Good French Movies From the 70s
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- DirectorJacques RouffioStarsMichel PiccoliGérard DepardieuJane BirkinDr. Brézé and his sons, all surgeons with limited abilities fight any competition on their sector with all means.
- DirectorGuy GillesStarsDanièle DelormeNathalie DelonPatrick PennYoung man Francois Nole works in a Bank. Often skips a walk, and one day he never comes to work. He goes to bed and refuses stand. Francois is a heroin addict, who has lost the joy of life. Nothing could bring him back from the darkness and despair no mother, no friends, no holidays, no love. One day, he suddenly changes,it becomes cheerful and calm...
- DirectorClaude Bernard-AubertStarsJeanne AllardMax AmylMichel BertayThis film explores the ins and outs of the Dominici Affair that made the headlines back in 1952. As a result of the case, a family man named Gaston Dominici was sentenced to death for the slaying of a family of English tourists alongside a road running past his property, despite the existence of no material proof or motive to incriminate him.
- DirectorYannick BellonStarsNathalie NellAlain FourèsMichèle SimonnetNicole, nurse in Grenoble, is raped one night by four men. Deeply scarred, emotionally and physically, she thinks she will never recover from the trauma. Following a friend's advice, she decides to file a lawsuit.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsGeorges DesmouceauxPhilippe GoldmannNicole FélixThe lives of a motherless boy, who is just starting to get interested in women, and his physically abused friend, who lives in poverty, are mixed with more or less innocent childhood experiences and challenges of a number of children.
- DirectorAndré CayatteStarsAnnie GirardotHardy KrügerBernard FressonAfter her daughter is kidnapped and killed, a mother discovers that there can be something even worse after "the worst."
- DirectorAndré TéchinéStarsIsabelle AdjaniGérard DepardieuMarie-France PisierThe story of a girl in love with a boxer. They plan to go abroad after making a lot of money by participating in an interview intended to discredit a politician at elections time. But the boxer is killed, and the murderer, little by little, falls in love with the girl who finally accepts him at the condition that he looks like the boxer he killed.
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsStéphane AudranJean YanneAntonio PassaliaAn unlikely friendship between a dour, working class butcher and a repressed schoolteacher coincides with a grisly series of Ripper-type murders in a provincial French town.
- DirectorPatrice LeconteStarsJosiane BalaskoLuis RegoMarie-Anne ChazelHolidaymakers arriving in a Club Med camp on the Ivory Coast are determined to forget their everyday problems and emotional disappointments. Games, competitions, outings, bathing and sunburn accompany a continual succession of casual affairs.
- DirectorPatrice LeconteStarsJosiane BalaskoMichel BlancMarie-Anne ChazelEight tourists who met in a holiday camp on the Ivory Coast are reunited for a skiing holiday.
- DirectorÉdouard MolinaroStarsUgo TognazziMichel SerraultClaire MaurierThe manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and his star attraction, are a gay couple. Madness ensues when his straight son brings home a fiancée and her ultra-conservative parents to meet them.
- DirectorNadine TrintignantStarsCatherine DeneuveMarcello MastroianniSerge MarquandCatherine and Marcello are secluded in their house, living under the candlelight. Unable to accept the injustice behind the loss of their nine-month-old baby, they face a slow but definite self-destruction.
- DirectorClaude SautetStarsYves MontandRomy SchneiderSami FreyCesar is in love with Rosalie. But Rosalie isn't making it easy for him, especially when her old flame enters the picture.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsFernando ReyCarole BouquetÁngela MolinaRecounted in flashback are the romantic perils of Mathieu, a middle-aged French sophisticate as he falls for his nineteen-year-old former chambermaid Conchita.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsFernando ReyDelphine SeyrigPaul FrankeurA surreal, virtually plotless series of dreams centered around six middle-class people and their consistently interrupted attempts to have a meal together.
- DirectorPierre Granier-DeferreStarsJean GabinSimone SignoretAnnie CordyIn 1971 Courbevoie (France), former typographist Julien Bouin and his wife Clemence, who used to perform in a circus, hardly talk to each other in their small house, which is soon to be demolished. To Clemence's anger, Julien's cat Greffier is the only one who gets his attention, let alone love.
