 'campaign of pacification'... [More...]
René Vautier
It is 1961 and France is locked into a seemingly interminable war with its North African colony of Algeria. The French government of course does not recognise this as a war as such, but rather a 'campaign of pacification'... [More...]
Babette s'en va-t-en guerre (1959)
Christian-Jaque
In 1941, not long after France has fallen to Nazi Germany, a young French woman named Babette works as a housekeeper for Lieutenant Gérard de Crécy at the London Headquarters of Free France... [More...]
Christian-Jaque
In 1941, not long after France has fallen to Nazi Germany, a young French woman named Babette works as a housekeeper for Lieutenant Gérard de Crécy at the London Headquarters of Free France... [More...]
Baroud (1933)
Rex Ingram
André Duval and Si Ahmed are fellow sergeants in the Spahis, the Algerian native cavalry of the French Army. Duval falls in love with a native Moroccan woman, without realising she is Zinah, the sister of Si Ahmed and daughter of the Berber chieftain Si Allal... [More...]
Rex Ingram
André Duval and Si Ahmed are fellow sergeants in the Spahis, the Algerian native cavalry of the French Army. Duval falls in love with a native Moroccan woman, without realising she is Zinah, the sister of Si Ahmed and daughter of the Berber chieftain Si Allal... [More...]
La Bataille de l'eau lourde (1948)
Jean Dréville
Not long after Norway comes under Nazi Occupation at the start of World War II, the Germans commandeer a hydroelectric power plant in the mountains outside Rjukan... [More...]
Jean Dréville
Not long after Norway comes under Nazi Occupation at the start of World War II, the Germans commandeer a hydroelectric power plant in the mountains outside Rjukan... [More...]
La Bataille du rail (1946)
René Clément
This episodic film recounts the exploits of French railway workers supporting the activities of the French Resistance during the Second World War... [More...]
René Clément
This episodic film recounts the exploits of French railway workers supporting the activities of the French Resistance during the Second World War... [More...]
Le Bataillon du ciel (1947)
Alexander Esway
Spring, 1944: a decisive moment in the Second World War. Colonel Rouvier, a respected soldier who lost an arm in combat in Tunisia, is put in charge of training a parachute regiment of the French Free Forces in England... [More...]
Alexander Esway
Spring, 1944: a decisive moment in the Second World War. Colonel Rouvier, a respected soldier who lost an arm in combat in Tunisia, is put in charge of training a parachute regiment of the French Free Forces in England... [More...]
Belle et Sébastien (2013)
Nicolas Vanier
High up in the French Alps during the Second World War, the idyllic tranquillity of a small village is about to broken by the sudden arrival of a platoon of German soldiers... [More...]
Nicolas Vanier
High up in the French Alps during the Second World War, the idyllic tranquillity of a small village is about to broken by the sudden arrival of a platoon of German soldiers... [More...]
Les Bidasses en folie (1971)
Claude Zidi
Five inseparable buddies - Jean-Guy, Phil, Gérard, Luis and Jean - are united by their shared obsession, which is to form their own rock band, The Tourists... [More...]
Claude Zidi
Five inseparable buddies - Jean-Guy, Phil, Gérard, Luis and Jean - are united by their shared obsession, which is to form their own rock band, The Tourists... [More...]
Les Bidasses s'en vont en guerre (1974)
Claude Zidi
Not everyone is suited for army life - as Gérard, Phil, Jean and Jean-Guy quickly discover when they begin their military service... [More...]
Claude Zidi
Not everyone is suited for army life - as Gérard, Phil, Jean and Jean-Guy quickly discover when they begin their military service... [More...]
Blanche et Marie (1984)
Jacques Renard
1941, a town in northern France during the Nazi Occupation. Blanche, a mother of three children, wonders why her husband is behaving so secretively, and then discovers that he is working for the French Resistance... [More...]
Jacques Renard
1941, a town in northern France during the Nazi Occupation. Blanche, a mother of three children, wonders why her husband is behaving so secretively, and then discovers that he is working for the French Resistance... [More...]
