DISQUS

Film School Rejects: Eleven French Films for People Who Hate French Films

  • Brian C. Gibson · 1 year ago
    So why not include any films from the new wave? the new wave prompted noir...Elevator to The Gallows man, a classic
  • Paul · 1 year ago
    District B13
  • Paul W · 1 year ago
    'Le Samourai' and 'The Day of the Jackal', these are so good you will forget that you are reading subtitles.
  • FilmDrunk · 1 year ago
    No Delicatessen? For shame.
  • Cole Abaius · 1 year ago
    I second District B13 and The Day of the Jackal, although it's good to see Luc Besson represented at least.

    The thing that turns me off the most is when I watch French action - it's usually filled with character development and well thought out storylines, two things that don't belong in an action flick. I'm really jealous that they can do magical realism, and we can't seem to get a hold on that one, though.

    I'm also pissed that France's nuclear program is to blame for unleashing Godzilla onto NYC. That's right. I saw the 2000 remake. Deal with it.
  • Homero · 1 year ago
    Not that it's not a REALLY good movie, but I didn't think that Leon was really a French film, it just had Jean Reno.

    I can't believe you didn't add Paris, Je T'aime...as far as I'm concerned it's one of the best films I've ever seen, French or not. Besides, it has Willam Dafoe as a cowboy...how will anyone from America NOT love it?
  • Kevin Carr · 1 year ago
    Eleven? What's that... like the French dozen?
  • Mister Hand · 1 year ago
    A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT doesn't make the list? I would have expanded the list to include it.

    Also, just saw a FANTASTIC French slasher flick called INSIDE.

    Something messed up is going on in France right now, I believe. All the best horror films I've seen lately are coming from there. And, as we all know, good horror is born of national trauma.
  • Zach · 1 year ago
    Just a quick note. The Strangers was actually filmed before Them. It was supposed to release ages ago, but was pushed back about a year for some reason. So really, neither of them are really copying the other, it's just odd that two movies almost exactly the same came out around the same time.
  • Nick C · 1 year ago
    I think Rififi is a French classic that Americans could love. Americans do love their heist
    flicks, after all. Plus it was directed by an American!
  • Kevin Gustafson · 1 year ago
    Interesting, I thought the list would be made of films with lots and lots of nudity because we Americans like what Europeans take for granted. Brian, I was under the impression that New Wave is what people hate when they think of French Films. I love Elevator to the Gallows but its more of a Hitchcock story and has a clear ending. I think people hate movies like the 400 Blows or films by Jean Luc-Godard. That doesn't include me by the way.
  • Mathieu Lalonde · 1 year ago
    Irreversible... worst movie ever.

    There's two hours of my life i'll never get back...
  • Chris Mower · 1 year ago
    The list is incomplete without '37°2 le matin', otherwise known as Betty Blue. Definitely in
    my all time top 10 French films.
  • chuckles · 1 year ago
    You forgot Luc Besson's Angel-A.
  • Sarah · 1 year ago
    Honestly, I think movies like "Jules et Jim" and "Jean de Florette" are just as easy for Americans to swallow as classic U.S. flicks. The problem is that they've been mentioned so many times AS classics, everybody assumes they must be a) boring and b) weird.

    While a movie involving a long and intense rape ("Irreversible") doesn't exactly scream "fun" at me, I must say that "Delicatessen" and "City of Lost Children" do.

    I'm the world's biggest "Amelie" fan, and I love "Brotherhood of the Wolf" and "Leon."
  • Tom · 1 year ago
    District B13 for sure. I imagine it'd go a long way to override the "coward" stereotype. David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli are complete badasses. :D
  • Sam · 1 year ago
    District B13

    One of my favorite movies.
    David belle, the creator of parkour, is amazing, as is parkour.
    And that movie haha.
  • Chris · 1 year ago
    C.R.A.Z.Y. Is a pretty funny comedy from Quebec.
  • Postie · 10 months ago
    I'm missing Taxi, one of the best comedies I've ever seen.