- DirectorClaude SautetStarsMichel PiccoliRomy SchneiderGérard LartigauA highway engineer is involved in a car crash, after which, near death, he remembers his life leading up to the accident.
- DirectorCosta-GavrasStarsYves MontandRomy SchneiderRomolo ValliTwo strangers help each other survive a night of great loss.
- DirectorYves BoissetStarsAnnie GirardotPatrick DewaereStéphane JobertThe life of Marie, a French teacher, is completely upset by the arrival in her class of a hectic schoolboy.
- DirectorYves RobertStarsJean RochefortCatherine DeneuvePhilippe LeroyAt forty years old, Martin Belhomme leads a quiet life with his wife and two children. One day, he falls hopelessly in love with Eva, a cabaret singer. He decides to follow her to Amsterdam. From then on, his life becomes very eventful.
- DirectorJean-Charles TacchellaStarsMarie-Christine BarraultVictor LanouxMarie-France PisierTwo distant cousins meet at a wedding banquet for an elderly couple. Over time, a close friendship develops between them, but their spouses begin to think that they are more than just friends.
- DirectorClaude GorettaStarsIsabelle HuppertYves BeneytonFlorence GiorgettiA reserved young woman moves into an apartment with a young student she met while on vacation.
- DirectorDiane KurysStarsEléonore KlarweinOdile MichelAnouk FerjacA year in the life of two adolescent sisters at an all-girls school in France as they experience a rapid-fire onslaught of 'firsts' during a time of political protest and social change.
- DirectorClaude MillerStarsGérard DepardieuMiou-MiouClaude PiépluA man is desperately attaining beloved woman, despite her husband and child.
- DirectorJean-Louis BertuccelliStarsAnnie GirardotJean-Pierre CasselFrançois PérierDr. Françoise Gailland has a hectic schedule, which causes her to have little time to spend with her family, which consists of her husband Gérard, her pregnant teenager daughter Élisabeth, and her sullen son Julien. However, she does manage to find the time to spend with her lover, Daniel Letessier. While her life in such disarray, she learns that she has cancer. Françoise tries to put a brave face on it, and is determined to face the life-threatening disease with courage.
- DirectorJacques DoillonStarsClaude HébertMadeleine DesdevisesPaulette LahayeMisfit François kidnaps young Mado and takes her to live with him in the attic of his parents' home. A strange relationship evolves till the police comes upon them.
- DirectorYves BoissetStarsJean CarmetPierre TornadeJean BouiseA family holiday turns to tragedy when hostilities between the French holidaymakers and a group of local Arab workers turns violent.
- DirectorJacques DoillonStarsDominique LaffinHaydée PolitoffJacques DoillonJacques has a child with Dominique: Lola. His mistress is Haydée and they are having a child.
- DirectorGérard OuryStarsLouis de FunèsYves MontandAlice SapritchIn 17th-century Spain, the Minister of Finance tries to dishonor the queen with an overly complex plan.
- DirectorClaude PinoteauStarsLino VenturaAnnie GirardotIsabelle AdjaniGeography professor Jean has divorced his wife. His mistress has also left him. He has to do everything he can to be able to win his young daughter Isabelle's love and affection.
- DirectorJean ChapotStarsSimone SignoretAlain DelonPaul CrauchetThe body of a young woman is discovered near a farm. The judge Larcher is in charge and thinks that the farmers (Rose and Pierre) have a link with the murder.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsIsabelle AdjaniBruce RobinsonSylvia MarriottThe story of Adèle Hugo's unrequited love for a lieutenant.
- DirectorBertrand TavernierStarsPhilippe NoiretJean RochefortJacques DenisA Watchmaker finds out one day that his son has become a murderer. He tries to understand for whom and why.
- DirectorAndrzej ZulawskiStarsRomy SchneiderFabio TestiJacques DutroncServais Mont, a photographer, meets Nadine Chevalier who earns her money starring in cheap soft-core movies. Trying to help her, he borrows the money from the loan sharks to finance the theatrical production of 'Richard III' and gives Nadine a part. Nadine is torn apart between Servais, for whom she is falling in love, and her husband Jacques, to whom she has moral obligations.
