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I'm a huge fan of French Cinema especially New Wave. I also love Jean Pierre Melville, although I haven't stayed up with French cinema in the way I should, but are they still doing dope shit in the 00's? When it's all said and done, I would have to say my very favorite remains "The 400 Blows"... I love me some Truffaut....what is your favorite french movie?

le samourai without a moment's hesitation

drizzle wrote:le samourai without a moment's hesitation

Yes, it's definitely in my top 5 of french cinema and somewhere on my "best of all time" list as well. Love Le Samourai. One night me and a couple of friend film nerds watched Le Samourai and then Ghost Dog, it was actually cooler than it had any right being.

if you really wanna kick that up a notch throw in Branded To Kill too

I'm with Trademark here. Its probably cliche as hell, but 400 Blows is still so great.

I tell myself that I love "French cinema" but i'm so noob to it. I can't hang with the rest of youze and your knowledge, but I will love to see where this thread goes.

Noe's "I Stand Alone" is fucking great and I personally loved "The Class" too. Obviously not the best French films of all time, but certainly a couple that I was very impressed with.

Really tough but I'd probably have to say Rififi.
Wages of Fear/Le Cercle Rouge round out the top 3.

Personal modern favorite that I have an inexplicable obsession with would be Brotherhood of the Wolf.

rouge over samurai? smh, somebody likes subtle homo themes and lizards too much i think

jokes aside, it's def a worthy tossup but samourai always edges out imo because it manages to keep a straight face throughout. both movies know exactly how rediculous they are as far as hyperstylization of everything and over everyting, but rouge slips in a few places and kinda lols at itself. there are a few 'knowing' glances between volonta and delon that are almost as bad as Diabolik turning to wink at the camera in danger diabolik

Chaos.

and un chien andalou.

I still haven't seen Un Prophet, but I heard that shit is amazing too. It's in my queue...

I'll always have a soft spot for The Red Balloon since it was my first foreign film. For some reason I saw that every year during elementary school.

As an adult, I'm pretty sure Rififi was my first French film. That blew me away and probably my all-time favorite. Amelie ranks pretty high, too.

My favorite is Martyrs, Eyes Without A Face or Les Diaboliques.

Trademark wrote: are they still doing dope shit in the 00's?

Yes.

Best modern French films (non-horror) include

Cach

ew. wanna post in this thread. lemme give that some thought. brb.

this is almost like asking whats my favorite american film, except i might actually have an automatic answer for that.

first thing that comes to my mind is Murmur of the Heart. I'm sure that's not it though.

drizzle wrote:rouge over samurai? smh, somebody likes subtle homo themes and lizards too much i think

jokes aside, it's def a worthy tossup but samourai always edges out imo because it manages to keep a straight face throughout. both movies know exactly how rediculous they are as far as hyperstylization of everything and over everyting, but rouge slips in a few places and kinda lols at itself. there are a few 'knowing' glances between volonta and delon that are almost as bad as Diabolik turning to wink at the camera in danger diabolik

Well it's favorite, not best and Red Circle was the first Melville I saw and it was love at first sight so I'm probably endeared a little more to it for that reason alone.
This might sound weird but I've bought Le Cercle Rouge, Le Samourai, Army of Shadows, Bob le Flambeur, Le Deuxieme Souffle, Le Doulos.....and out of all of them Le Samourai left the least biggest impression. I don't know if I was tired when I watched it but I can't remember any of it really. Been meaning to give it another go here for a while but my backlog of movies is huge right now. Still, Le Cercle Rouge and Army of Shadows are by far my favorites of his.

RacquetballGangsta wrote:this is almost like asking whats my favorite american film

This is exactly like asking whats my fave american film, as well as japanese film, italian film, british film- seen too damn many.

Even a top 10 would be painful to do, but if I attempted one the following people would have to be considered:

Godard (Pierrot le fou, maybe)
Truffaut
Melville
Tati (Playtime, maybe)
Rivette (Out 1: Spectre)
Rohmer
Chabrol (Le Boucher, maybe)
Bresson (A Man Escaped, maybe)
Becker (Le Trou, maybe)
Feuillade (Fantomas)
Tavernier (Coup de Torchon or Capitaine Conan)
Duvivier (Pepe le Moko)
Malle (The Fire Within)
Renoir
Resnais

and countless other films (Classe tous risques, Jeanne Dielman, Heartbeat Detector, Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Rififi, The Mother and the Whore, etc)

i like these. pretty much in order.


le Samurai
RIFIFI
Wages of Fear
A Man Escaped
Le deuxi

On Melville, I agree that Samurai > Rouge but don't you think that Army of shadows > Samurai > Rouge?


