Greatest French Directors

1. Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard was born in Paris on December 3, 1930, the second of four children in a bourgeois Franco-Swiss family. His father was a doctor who owned a private clinic, and his mother came from a preeminent family of Swiss bankers. During World War II Godard became a naturalized citizen of ...

2. Jean Renoir

Writer | La règle du jeu

Son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste, he had a happy childhood. Pierre Renoir was his brother, and Claude Renoir was his nephew. After the end of World War I, where he won the Croix de Guerre, he moved from scriptwriting to filmmaking. He married Catherine Hessling, for whom he ...

3. François Truffaut

Writer | La nuit américaine

French director François Truffaut began to assiduously go to the movies at age seven. He was also a great reader but not a good pupil. He left school at 14 and started working. In 1947, aged 15, he founded a film club and met André Bazin, a French critic, who became his protector. Bazin helped the ...

4. Luc Besson

Writer | Le Cinquième Élément

Luc Besson spent the first years of his life following his parents, scuba diving instructors, around the world. His early life was entirely aquatic. He already showed amazing creativity as a youth, writing early drafts of The Big Blue (1988) and The Fifth Element (1997), as an adolescent bored in ...

5. Jean Cocteau

Writer | La Belle et la Bête

Jean Cocteau was one of the most multi-talented artists of the 20th century. In addition to being a director, he was a poet, novelist, painter, playwright, set designer, and actor. He began writing at 10 and was a published poet by age 16. He collaborated with the "Russian Ballet" company of Sergei...

6. Robert Bresson

Writer | Au hasard Balthazar

Robert Bresson trained as a painter before moving into films as a screenwriter, making a short film (atypically a comedy), Public Affairs (1934) in 1934. After spending more than a year as a German POW during World War II, he made his debut with Angels of Sin (1943) in 1943. His next film, The ...

7. Jean Vigo

Writer | Zéro de conduite : Jeunes diables au collège

Jean Vigo had bad health since he was a child. Son of anarchist militant Miguel Almareyda, he also never really recovered from his father's mysterious death in jail when he was 12. Abandoned by his mother, he passed from boarding school to boarding school. Aged 23, through meetings with people ...

8. Louis Malle

Director | Au revoir les enfants

Louis Malle, the descendant of a French nobleman who made a fortune in beet sugar during the Napoleonic Wars, created films that explored life and its meaning. Malle's family discouraged his early interest in film but, in 1950, allowed him to enter the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies ...

9. Jean-Pierre Melville

Writer | Le samouraï

The name "Melville" is not immediately associated with film. It conjures up images of white whales and crackbrained captains, of naysaying notaries and soup-spilling sailors. It is the countersign to a realm of men and their deeds, both heroic and villainous. It is the American novel, with its ...

10. Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Director | Un long dimanche de fiançailles

Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a self-taught director who was very quickly interested by cinema, with a predilection for a fantastic cinema where form is as important as the subject. Thus he started directing TV commercials and video clips (such as Julien Clerc in 1984). At the same time he met designer/...

11. Jacques Tati

Writer | Playtime

The comic genius Jacques Tati was born Taticheff, descended from a noble Russian family. His grandfather, Count Dimitri, had been a general in the Imperial Army and had served as military attaché to the Russian Embassy in Paris. His father, Emmanuel Taticheff, was a well-to-do picture framer who ...

12. Agnès Varda

Director | Cléo de 5 à 7

Agnès Varda was born on May 30, 1928 in Ixelles, Belgium. She was a director and writer, known for Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985) and Faces Places (2017). She was married to Jacques Demy. She died on March 29, 2019 in Paris, France.

13. René Clair

Writer | Le silence est d'or

René Clair was born on November 11, 1898 in Paris, France. He was a writer and director, known for Man About Town (1947), Beauties of the Night (1952) and The Grand Maneuver (1955). He was married to Bronia Clair. He died on March 15, 1981 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

14. Henri-Georges Clouzot

Writer | Le salaire de la peur

Beginning his film career as a screenwriter, Henri-Georges Clouzot switched over to directing and in 1943 had the distinction of having his film The Raven (1943) banned by both the German forces occupying France and the Free French forces fighting them, but for different reasons. He shot to ...

15. Alice Guy

Director | The Woman of Mystery

The world's first female filmmaker, French-born Alice Guy entered the film business in 1896 as a secretary at Gaumont, a manufacturer of movie cameras and projectors who had purchased a "cinématographer" from its inventors, the Lumiere brothers. The next year Gaumont became the world's first motion...

