French: your favourite films

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Bluepaint
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French: your favourite films

Postby Bluepaint » Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:09 pm

List your favourite French films here. You can also talk about why you liked them, how much you could understand, where you accessed the film (NO PIRATING TALK, if you accessed it illegally feel completely free to not mention access/obtainment whatsoever in the slightest at all).

My favourite is very unoriginal: Amelie. I find the character endearing and interesting, the film is a little 'odd' compared to your standard Hollywood fare. To me the 'oddness' was very normal and relatable. And I loved the gnome substory.

I'll create separate threads for other French media.
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Re: French: your favourite films

Postby reineke » Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:13 pm

Delicatessen. Un Crime au Paradis. Netflix. Le Roi et l'Oiseau.

Meilleurs films de tous les temps selon les spectateurs

Moviegoers have short memories.

http://www.allocine.fr/film/meilleurs/pays-5001/
Last edited by reineke on Sun Oct 29, 2017 1:24 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: French: your favourite films

Postby nooj » Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:39 pm

My favourite French director is the Algerian-Roma director Tony Gatlif. I like all his works.


Latcho Drom, Gadjo dilo, Swing, Transylvania, Vengo...
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Re: French: your favourite films

Postby DaveBee » Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:42 pm

2003 Version of 'Fanfan la tulipe'. I can't remember how much of the dialog I understood. Its a comedy-swashbuckler.

I've watched a number of Fernadel's films too, largely because he's got such a happy smile :-). I think "La loi, c'est la loi", and "Le Chômeur de Clochemerle" are the ones I remember enjoying best.
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Postby Ogrim » Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:51 pm

Here are a few films I enjoyed. Most of them I went to the cinema to see, for a few I purchased the DVD or BlueRay:

Bienvenu chez les Ch'tis. A very successful comedy with Kad Merad and Danny Boon. The parts where they speak ch'ti can be a bit difficult on the ear.

Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au bon Dieu? Another comedy dealing with issues of religion and race in a rather sympathetic and fun way.

La Haine. A very different film, released in 1995 in black and white, it tells the story of three young men from the poor French suburbs following a riot.

Intouchables. This was a great international success.

Le Concert. Ok, this is an international production and you hear as much Russian as French in the film, but it is a great story so worth watching.
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Re: French: your favourite films

Postby rdearman » Fri Oct 27, 2017 3:32 pm

Rhian wrote: And I loved the gnome substory.

Ages ago I worked for a Telco in London and the Operations Director was obsessive about his coffee mug. One day we stole it, and sent it off with some of the sales guys. Being computer geeks we setup an email account called "ACupOnHoliday" and a website. We showed pictures of his coffee mug near just about every famous landmark in the world. Went on for a year before we finally returned it. It took him a month or two to see the funny side however, he really did like that mug!
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Re: French: your favourite films

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Fri Oct 27, 2017 6:42 pm

Bande a part (library copy), directed by Jean-Luc Godard. A refreshing take on the lives of two guys and their female friend. Called "Band of Outsiders" in English. Contains a memorable dance scene, which I though was worth the price of admission, er, even though it was free.

Blue (personal copy--I'm looking at the cover as I type this), directed by Krzsztof Kieslowski. One of a trilogy of films Kieslowski did for some special EU event :? , I think. The other films are White and Red (thus giving the three colors of the French flag, FWIW). The blurb on the front of the case tells me that The New Yorker thought it was "Mysterious . . . Sexy!" Well, mysterious to a certain extent, and there is some sex, but if you're looking for some hot sex in this movie, you ain't going to find it. Juliette Binoche heads a splendid cast. Kieslowski is tops as a director in my mind, but a bit slow-paced for some.
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Re: French: your favourite films

Postby kunsttyv » Fri Oct 27, 2017 10:25 pm

Favorite directors: Robert Bresson, Claire Denis, Jean Epstein, Maurice Pialat, Éric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, Max Ophüls, Jean Renoir, Chris Marker, Philippe Grandrieux, Chantal Akerman, Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne

Disclaimer: I don't understand French
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Re: French: your favourite films

Postby ASEAN » Sat Oct 28, 2017 12:40 am

I saw most of these films on dvds from the local library unless otherwise noted. (I do not speak French).

Amelie
The Story of Adele H.
I've Loved You So Long
La Vie En Rose
Alias Betty
La Femme Nikita* (Independent Film Channel)

L'Amour Fou (Yves Saint Laurent documentary)
Noirs de France/Black France (YouTube?) (three-part documentary) http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xp7s6m
To Be and to Have (documentary about a one-room French school)

*I missed the first half hour of La Femme Nikita and came in when she was talking to the male cashier. When I later saw the beginning part, it was a completely different film.

Edit: Why I like them: I like to watch movies blind without knowing anything about them so I won't go into detail, but I enjoy movies about the human condition with a good solid story line. I love, love documentaries. Yves Saint Laurent doc had beautiful scenery in both France and Morocco and the film dug into his personal life. Noirs de France chronicled the 100 year history of blacks in France. Blacks from the French colonies were only accepted to a certain extent while blacks from America were beloved. To Be and to Have was the beautiful relationship a country teacher had with his not-so-bright students.

Not a favorite, but I enjoyed François Truffaut's series of movies about a character named Antoine Doinel. I watched them out of order because I didn't realize they were a series, so it was a surprise to see Antoine as a child. The dvds were released by Criterion Collection in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Doinel
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Re: French: your favourite films

Postby garyb » Mon Oct 30, 2017 11:42 am

I loved "Blue" as well. The others in the trilogy (and the sort-of-prequel "La double vie de Véronique") are worth a watch, but not quite at the same level, and some have more Polish than French.

I've enjoyed most of Cédric Klapish's films that I've seen, and they're good for French learners since they're relatively unpretentious and deal with everyday subjects. "L'auberge espagnole" is a great story about studying abroad and has a couple of sequels that are again worth a watch but not as good; "Chacun cherche son chat" is a fun watch; "Un air de famille" is a family drama that wasn't really my thing but gets good ratings; "Ni pour ni contre (bien au contraire)" is a decent action film although less "everyday" than the others; "Paris" is a set of interconnected stories of people in the city; and "Le péril jeune" is a great drama/comedy about teenagers in the 1970s.
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