Films Policiers
The film policier developed in French cinema from early attempts to emulate American film noir in the 1940s. The genre has passed through several phases (including polar, neo-polar and, most recently, post-noir), but the film noir origins are almost nearly always recognisable.
The film policier invariably centres around an outsider (a law-enforcer or a law-breaker) who assumes the moral high ground and is engaged in a fight for survival against a mightier adversary. If the central hero is not obviously indestructible (such as Inspector Maigret, Lemmy Caution or virtually any character played by Jean-Paul Belmondo), he will almost certainly perish in the last five minutes of the film. It goes without saying that the hero is nearly always male, since the world of the policier is inherently rough, bleak and male dominated.
Those directors who can be credited with having mastered the film policier include: Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jacques Becker, Jean-Pierre Melville, Henri Verneuil, Jacques Deray and Georges Lautner. To this list of luminaries, we should add Claude Chabrol and Costa-Gavras, who have distinguished themselves in the related genres of psychological and political thriller.
Here is a selection of the finest examples of French film noir.
Arsène Lupin détective (1937)
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Pépé le Moko (1937)
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Hôtel du Nord (1938)
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Le Quai des brumes (1938)
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Macao, l'enfer du jeu (1939)
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Pièges (1939)
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L'Assassinat du Père Noël (1941)
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L'Assassin habite au 21 (1942)
Pierre Fresnay and Suzy Delair sparkle in this comedy thriller, Clouzot's first full-length film. Despite the comic situations, the plot, sets and atmosphere are pure film noir.Read full review...
Le Corbeau (1943)
This "black diamond" of the Nazi occupation is now regarded as one of the finest films made in France. Now seen as a brilliantly constructed suspense thriller, its shocking depiction of a morally corrupt society angered many when it was first released and it was soon banned.Read full review...
Quai des Orfèvres (1947)
Louis Jouvet brings a much-needed humanity to Clouzot's dark suspense thriller, which gives a rare insight into French music hall of the 1940s.Read full review...
Entre onze heures et minuit (1949)
You could easily mistake Louis Jouvet for Humphrey Bogart in this very obvious pastiche of American film noir, the template for the French polars of the 1950s.Read full review...
Le Salaire de la peur (1953)
Clouzot's best film out-does Hitchcock at almost every level, making this one of the greatest suspense thrillers of all time. The film has a sustained dramatic intensity which makes it a truly exhausting and harrowing cinematic experience.Read full review...
Touchez pas au grisbi (1954)
One of the earliest and best examples of the crime thrillers which would dominate French cinema in the following decades. Its origins in American film noir are very apparent, particularly in the nocturnal photography, the haunting music and the inevitable bloody shoot-out.Read full review...
Du rififi chez les hommes (1955)
An unashamed direct import of American film noir, this film became a cult in it own time and is now regarded as one of the true masterpieces of its genre. It is best known for the meticulously filmed jewellery robbery, in which not a single word of dialogue is used.Read full review...
Les Diaboliques (1955)
An extraordinarily compelling suspense thriller which, with its chillingly macabre murder scene and nerve-shattering climax, remains a popular classic with a very wide audience.Read full review...
Voici le temps des assassins (1956)
Julien Duvivier's most cynical portrait of human nature is most noted for its recreation of the Halles market in Paris and for Danèle Delorme's shocking portayal of an unscrupulous gold digger.Read full review...
Maigret tend un piège (1958)
Obvious references to American film noir make this a moody and claustrophobic crime thriller, with Jean Gabin playing Georges Simenon's famous detective, Inspector Maigret.Read full review...
Le Désordre et la nuit (1958)
Although the policier genre had by this stage become formulaic, this film stands out by virtue of its attempts to embrace modernity, using jazz heavily to portray a sleazy criminal underworld.Read full review...
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958)
This stylish variation on the popular policier genre gave an early glimpse of the determination of fresh young directors to break away from the traditional film form.Read full review...
Signé Arsène Lupin (1959)
Arsène Lupin returns to cinema, this time in the guise of Robert Lamoureux, in a film which comes closest to capturing the style of Maurice Leblanc's original Lupin novels.Read full review...
À bout de souffle (1960)
In one of the most spectacular directoral debuts in film history, Jean-Luc Godard gives new meaning and form to the medium of film in this bizarre pastiche of the film policier.Read full review...
