Best French Films of the 1900s

A Decade of Magic and Experimentation

Within five years of the Lumières' first public demonstration of their Cinématographe in 1895, the artistic possibilities of cinema were being keenly explored by several film pioneers, most notably the former stage magician Georges Méliès. Unlike the Lumière brothers, who famously saw no future for their invention, Méliès immediately realised the possibilities of the moving image as a medium of mass entertainment and devoted himself to turning out hundreds of shorts that allowed him to give free rein to his imagination. Charles Pathé and Léon Gaumont were quick to capitalise on the burgeoning popularity for moving pictures, creating companies that would make France a world leader in the new art form. Among the staff of Pathé and Gaumont were such important luminaries as Alice Guy, Albert Capellani, Léonce Perret and Louis Feuillade, all of whom would play a crucial part in the development of what would become the defining art form of the 20th century.. Here are some of the highlights of French cinema from the 1900s. For a more complete list consult our best films index and complete films index.

Barbe-bleue (1901)

Georges Méliès' first attempt at a film with a conventional narrative structure is this inspired fantasy based on the famous Blue Beard story. Among its wilder excursions into the surreal are memorable scenes in which the villain's latest wife is haunted by the ghosts of his former victims and an array of giant keys.

Read full review...

Le Voyage dans la lune (1902)

Georges Méliès's most famous film was cinema's first brush with science-fiction, inspired by the lunar fantasies of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. A fantastic technical achievement for its time, the film is replete with dazzlingly inventive images, the most iconic being the one in which the manned rocket pierces one eye of the Man in the Moon. The film demonstrates not only its author's unsurpassed visual flair but also his wild sense of fun. A worldwide hit, it inspired countless imitations and did much to popularise the new medium of cinema.

Read full review...

Le Mélomane (1903)

Using the technique of multiple exposure to almost ludicrous extremes, Georges Méliès achieves the seemingly impossible feat of appearing on screen seven times in each frame, a worthy accomplishment from cinema's unrivalled illusionist. Via some meticulous splicing, he also manages to repeatedly rip off his own head and turn these into notes in a musical stave. The result is one of his most inspired and hilarious films.

Read full review...

Le Locataire diabolique (1909)

Georges Méliès first earned his reputation as a stage magician, so it is no surprise that conjuring - the art of making objects appear and disappear as if by magic - would feature in several of his films. Le Locataire diabolique is the film in which Méliès's conjuring abilities are used to greatest effect, and the fact that the film is in colour (each frame was meticulously painted by hand) adds to its immense appeal.

Read full review...

La Vie et la passion de Jésus Christ (1903)

When it was first seen, La Vie et la passion de Jésus Christ was an incredible achievement, the equivalent of today's blockbuster extravaganza. Made by Pathé's star directors Lucien Nonguet and Ferdinand Zecca. the film ran to five reels and was a huge global success. Influenced by sacred art of the Middle Ages onwards, the film comprises several marvellously crafted scenes that recount the life and passion of Christ with a powerful emotional resonance.

Read full review...

Le Voyage à travers l'impossible (1904)

The phenomenal success of Le Voyage dans la lune allowed its director Georges Méliès to attempt an even grander cinematic exploit. Le Voyage à travers l'impossible takes all of the elements of the director's earlier lunar fantasy and reworks them with, even greater artistic bravura and comic absurdity, into a dazzling piece of film art that still has the power to astound its audience.

Read full review...

Aladin ou la lampe merveilleuse (1906)

One of Pathé's leading lights, Albert Capellani is best known for his melodramas but he also directed a few excursions into fantasy, the best being Aladin ou la Lampe merveilleuse. Based on the popular Arabian Nights tale, this allowed Capellani to experiment with camera trickery, refining and extending techniques that Georges Méliès had employed on his films. The result is a cinematic gem that enchants adults and children alike.

Read full review...

La Vie du Christ (1906)

Gaumont's response to Pathé's ambitious La Vie et la passion de Jésus Christ was an even more stupendously ambitious telling of the life and death of Christ. This important film consisting of 25 tableaux was the crowning achievement of the great pioneer Alice Guy, cinema's first female director and producer. In contrast to Pathé's studio-bound epic, Guy's film uses real exterior locations to complement the elaborate sets designed by Henri Ménessier.

Read full review...

L'Assassinat du duc de Guise (1908)

L'Assassinat du duc de Guise was a crucial film in the development of film drama and provided the bedrock for much of what was to follow, in terms of both narrative form and acting style. Running to just over sixteen minutes, it recounts an important incident in French history - the assassination of the Duke de Guise in 1588. The film was written by the great playwright Henri Lavedan, and directed by André Calmettes and Charles Le Bargy, two prominent stage actors of the period.

Read full review...

L'Assommoir (1908)

In his capacity as artistic director of Pathé's newly founded subsidiary SCAGL, Albert Capellani adapted several great works of French literature for the cinema, and in doing so did much to bring into existence the modern feature film. Based on a celebrated novel by Émile Zola, L'Assommoir was an incredibly ambitious film for its time, on account of the complexity of its narrative and the sophistication of its mise-en-scène. What is most remarkable is how Capellani manages to compress Zola's six hundred page novel into a taut thirty minute drama without losing the coherence or dramatic impact of the original literary work.

Read full review...

Molière (1909)

Gaumont was so impressed by the early work of Léonce Perret that he was given the challenge of making an ambitious biopic on France's most important playwright, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, a.k.a. Molière. Perret rose to the challenge and with a script supplied by two other key film pioneers - Louis Feuillade and Abel Gance - he delivered a work of breathtaking artistry. By using real locations to great effect, Perret endows his film with a remarkable scale and modernity.

Read full review...

20000 lieues sous les mers (1907)

Deux cent mille lieues sous les mers was one of Georges Méliès's most ambitious films. It originally comprised thirty tableaux, but sadly much of the film has been lost, although what remains bears witness to its author's genius. Méliès presents us with a dazzling collection of underwater life, making this one of cinema's most fantastic excursions into the realm of pure fantasy.

Read full review...