16. Alain Resnais

Director | Hiroshima mon amour

Alain Resnais was born on June 3, 1922 in Vannes, Morbihan, France. He was a director and editor, known for Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), Same Old Song (1997) and My American Uncle (1980). He was married to Sabine Azéma and Florence Malraux. He died on March 1, 2014 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, ...

17. Mathieu Kassovitz

Actor | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain

Mathieu Kassovitz was born on August 3, 1967 in Paris, France. He is an actor and director, known for Amélie (2001), La haine (1995) and The Fifth Element (1997).

18. Éric Rohmer

Director | Ma nuit chez Maud

Admirers have always had difficulty explaining Éric Rohmer's "Je ne sais quoi." Part of the challenge stems from the fact that, despite his place in French Nouvelle Vague (i.e., New Wave), his work is unlike that of his colleagues. While this may be due to the auteur's unwillingness to conform, ...

19. Jacques Rivette

Director | La Belle Noiseuse

Although François Truffaut has written that the New Wave began "thanks to Rivette," the films of this masterful French director are not well known. Rivette, like his "Cahiers du Cinéma" colleagues Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Éric Rohmer, did graduate to filmmaking but, like Rohmer...

20. Jacques Feyder

Director | La kermesse héroïque

Jacques Feyder was born on July 21, 1885 in Ixelles, Brabant, Belgium. He was a director and writer, known for Carnival in Flanders (1935), Le grand jeu (1934) and Fahrendes Volk (1938). He was married to Françoise Rosay. He died on May 24, 1948 in Rive-de-Prangins, Switzerland.

21. Catherine Breillat

Writer | À ma soeur!

Catherine Breillat is a Paris based filmmaker and writer who became famous for her distinctively personal films on sexuality, gender trouble and sibling rivalry. Accused of being a "porno auteuriste", Breillat allowed for an unbiased view of sexuality and extended the language of mainstream movies....

22. Costa-Gavras

Director | Z

Costa-Gavras was born on February 12, 1933 in Loutra-Iraias, Greece. He is a director and writer, known for Z (1969), Missing (1982) and Amen. (2002). He has been married to Michèle Ray-Gavras since 1968. They have two children.

23. Jean Rollin

Director | La nuit des traquées

Jean Rollin was born on November 3, 1938 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a director and writer, known for The Night of the Hunted (1980). He was married to Simone Rollin. He died on December 15, 2010 in Paris, France.

24. Claude Chabrol

Director | Le beau Serge

Claude Chabrol was born on June 24, 1930 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for Le Beau Serge (1958), La Cérémonie (1995) and Story of Women (1988). He was married to Aurore Chabrol, Stéphane Audran and Agnès Goute. He died on September 12, 2010 in Paris, France.

25. Francis Veber

Writer | Le dîner de cons

Francis Veber was born on July 28, 1937 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France. He is a writer and director, known for Le Dîner de Cons (1998), The Birdcage (1996) and Ruby & Quentin (2003). He has been married to Françoise Veber since January 11, 1964. They have two ...

26. Bertrand Tavernier

Director | Un dimanche à la campagne

Bertrand Tavernier was the son of Geneviève (Dumond) and René Tavernier, who was a publicist, writer, and president of the French PEN club. He was a law student that preferred write film criticisms. He also wrote a few books about American movies. Then his first film won a few awards in France and ...

27. Claire Denis

Director | High Life

The films of Claire Denis frequently explore the fragile connections between people and the ways in which the most seemingly inconsequential relationship can have life-changing effects. At the heart of Denis' cinema is a fascination with the delights and difficulties of belonging and otherness, the...

28. Claude Berri

Writer | Jean de Florette

Claude Berri was born on July 1, 1934 in Paris, France. He was a producer and actor, known for Jean de Florette (1986), Germinal (1993) and The Two of Us (1967). He was married to Sylvie Gautrelet and Anne-Marie Rassam. He died on January 12, 2009 in Paris, France.

29. Abel Gance

Writer | La roue

Born an illegitimate son of a wealthy physician, Abel Flamant, and a working class mother, Francoise Perethon. He was raised by his mother and her boyfriend, who later became her husband, Adolphe Gance. Pressured by his parents, he began his working career as a lawyer's clerk in hopes of achieving ...

30. Georges Méliès

Director | À la conquête du pôle

Georges Méliès was a French illusionist and film director famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema.

Méliès was an especially prolific innovator in the use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, ...