Thanks for the list Comedy Q!

As far as Tati goes Playtime >>>> ... I love Playtime, I watch it at least 3 times a year maybe more. It's one of those you can put on and just fade away into it. Easily his masterpiece...

I know there are Bresson fans up in this bitch. I have a hard time thinking anything was better than Pickpocket but I also loved Mouchette. Looking at his IMDB I see that he did a Arthur/Camelot movie, "Lancelot by the Lake". I love Arthurian films, I can't believe I've never seen it. Anybody here know about it?

I know that Godard is pretty Polarizing and I'm not a fan OF A LOT of his work, but I love Band of Outsiders, it ranks pretty highly on my French Cinema list.

Finally, has anyone seen the documentary Henri Langlois: Phantom of the Cinematheque? It's one of my all time favorite Docs. Dude is like the French Kevin Smith or Quentin Tarantino....

Only Tati film i ever copped was Mr. Hulot's Holiday and that shit was just not for me.

I'm only a moderate Godard fan but somehow I always end up buying his movies. Alphaville is my shit.

Malle's Elevator to the Gallows would be pretty high on my list as well. And City of Lost Children.

isnt delicatessen french? that was a damn good movie, and i second city of lost children!!!

Trademark wrote:As far as Tati goes Playtime >>>> ... I love Playtime, I watch it at least 3 times a year maybe more. It's one of those you can put on and just fade away into it. Easily his masterpiece...

Trademark wrote:I know there are Bresson fans up in this bitch. I have a hard time thinking anything was better than Pickpocket but I also loved Mouchette. Looking at his IMDB I see that he did a Arthur/Camelot movie, "Lancelot by the Lake". I love Arthurian films, I can't believe I've never seen it. Anybody here know about it?

Lancelot didn't quite gel for me but I only saw it once. I keep meaning to get to it; I have a feeling I'd appreciate it more now. Pickpocket and Mouchette are quite great. It's too bad Four Nights of a Dreamer isn't on dvd, that's based on the same Dostoevsky story Visconti used for White Nights and my fave of his late period stuff.

Trademark wrote:I know that Godard is pretty Polarizing and I'm not a fan OF A LOT of his work, but I love Band of Outsiders, it ranks pretty highly on my French Cinema list.

I don't know if people are turned off by him bc he's too didactic and/or that he packs his films with references (many of them obscure), or the distancing techniques he uses, etc. It does finally distract from total enjoyment of most of his late period works. I do find Criterion's guides to reading his films like 2 or 3 Things and Made In USA very helpful. But I liked shit like La Chinoise, Every Man for Himself, Hail Mary and In Praise of Love without completely comprehending them.

Trademark wrote:Finally, has anyone seen the documentary Henri Langlois: Phantom of the Cinematheque? It's one of my all time favorite Docs. Dude is like the French Kevin Smith or Quentin Tarantino....

Dude's the Original Cinephile but pls don't compare him to (ugh!) Kevin Smith. Tarantino, ok.

speaking of Malle. I LOVE The Fire Within....It's also one of my favs that I watch over and over.

goddard sucks aside from alphaville, noir references in made in the usa, melville's cameo in breathless and the bogart poster in breathless. oh and bardot's ass

any of the old noirs that influenced him >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> any of his actual work

army of shadows is teh best melvilee, but samourai is my favorite. it's also kinda hard to compare AOS to his noirs, the former is harrowing and based on real events while the latter are basically emotionally clinical stylized fairtales

drizzle, you say the darndest things

two french movies that rarely get mentioned that i'm a big big fan of



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082269/



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079980/

I FORGOT ABOUT DIVA! I LOVE THAT MOVIE!

the reviews always harp on the subway chase ane dominque pinon and that's all good and gravy but to the philosopher/magician billionaire dude >>>>>>

City of Lost Children.
It's the only French film I've ever watched.


39

I think this is by the Diva guy



Is it as good as they say? Really wanna see a young Beatrice Dalle (La Femme from A L'Interieur) young and naked.

Watched Le Samourai today. Absolutely loved it.

Is this Delon at his finest? If no, then where?

^^^ you need to check le circle rouge and red sun as well. un flic is another melville that has delon. may wanna peep that.