Films de Guerre
Most French war films centre on the activities of the French Resistance during World War II - it's a subject which can easily be accommodated on a fairly modest budget and fits well with established cinematic genres and styles, notably policier and film noir. By contrast, big budget action films are seldom made in France and are rarely successful when they are. Another defining characteristic of French war films is that their authors tend to play down the glory and heroism of war, but rather show us the uglier side of conflict: the death, the destruction and the inhumanity. Many of these films carry a strong anti-war message, sometimes by showing us graphic images of carnage and devastation, but more usually by subtler means.
Here is a selection of the French war films that are certainly worth seeing.
J'Accuse (1919)
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Verdun, visions d'histoire (1928)
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Les Croix de bois (1932)
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La Grande illusion (1937)
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Le Caporal épinglé (1962)
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Le Roi de coeur (1966)
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Capitaine Conan (1996)
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La Chambre des officiers (2001)
The consequences of war are brought home in this poignant drama where a wounded soldier must rebuild his life as surgeons try to rebuild his shattered face.Read full review...
Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)
Audrey Tautou plays a young woman desperate to track down her missing fiancé, presumed to have been executed during WWI, in this beautifully composed drama.Read full review...
Joyeux Noël (2005)
Peace on Earth and goodwill to all men... Enemy soldiers discover the true meaning of Christmas on a WWI battlefield - a poignant account of a real life incident.Read full review...
Les Fragments d'Antonin (2006)
A WWI ex-combattant is traumatised by his experiences of conflict in this poignant meditation on the dehumanising effect of war.Read full review...
Thomas l'imposteur (1964)
Franju's adaptation of Jean Cocteau's anti-war novel is a hauntingly lyrical film that mocks the delusions associated with WWI whilst showing its senseless barbarism.Read full review...
La Bataille du rail (1946)
Part documentary, part drama, this is cinema's most authentic depiction of the activities of the French Resistance.Read full review...
Jeux interdits (1952)
The war seen through the eyes of two young children makes for one of the most potent anti-war statements - an unforgettable and darkly poetic film.Read full review...
Le Silence de la mer (1949)
This intimate drama from Jean-Pierre Melville shows the folly of war with great simplicity, but also to great effect.Read full review...
Nuit et brouillard (1955)
The full horror of the Nazi holocaust is brought home in this remarkably restrained yet emotionally wrenching documentary short.Read full review...
La Traversée de Paris (1956)
Jean Gabin and Bourvil star in this darkly comic portrayal of the black market in German-occupied Paris.Read full review...
La Vache et le prisonnier (1959)
A moving performance from iconic film star Fernandel makes this anti-war allegory particularly memorable.Read full review...
Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (1956)
This gripping account of one man's bid for survival against all the odds is arguably Bresson's most spiritual and intense films.Read full review...
Les Honneurs de la guerre (1960)
This extraordinarily simple film conveys the senseless brutality and futility of war with such force that you wonder why sane human beings ever allow wars to happen.Read full review...
Fortunat (1960)
Bourvil and Michèle Morgan star in this engaging portrayal of ordinary folk living in France at the time of the Occupation.Read full review...
La Ligne de démarcation (1966)
This raw drama portrays the courage of individuals who would rather die serving the French Resistance than live under Nazi rule.Read full review...
Hiroshima mon amour (1959)
The scars of the present reflect the unspeakable tragedy of the past, at both a personal and societal level in this remarkable debut film from Alain Resnais.Read full review...
Paris, brûle-t-il? (1966)
One of the most spectacular war films made in France, this features an impressive international cast but was a box office disaster.Read full review...
La Grande vadrouille (1966)
It took twenty years before a French film director was brave enough to show us the funny side of the Nazi Occupation. The result was the most successful film ever made in France.Read full review...
Week-end a Zuydcoote (1964)
Jean-Paul Belmondo stars in this harrowingly realistic portrayal of the retreat and decimation of the English and French troops at Dunkirk in 1940 - another epitaph to the folly that is war.Read full review...
L'Armée des ombres (1969)
Lino Ventura and Simone Signoret star in this gritty portrayal of life in the French Resistance, which explores familiar Melvillian themes of loyalty and betrayal.Read full review...
Le Chagrin et la pitié (1969)
So what exactly did happen in France during World War II? This documentary lifts the lid and reveals more than a few unpalatable truths...Read full review...
Le Sauveur (1971)
Horst Buchholz stars in this poignant and often shocking drama in which a young woman succumbs to the charms of a handsome young soldier who has a nasty surprise in store.Read full review...
Lacombe Lucien (1974)
Arguably Louis Malle's most disturbing film, this explicit portrayal of a young man's corruption by Nazism is as moving as it is shocking, and offers some new perspectives on WWII.Read full review...
Monsieur Klein (1976)
Alain Delon plays a man suffering from a bizarre crisis of identity in this Kafkaesque noir thriller, arguably Joseph Losey's darkest, most stylish film.Read full review...
Le Dernier métro (1980)
German occupied Paris provides the backdrop for this intense romantic drama starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu, their first on-screen encounter.Read full review...
L'As des as (1982)
A favourite with fans of Jean-Paul Belmondo, this is a likeable family-friendly action thriller in which we get to meet Hitler's little-known sister.Read full review...
Allons z'enfants (1981)
The conflict between family love and duty to the Motherland is brutally played out in this moving, low-key drama, in which Lucas Belvaux makes an impressive film debut.Read full review...
Papy fait de la résistance (1983)
One of the funniest French film comedies of the 1980s, this galloping farce shows just how much fun can be had when living under a fascist occupying power.Read full review...
Au revoir les enfants (1987)
Louis Malle's masterpiece is this engaging portrayal of childhood friendship set in France during the Occupation. An intensely humanist work with a devastatingly cruel ending.Read full review...
Lucie Aubrac (1997)
Carole Bouquet and Daniel Auteuil star in this big budget drama in which a brave young woman joins up with the French Resistance to rescue her husband from the Nazis.Read full review...
Un héros très discret (1996)
In this unconventional war-time film, Mathieu Kassovitz plays a compulsive liar who is determined to make himself into a national hero. Well, it seems to work for most politicians...Read full review...
Monsieur Batignole (2002)
In this engaging wartime comedy-drama, Gérard Jugnot sensitively portrays an ordinary man who risks everything to save a young Jewish boy from the Nazis.Read full review...
The Pianist (2002)
One man's harrowing ordeal to survive the Holocaust is the subject of this extraordinary wartime drama, possibly Roman Polanski's greatest film.Read full review...
Effroyables jardins (2003)
Another personal view of life in German Occupied France, with a very poignant performance from Jacques Villeret. To quote Chaplin: life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.Read full review...
Triple agent (2004)
This complex and sophisticated spy drama is set just before the outbreak of World War II, at a time when the whole of Europe is shuddering beneath the might of two irreconcilable forces - Fascism and Communism...Read full review...
Un taxi pour Tobrouk (1960)
Lino Ventura and Charles Aznavour star in this engaging classic anti-war drama which shows how individuals in opposing sides can settle their differences without blowing out each other's guts.Read full review...
Un ami viendra ce soir (1946)
This tense wartime thriller made straight after WWII broaches some serious themes, notably that, when your country is in the hands of an occupying power, no one is quite what they seem...Read full review...