31. Maurice Tourneur

Director | Au nom de la loi

Screenwriter and director Maurice Tourneur was born Maurice Thomas in the Parisian suburb of Belleville on February 2, 1873, the son of a jewelry merchant. He was trained and employed as a graphic designer and a magazine illustrator as a young man. After serving in a French artillery unit in ...

32. Claude Lelouch

Director | Un homme et une femme

He started off by making short films for television on which he was producer,screenwriter and cameraman. This was interrupted by military service in the army but only partly as he was put into the army film unit where he made over 100 films. Demobbed in 1960 he used family money for his first ...

33. François Ozon

Director | Dans la maison

François Ozon was born on November 15, 1967 in Paris, France. He is a director and writer, known for In the House (2012), 8 Women (2002) and Swimming Pool (2003).

34. René Clément

Director | Jeux interdits

René Clément was one of the leading French directors of the post-World War II era. He directed what are regarded as some of the greatest films of the time, such as The Battle of the Rails (1946), Forbidden Games (1952) and The Day and the Hour (1963). He was later almost forgotten as a director. He...

35. Olivier Assayas

Writer | Personal Shopper

Olivier Assayas is a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is best know for his films Demonlover (2002), Something in the Air (2012), Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) and Personal Shopper (2016).

Assayas is the son of French director/screenwriter Raymond Assayas, alias Jacques Rémy.

His ...

36. Marcel Carné

Director | Le quai des brumes

Marcel Carné, the son of a cabinet maker, entered the movies as the assistant of Jacques Feyder. At the age of 25 he directed his first movie Jenny (1936). Colaborating with the writer Jacques Prévert, the decorator Alexandre Trauner, the musician and composer Maurice Jaubert and the actor Jean ...

37. Roger Vadim

Writer | Barbarella

Roger Vadim was born on January 26, 1928 in Paris, France. He was a writer and director, known for Barbarella (1968), The Game Is Over (1966) and No Sun in Venice (1957). He was married to Marie-Christine Barrault, Catherine Schneider, Jane Fonda, Annette Stroyberg and Brigitte Bardot. He died on ...

38. Bertrand Blier

Writer | Le bruit des glaçons

Bertrand Blier was born on March 14, 1939 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Seine [now Hauts-de-Seine], France. He is a writer and director, known for The Clink of Ice (2010), Too Beautiful for You (1989) and 1, 2, 3, Freeze (1993).

39. Jacques Becker

Writer | Le trou

His interest in films was stimulated by a meeting with King Vidor, who offered him employment in the US as actor and assistant director. However, he remained in France and became assistant to Jean Renoir, a friend of the family, during that director's peak period (1932-39). In 1934 he ventured ...

40. Marcel Ophüls

Director | Hôtel Terminus

Marcel Ophuls (actually Marcel Oppenheimer) is the son of the famous German film maker Max Ophüls. He spent his formative years in Hollywood, briefly served with a U.S. Army theatrical unit in Japan in 1946 and then attended the University of California, Berkely. In 1950, already a naturalized ...

41. Jean Epstein

Director | La chute de la maison Usher

Jean Epstein was born on March 25, 1897 in Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire [now Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland]. He was a director and writer, known for The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), Mauprat (1926) and Le lion des Mogols (1924). He died on April 2, 1953 in Paris, France.

42. Jacques Demy

Soundtrack | Les parapluies de Cherbourg

Jacques Demy was born on June 5, 1931 in Pontchâteau, Loire-Atlantique, France. He was a director and writer, known for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and A Room in Town (1982). He was married to Agnès Varda. He died on October 27, 1990 in Paris, France.

43. Marguerite Duras

Writer | Le camion

Ms. Duras was born in southern Vietnam and lost her father at age 4. The family savings of 20 years bought the family a small plot in Cambodia, but everything was lost in a single season's flooding. The disaster killed her mother as a result. After high school in Saigon, Ms. Duras left Indochina to...

44. Patrice Leconte

Director | Ridicule

Patrice Leconte was born on November 12, 1947 in Paris, France. He is a director and writer, known for Ridicule (1996), La fille sur le pont (1999) and Man on the Train (2002).

45. Gaspar Noé

Director | Enter the Void

Gaspar Noé is an Argentinian filmmaker and screenwriter who lives in France. He is the son of Luis Felipe Noé, an Argentinian artist. He directed I Stand Alone, Irréversible, Enter the Void, Love, Climax, Carne, Lux Æterna, Sodomites and Vortex. His films are known for having a sensory overload ...