Le Bois des amants (1960)
Claude Autant-Lara
Brittany, Christmas 1943. Herta von Stauffen, a German soldier, makes an attempt to join her husband, Colonel von Stauffen, whom she has not seen since their wedding day... [More...]
Claude Autant-Lara
Brittany, Christmas 1943. Herta von Stauffen, a German soldier, makes an attempt to join her husband, Colonel von Stauffen, whom she has not seen since their wedding day... [More...]
Boule de suif (1945)
Christian-Jaque
Normandy, 1870. With Rouen occupied by the Prussian army, a prostitute named Élisabeth Rousset decides to leave the town in a stage coach bound for Le Havre... [More...]
Christian-Jaque
Normandy, 1870. With Rouen occupied by the Prussian army, a prostitute named Élisabeth Rousset decides to leave the town in a stage coach bound for Le Havre... [More...]
Capitaine Conan (1996)
Bertrand Tavernier
In the final months of World War I, the French infantry are actively engaged in mopping up the enemy trenches on the Macedonian Front... [More...]
Bertrand Tavernier
In the final months of World War I, the French infantry are actively engaged in mopping up the enemy trenches on the Macedonian Front... [More...]
Le Caporal épinglé (1962)
Jean Renoir
June, 1940. In a German prisoner-of-war camp in North-East France, three soldiers are united by their desire to escape and return to their ordinary civilian lives... [More...]
Jean Renoir
June, 1940. In a German prisoner-of-war camp in North-East France, three soldiers are united by their desire to escape and return to their ordinary civilian lives... [More...]
Les Carabiniers (1963)
Jean-Luc Godard
Two country peasants are recruited to join the army and serve in the war. They are promised wealth, fulfilment and freedom to do whatever they wish whilst in active service... [More...]
Jean-Luc Godard
Two country peasants are recruited to join the army and serve in the war. They are promised wealth, fulfilment and freedom to do whatever they wish whilst in active service... [More...]
Le Chagrin et la pitié (1969)
Marcel Ophüls
Life in France at the time of the Nazi Occupation during World War II. Those who actively participated in the drama - politicians, soldiers, aristocrats, spies, collaborators and resistance supporters - recount their personal experiences with lucidity, eloquence and emotion.... [More...]
Marcel Ophüls
Life in France at the time of the Nazi Occupation during World War II. Those who actively participated in the drama - politicians, soldiers, aristocrats, spies, collaborators and resistance supporters - recount their personal experiences with lucidity, eloquence and emotion.... [More...]
La Chambre des officiers (2001)
François Dupeyron
At the start of the First World War, a young lieutenant, Adrien, is badly injured in a shell explosion. When he comes to, he realises that the lower part of his face has been blown away, although he is otherwise unharmed... [More...]
François Dupeyron
At the start of the First World War, a young lieutenant, Adrien, is badly injured in a shell explosion. When he comes to, he realises that the lower part of his face has been blown away, although he is otherwise unharmed... [More...]
Le Chant des mariées (2008)
Karin Albou
In 1942, Myriam and Nour are two 16-year-old girls who live in the same apartment block in Tunis. Despite their cultural differences - one is a Jew, the other a Muslim - they are the best of friends and know that they can never be separated, no matter what life throws at them... [More...]
Karin Albou
In 1942, Myriam and Nour are two 16-year-old girls who live in the same apartment block in Tunis. Despite their cultural differences - one is a Jew, the other a Muslim - they are the best of friends and know that they can never be separated, no matter what life throws at them... [More...]
Le Chant du loup (2019)
Antonin Baudry
Aboard a fully armed French nuclear submarine, a young sonar technician, Chanteraide, plays a vital role detecting unfamiliar sounds with his highly sensitive ears... [More...]
Antonin Baudry
Aboard a fully armed French nuclear submarine, a young sonar technician, Chanteraide, plays a vital role detecting unfamiliar sounds with his highly sensitive ears... [More...]