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsRomy SchneiderRod SteigerFrançois MaistreSaint Tropez, 1975. Julie Wormser and her neighbour Jeff Marle, a writer, are lovers. They plan the assassination of Julie's wealthy husband Louis, an impotent who drinks a lot. She hits Louis, and leaves the rest of the task to Jeff. She finds herself alone the following day, and becomes the prime suspect. Where is Louis' body? Where is Jeff? Is there any secret beyond a door?
- DirectorBertrand TavernierStarsPhilippe NoiretMichel GalabruIsabelle HuppertAn unstable former French Sergeant commits many atrocities. A judge considers how this case could benefit or damage his career.
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsCeliaMarina NinchiMichel BouquetCharles Masson, an advertising executive, is having an affair with Laura, the wife of his best friend, the architect François Tellier. Charles strangles Laura when one of their S&M games goes too far. Dazed, Charles walks out of the borrowed apartment in Paris and soon bumps into François in a nearby bistro. They drive back together to Versailles, where they have beautiful neighboring houses designed by François. The owner of the apartment had seen Laura and Charles together two months earlier, but she does not tell the police on the advice of François. Even though the police do not seem to have any clues to the crime, Charles has a difficult time coping with the situation, and trying to live a normal life with his two children and loving wife Hélène.
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsPierre BlaiseAurore ClémentHolger LöwenadlerIn 1944, an 18-year-old boy from small-town France collaborates with the Gestapo and subsequently falls in love with a Jewish girl.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsRoman PolanskiIsabelle AdjaniMelvyn DouglasA bureaucrat rents a Paris apartment where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.
- DirectorClaude SautetStarsDanielle DurouAlain BelartMichel PiccoliA detective decides to go undercover and set up a group of robbers, but he may be getting too caught up in the task at hand.
- DirectorClaude MillerStarsPatrick DewaerePatrick BouchiteyChristine PascalIn a vacation camp somewhere in the French country, 1960. Marc et Philippe are two of the counsellors. Marc is very virile, while Philippe is more reserved. A night, Marc surprises Philippe dressed and made-up like a woman. From now on, he will keep on humiliating Philippe...
- DirectorAlain CorneauStarsYves MontandCarole LaureMarie DuboisThe main character is unhappily married and has an affair. When his wife finds out, she lures his girlfriend to a cliff and throws herself of it, making the girlfriend look as her killer. The main character then tries to draw suspicion from his girlfriend to himself. It appears he wil succeed...
- DirectorAndré CayatteStarsAnnie GirardotBruno PradalClaude CervalA love story between a teacher, Daniele, 32 years and one of her students Gerard, 17 during the heated atmosphere of May 68. Daniele is a fiery young woman, very involved politically. Gerard's parents accuse Danièle of statutory rape and complain. Danièle is trapped and the drama begins .
- DirectorMichel DevilleStarsJean-Louis TrintignantJean-Pierre CasselRomy SchneiderA cynical tragicomedy focusing on the different ways of love in the times of the sexual revolution.
- DirectorJoseph LoseyStarsAlain DelonJeanne MoreauFrancine BergéIn German-occupied Paris, an immoral art dealer, Robert Klein, leads a life of luxury, until a copy of a Jewish newspaper brings him to the attention of the police, linking him with a mysterious doppelgänger. Will Mr. Klein clear his name?
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsStéphane AudranMichel PiccoliClaude PiépluLucienne Delamare and Pierre Maury are having an affair. Lucienne's husband Paul is the mayor, and a French deputy. Pierre's wife Clotilde has been weak and sickly for years. Lucienne's husband holds no excitement for her, and he is always away in Paris on business. Pierre is now the vice-mayor, thanks to Paul. Lucienne and Pierre have a secret meeting spot by a lake along a country lane. Pierre's wife dies suddenly, by suicide the town gossips believe. Pierre confesses otherwise to Lucienne. Paul proposes a shady land deal which will "benefit the town", and wants Pierre's political support and collusion. Then Paul discovers proof of his wife's affair...
- DirectorYves RobertStarsJean RochefortClaude BrasseurGuy BedosSequel to Pardon Mon Affaire. Four men continue to explore the fallout from their personal lives. This time they buy a house in the country, but struggle to escape their troubles.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsMarlène JobertJean YanneChristine FabrégaA husband and wife in a loveless marriage struggle to remain ignorant to their failed relationship.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJacqueline BissetJean-Pierre LéaudFrançois TruffautA committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsSabine HaudepinPhilippe MarlaudAnnick AlaneA study of a group of young working class people in a French village, who are embarking upon adult life. The film follows the choices and decisions made for their futures.