46. Max Ophüls

Director | La ronde

Director Max Ophüls was born Max Oppenheimer in Saarbrücken, Germany. He began his career as a stage actor and director in the golden twenties. He worked in cities such as Stuttgart, Dortmund, Wuppertal, Vienna, Frankfurt, Breslau and Berlin. In 1929 his son Marcel Ophüls was born in Frankfurt, ...

47. Marcel Camus

Director | Orfeu Negro

The work of Marcel Camus is characterized by a lyricism which, although central to his fine films of the 1950s and 60s - Fugitive in Saigon (1957), Black Orpheus (1959) and Love in the Night (1968) - later deteriorated into superficial sentimentality. Camus was a professor of painting and sculpture...

48. Julien Duvivier

Writer | Panique

Revered by such legendary fellow directors as Ingmar Bergman and Jean Renoir, Julien Duvivier is one of the most legendary figures in the history of French cinema. He is perhaps the most neglected of the "Big Five" of classic French cinema (the other four being Jean Renoir, Rene Clair, Jacques ...

49. Georges Franju

Director | Les yeux sans visage

Georges Franju is a figure of immense importance in the history of French cinema, not primarily for his films (exceptional though many of these are) but for being the co-founder, with Henri Langlois, of the Cinematheque Française in 1937--France's most famous and important film archive.

He worked ...

50. Alain Robbe-Grillet

Writer | Un bruit qui rend fou

Born in Brest, France, in 1922, Alain Robbe-Grillet initially studied mathematics and biology. He graduated from the Paris-based Institut National Agronomique (National Institute of Agronomy) in 1945 and embarked on a career of scientific research in the tropics and in France. Then at age 30 he ...

51. Marcel Pagnol

Writer | La fille du puisatier

Marcel Pagnol was born on February 28, 1895 in Aubagne, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. He was a writer and producer, known for The Well-Digger's Daughter (1940), Jean de Florette (1986) and Le schpountz (1938). He was married to Jacqueline Pagnol and Simone Collin. He died on April 18, 1974 in Paris, ...

52. Leos Carax

Director | Holy Motors

Leos Carax made several short films and also wrote film criticism, then at the age of 24 years made a very strong first feature Boy Meets Girl (1984). The film played at the 1984 Cannes film festival and was a critical triumph. It paved the way for Carax's second feature Bad Blood (1986) (Bad Blood...

53. Jean-Paul Rappeneau

Writer | Cyrano de Bergerac

Jean-Paul Rappeneau was born on April 8, 1932 in Auxerre, Yonne, France. He is a writer and director, known for Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), A Matter of Resistance (1966) and Bon Voyage (2003).

54. Émile Cohl

Director | L'agent de poche

Pioneering animator Emile Cohl was born Emile Eugène Jean Louis Courtet in Paris, France, in 1857. He began his career as a caricaturist, cartoonist and writer in his 20s, and in 1908 he was hired by the Gaumont film company as a writer. He soon also became a director, turning out comedies and ...

55. Marc Allégret

Director | Entrée des artistes

Marc Allégret was born on December 22, 1900 in Basel, Switzerland. He was a director and writer, known for The Curtain Rises (1938), Avec André Gide (1951) and Julietta (1953). He was married to Nadine Vogel. He died on November 3, 1973 in Paris, France.

56. Diane Kurys

Director | Pour une femme

Diane Kurys was born on December 3, 1948 in Lyon, Rhône, France. She is an actress and director, known for For a Woman (2013), Entre Nous (1983) and Peppermint Soda (1977).

57. Claude Autant-Lara

Director | Le diable au corps

Claude Autant-Lara was born on August 5, 1901 in Luzarches, Val-d'Oise, France. He was a director and writer, known for Devil in the Flesh (1947), The Crossing of Paris (1956) and The Red and the Black (1954). He was married to Ghislaine Autant-Lara. He died on February 5, 2000 in Antibes, ...

58. Coline Serreau

Writer | 3 hommes et un couffin

Coline Serreau was born on October 29, 1947 in Paris, France. She is an actress and writer, known for Three Men and a Cradle (1985), Why Not! (1977) and Chaos (2001). She was previously married to Benno Besson.

59. André Téchiné

Writer | Les roseaux sauvages

André Téchiné was born on March 13, 1943 in Valence, Tarn-et-Garonne, France. He is a writer and director, known for Wild Reeds (1994), Rendez-vous (1985) and Being 17 (2016).

60. Chris Marker

Writer | 12 Monkeys

Chris Marker was born on July 29, 1921 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a writer and director, known for 12 Monkeys (1995), Sans Soleil (1983) and Third Side of the Coin (1960). He died on July 29, 2012 in Paris, France.