Pickpocket (1959)
This compelling study in which a young man is consumed by an uncontrollable desire to steal allows Bresson to develop his unique cinematography and explore the themes of sin and redemption. A film with a rare silent eloquence and humanity.Read full review...
Deux hommes dans Manhattan (1959)
This film is less a traditional policier and more a homage to American film noir. Melville himself plays both detective and director, leaving no cliché unturned but somehow managing to create a work of art from the familiar trappings of the genre.Read full review...
Les Yeux sans visage (1960)
The most celebrated French fantasy horror film, and rightly so with its graphic depiction of mad scientist surgery set in the creepiest house to make it onto celluloid. Guaranted to give you nightmares.Read full review...
Le Trou (1960)
Becker's final film is his best, an uncompromisingly hard-edged realist portrait of a prison break-out attempt, offering a compelling study of human nature.Read full review...
Plein soleil (1960)
The talented Alain Delon plays the original Mr Ripley in this sumptuous yet chilling adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's thriller novel.Read full review...
Tirez sur le pianiste (1960)
The first and best of Truffaut's homages to the American crime thriller features a sublime performance from Charles Aznavour.Read full review...
Le Doulos (1962)
Jean-Paul Belmondo stars in this stylish mélange of French film policier and American film noir, which, in true Melvillesque style, contrasts the morality of criminals and law-enforcers.Read full review...
Le Septième juré (1962)
Georges Lautner's best film, this has the feel of a great Hitchcock suspense thriller in places. The film stars Bernard Blier in his finest role and makes a scathing assault on the French legal system.Read full review...
Les Tontons flingueurs (1963)
The best of Georges Lautner's comic parodies of the French crime thriller unites Lino Ventura and Bernard Blier as you have never seen them before. Michel Audiard's witty dialogue is a bonus.Read full review...
Chair de poule (1963)
Possibly the best example of French film noir in the 1960s, this chilling adaptation of a James Hadley Chase novel is guaranteed to bring on the goose pimples.Read full review...
Bande à part (1964)
Jean-Luc Godard clearly had tongue firmly in cheek when he made this homage to the low budget American thriller. Brilliantly subversive, daringly funny, it is one of Godard's more accessible works.Read full review...
Alphaville (1965)
Lemmy Caution is resurrected for this bizarre blend of crime thriller and science-fiction, intended as a satire on contemporary French politics. Outrageously funny, yet deeply disturbing.Read full review...
Pierrot le fou (1965)
Godard's most celebrated film is this bizarre yet striking deconstruction of American pulp fiction. It marks the start of Godard's radical departure from the conventional narrative form in his continual quest to re-invent cinema.Read full review...
Compartiment tueurs (1965)
Costa-Gavras' first film is this magnificently constructed crime thriller, the director's tribute to American film noir. The film stars Yves Montand, who would work with Costa-Gavras on several subsequent films.Read full review...
Le Deuxième souffle (1966)
This is arguably the best of Jean-Pierre Melville's distinctive crime thrillers, both mesmerising and shocking its audience with its hard-edged neo-realist depiction of gangland violence.Read full review...
Le Samouraï (1967)
With its ice-cold existentialist cinematography and a chilling performance from Alain Delon, this stylish cult film is the closest that the gangster thriller got to being represented as a work of art.Read full review...
La Piscine (1969)
Alain Delon and Romy Schneider star in this suspenseful psychological drama, which has strong undercurrents of Freudian lust and perversion.Read full review...
Z (1969)
This landmark political thriller which won two Oscars was partly inspired by real-life events in Greece. Beneath the obvious caricatures and the black comedy there is a chilling sub-text.Read full review...
Le Boucher (1970)
A sleepy provencial village harbours a serial killer and the school mistress suspects the local butcher. One of the best psychological thrillers made in France, filled with suspense, with a chilling macabre under-belly.Read full review...
Le Cercle rouge (1970)
This stylish mix of film noir and western became one of the definitive policiers of the 1970s, crafted by perhaps the only French film director to truly master the genre.Read full review...
Le Magnifique (1973)
Beginning as what looks like the most outrageous spoof of the spy/thriller genre ever, this film develops into a poignant, but hugely entertaining, portrait of a failing writer, played by the ever charming Jean-Paul Belmondo.Read full review...
Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972)
Pierre Richard is hilarious in this notorious spoof thriller, scripted by Francis Veber and featuring the great Bernard Blier.Read full review...
Flic Story (1975)
Alain Delon and Jean-Louis Trintignant play a dangerous game of cat and mouse in this masterfully composed thriller which has a striking edge of realism.Read full review...
Peur sur la ville (1975)
One of the best examples of the kind of high budget, action- packed crime-thriller which proved to be so popular in France in the mid- 1970s. The film includes some of Jean-Paul Belmondo's most daring stunts.Read full review...
Le Juge Fayard dit le shérif (1977)
Patrick Dewaere gives an impressive performance in this hard-edged crime thriller, one of the earliest "neo-polars", in which the State is shown to be a bigger villain than any individual group of criminals.Read full review...
Mort d'un pourri (1977)
This fine example of the neo-polar features Alain Delon at his near-best in a well-scripted, fast-paced and very stylish thriller.Read full review...
La Menace (1977)
Yves Montand and Marie Dubois are a winning combination in this suspenseful, film noir thriller, one of Alain Corneau's most compelling films.Read full review...
Le Dossier 51 (1978)
A disturbing political thriller which uses an unconventional narrative form to emphasise the film's central premise: the extent to which technology dehumanises society, reducing individuals to nameless commodities.Read full review...
Diva (1981)
With its sylish photography, awesome sets and adrenaline-pumping action scenes, Diva was the most highly rated French thriller of the 1980s, showing impressionist and existentialist influences.Read full review...
Garde à vue (1981)
A brilliantly taut psychological, minimalist thriller, which features a remarkable confrontation between two stalwarts of French cinema, Lino Ventura and Michel Serrault.Read full review...
Coup de torchon (1981)
A disturbing black comedy set in a French African colonial town. The superb Philippe Noiret plays a police chief who, after years of humiliation, decides to clean up crime - by shooting people.Read full review...
La Balance (1982)
Strong acting performances and well choreographed action scenes makes this one of the best and most realistic French crime thrillers of the 1980s.Read full review...
L'Argent (1983)
Bresson's final film, based on a short story by Tolstoy, is a minimalist masterpiece which illustrates the corrupting power of money on the human soul.Read full review...
Mortelle randonnée (1983)
A near-perfect example of the French psychological thriller, made all the more gripping by forceful performances from its lead actors Michel Serrault and Isabelle Adjani.Read full review...
L'Été meurtrier (1983)
In this suspense-laden psychological thriller, Isabelle Adjani gives a mesmerising performance as a deranged adolescent who might just be capable of murder. Alain Souchon is her co-star.Read full review...
Les Ripoux (1984)
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That's the moral of this comedy thriller which satirises corruption in the police force with a vengeance. The film stars Philippe Noiret and Thierry Lhermitte.Read full review...
Vivement dimanche! (1983)
Fanny Ardant dazzles in this off-the-wall comedy thriller from one of France's greatest directors. For his final film, Truffaut manages to unite his passion for film noir, Hitchcockian suspense and comedy romance.Read full review...
Monsieur Hire (1989)
By merging psychological thriller and comedy romance, Patrice Leconte creates one of his best films, a dark yet tender study in loneliness and desire.Read full review...
Regarde les hommes tomber (1994)
Typical of the post-noir breed of thriller to emerge in the 1990s, this film offers a dark study in obsession and survival. The film features chilling performances from Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean Yanne and Mathieu Kassovitz.Read full review...
La Cérémonie (1995)
A masterful film adaptation of a Ruth Rendell novel with a truly terrifying climax. Isabelle Huppert and Sandrine Bonnaire star in one of Claude Chabrol's best thrillers.Read full review...
Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien (2000)
This superlative black comedy, winner of four Césars in 2001, consists of an extraordinary sequence of comic situations. Sergi López is both enchanting and disturbing as the friend who just can't help doing a good turn.Read full review...
Caché (2005)
Hidden guilt has the power to destroy... Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil star in this taut psychological thriller with a shock ending.Read full review...
De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté (2005)
This stylish noir thriller is set alight by a remarkable performance from Romain Duris. The film won no less than 8 Cesars and is worth every one of them.Read full review...