61. Sacha Guitry

Writer | Les perles de la couronne

French actor, dramatist and director, Sacha Guitry was born in 1885 in Saint-Petersburg where his father, actor Lucien Guitry, was under contract with the city's French theater. Early on, Sacha knew he was going to be an artist. Therefore, his studies were mediocre.

His acting debuts were not too ...

62. Jean Grémillon

Director | Pattes blanches

An educated man, Jean Grémillon (b.1898) should almost be mentioned in the same breath as the big five of the golden age of the French cinema (Carné, Renoir, Duvivier, Feyder and Clair). Some of his plans never came to anything: for instance, after World War 2, only three movies, which is too few ...

63. Jean Rouch

Director | Moi, un noir

Jean Rouch was born on May 31, 1917 in Paris, France. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Moi, un noir (1958), Madame L'Eau (1993) and Six in Paris (1965). He was married to Joselyne Lamothe. He died on February 18, 2004 in Birni N'Konni, Niger.

64. Louis Lumière

Producer | La Mi-Carême, Char et batailles de confettis

Louis Lumière was a French engineer and industrialist who played a key role in the development of photography and cinema. His parents were Antoine Lumière, a photographer and painter, and Jeanne Joséphine Costille Lumière, who were married in 1861 and moved to Besançon, setting up a small ...

65. Germaine Dulac

Director | Âme d'artiste

The daughter of a cavalry captain, she was raised by a grandmother in Paris, where she studied various forms of art with an emphasis on music and the opera. In 1905 she married engineer-novelist Marie-Louis Albert-Dulac and under his influence veered toward journalism. As one of the leading radical...

66. Raymond Bernard

Director | Anne-Marie

Raymond Bernard was born on October 10, 1891 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for Anne-Marie (1936), Adieu... Chérie (1946) and La maison vide (1921). He was married to Jeanne Salley. He died on December 11, 1977 in Paris, France.

67. Xavier Beauvois

Writer | Des hommes et des dieux

Xavier Beauvois was born on March 20, 1967 in Auchel, Pas-de-Calais, France. He is an actor and writer, known for Of Gods and Men (2010), North (1991) and Don't Forget You're Going to Die (1995).

68. Gérard Oury

Writer | Le corniaud

Gérard Oury was born on April 29, 1919 in Paris, France. He was an actor and writer, known for The Sucker (1965), The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973) and Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (1966). He was married to Jacqueline Roman. He died on July 19, 2006 in Saint-Tropez, Var, France.

69. Philippe de Broca

Director | L'homme de Rio

Philippe de Broca born in 1933 worked as an assistant for Claude Chabrol and Francois Truffaut ( "Les 400 coups" aka "The 400 blows" ). From 1960 to 2004 he directed over 30 full-length feature films, including the highly successful adventure movies such as "That Man from Rio" (L'Homme de Rio) in ...

70. Maurice Pialat

Director | À nos amours

Maurice Pialat was a French film director. Film critics have noted the naturalist style of his films, and their autobiographical elements.

Pialat obtained his first camera when only 16-years-old, but his early career involved creating documentary short films. His ambition was to become a painter and...

71. Louis Feuillade

Director | Les vampires

A prolific director--over 700 films, most of them short- or medium-length--Louis Feuillade began his career with Gaumont where, as well as directing his own features, he was appointed artistic director in charge of production in 1907. His work was largely comprised of film series; his first series,...

72. Nicolas Philibert

Director | Être et avoir

Nicolas Philibert was born on January 10, 1951 in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France. He is a director and writer, known for To Be and to Have (2002), La Maison de la radio (2013) and In the Land of the Deaf (1992).

73. Jean-Pierre Gorin

Director | Tout va bien

Jean-Pierre Gorin was born on April 17, 1943 in Paris, France. He is a director and writer, known for All's Well (1972), My Crasy Life (1992) and Spy Games (1999).

74. Claude Sautet

Writer | Un coeur en hiver

Claude Sautet was born on February 23, 1924 in Montrouge, Seine [now Hauts-de-Seine], France. He was a writer and director, known for A Heart in Winter (1992), Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (1995) and The Things of Life (1970). He was married to Graziella Sautet. He died on July 22, 2000 in Paris, ...

75. Luc Moullet

Director | La comédie du travail

Luc Moullet was born on October 14, 1937 in Paris, France. He is a director and writer, known for La comédie du travail (1988), Les contrebandières (1968) and Le système Zsygmondy (2001).

76. Arnaud Desplechin

Director | Rois et reine

Arnaud Desplechin was born on October 31, 1960 in Roubaix, Nord, France. He is a director and writer, known for Kings & Queen (2004), The Sentinel (1992) and La vie des morts (1991).

77. Philippe Garrel

Writer | Les amants réguliers

Philippe Garrel was born on April 6, 1948 in Paris, France. He is a writer and director, known for Regular Lovers (2005), I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar (1991) and Liberté, la nuit (1984).

78. Yves Allégret

Director | Les orgueilleux

Yves Allégret was born on October 13, 1905 in Asnières-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a director and writer, known for The Proud and the Beautiful (1953), La meilleure part (1955) and Dédée d'Anvers (1948). He was married to Michèle Cordoue, Simone Signoret and Renée ...

79. Alexandre Astruc

Director | Les mauvaises rencontres

Born in Paris on July 13th 1923, Alexandre Astruc is the son of a couple of journalists. Very good at school, he attended a preparatory school for Polytechnique but finally became both a law and an arts graduate. First a literary critic, he soon specialized as a film critic and worked for various ...

80. Jean-Pierre Mocky

Director | Litan

As an actor he became popular as Albert de Morcerf in a version of The Count of Monte Cristo (1954), fame and adulation followed with his Francois in Head Against the Wall (1959). As a director he became famous with anarcho-pictures, brilliant cynic comedies. His preferred actors in all decades were...

81. Jean Eustache

Editor | La maman et la putain

Jean Eustache was born on November 30, 1938 in Pessac, Gironde, France. He was an editor and director, known for The Mother and the Whore (1973), My Little Loves (1974) and Les photos d'Alix (1982). He died on November 3, 1981 in Paris, France.

82. Marcel L'Herbier

Director | L'inhumaine

Marcel L'Herbier was born on April 23, 1888 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for L'inhumaine (1924), Le bonheur (1934) and Sacrifice d'honneur (1935). He was married to Marcelle Pradot. He died on November 26, 1979 in Paris, France.

83. Robert Guédiguian

Producer | Marius et Jeannette

Robert Guédiguian was born on December 3, 1953 in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. He is a producer and writer, known for Marius and Jeannette (1997), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (2011) and La ville est tranquille (2000). He has been married to Ariane Ascaride since 1975.

84. Jacques Doillon

Director | Le petit criminel

Jacques Doillon was born on March 15, 1944 in Paris, France. He is a director and writer, known for The Little Gangster (1990), Ponette (1996) and Young Werther (1993).

85. Guy Debord

Writer | In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni

Guy Debord was born on December 28, 1931 in Paris, France. He was a writer and director, known for In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni (1978), Howlings in Favour of De Sade (1952) and Fuerza nueva: Canción para los obreros de Seat (2019). He was married to Alice Becker-Ho and Michele ...

86. Pierre Clémenti

Actor | Belle de jour

Pierre Clémenti was born on September 28, 1942 in Paris, France. He was an actor and director, known for Belle de Jour (1967), The Leopard (1963) and À l'ombre de la canaille bleue (1986). He was married to Margareth Clémenti. He died on December 27, 1999 in Paris, France.

87. Nelly Kaplan

Writer | Charles et Lucie

Nelly Kaplan was born on April 11, 1931 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was a writer and director, known for Charles and Lucie (1979), Papa, the Lil' Boats (1971) and A Very Curious Girl (1969). She died on November 12, 2020 in Geneva, Canton de Genève, Switzerland.

88. Eduardo de Gregorio

Writer | Corps perdus

Eduardo de Gregorio was born on September 12, 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was a writer and director, known for Corps perdus (1989), Stolen Tangos (2001) and Surreal Estate (1976). He died on October 13, 2012 in Paris, France.

89. Jacques Doniol-Valcroze

Director | La dénonciation

Jacques Doniol-Valcroze was a French critic, actor, and director. He was born March 15, 1920 in Paris, France. Doniol-Valcroze is known for having co-founded the film magazine "Cahiers du Cinéma" in 1951 along with partners André Bazin and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. The magazine was first edited by ...

90. Alain Tanner

Director | Charles mort ou vif (petite fresque historique)

Alain Tanner was born on December 6, 1929 in Geneva, Switzerland. He was a director and writer, known for Charles, Dead or Alive (1969), In the White City (1983) and Return from Africa (1973). He was married to Janine Giudici. He died on September 11, 2022 in Geneva, Canton de Genève, Switzerland.

Swiss director