- DirectorJacques DemyStarsCatherine DeneuveJean MaraisJacques PerrinA fairy godmother helps a princess disguise and flee the kingdom so she won't have to marry the king who happens to be her father.
- DirectorColine SerreauStarsSami FreyChristine MurilloMario GonzalesThe eventful life of a three-way household in a suburban pavilion arouses the curiosity of those around them, including that of a police inspector.
- DirectorMichel DrachStarsPierre AgilPaul AnrieuSerge AvedikianA film version of author Gilles Perrault's best-selling book about the 1976 trial and execution of Christian Ranucci, the youth who was convicted with extremely inconclusive evidence of murdering an eight-year-old girl in Southern France. The publicity the book and film helped abolish capital punishment in France in 1981.
- DirectorBertrand TavernierStarsPhilippe NoiretJean RochefortJean-Pierre MarielleA look at 18th-century France, when the authorities depravity contributed to social oppression, and the uprisings flared up one after another.
- DirectorLéonard KeigelStarsRomy SchneiderMaurice RonetGabriele TintiMarina and her boyfriend have an argument while on a trip in France. While driving with the car among the cliffs, he starts speeding and the car falls into the sea. Marina can jump out of the car, but her boyfriend seems to be drowned. She gets to know his brother and he falls in love with her. But why does she always feel watched? What reasons are behind her strange behaviour anyway? Did she really murder her boyfriend? But is he dead anyway?
- DirectorMichel DevilleStarsMaurice RonetFrançoise FabianJean Vilar1830, somewhere in France. Aurore is a young, beautiful and virtuous widow. She meets Raphael, a man of leisure, a debauchee. Raphael is obsessed by the death, and wait for it by chasing women and drinking. He first tries to seduce her, but is impressed by her and gives up. But Aurore felt in love with him, and tries not to look as inacessible. A romantic drama, with dispair, cynism, disgust for life and love.
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsStéphane AudranJean-Pierre CasselMichel BouquetA father injures his son. He moves in with parents who blame the child's mother. They hire someone to find info about her for an upcoming custody hearing. He and girlfriend secretly lodge at her boarding home to undermine her life.
- DirectorJean-Paul RappeneauStarsYves MontandCatherine DeneuveLuigi VannucchiMartin lives alone on a Caribbean island. On an excursion to the port city, he helps Nelly, who has fled from her groom.
- DirectorAlain CorneauStarsPatrick DewaereMyriam BoyerMarie TrintignantFranck Poupart is a slightly neurotic door-to-door salesman in a sinister part of Paris' suburbs. He meets Mona, a teenager, who's been made a prostitute by her own aunt. Franck would like to change his life and also save Mona from her aunt. Murder is the only solution he finds to achieve his goal... A very gloomy movie, exuding despair and uneasiness, with pathetic characters.
- DirectorClaude LelouchStarsCatherine DeneuveAnouk AiméeCharles DennerCatherine has just served a prison sentence for complicity in the murder of her boss who raped her. There she gives birth to a son, Simon. After her release she wants to make up for the lost years and tries to built up a close relationship to her already grown-up son. Despite some tensions when she finds out that he has a love affair with her best girl-friend, her efforts work out and in the "happy" end they become a real family when she finds the perfect lover - Simon's teacher.
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsLea MassariBenoît FerreuxDaniel GélinAs France is nearing the end of the first Indochina War, an open-minded teenage boy finds himself torn between a rebellious urge to discover love, and the ever-present, almost dominating affection of his beloved mother.
- DirectorAndré TéchinéStarsJeanne MoreauMichel AuclairMarie-France PisierIn the 1930s, we follow the story of the laundress Berthe who marries the eldest son of a bourgeois family.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsNastassja KinskiPeter FirthLeigh LawsonA strong-willed young peasant girl attracts the affection of two men.
- DirectorPierre Granier-DeferreStarsJean-Louis TrintignantRomy SchneiderMaurice BiraudTwo people, a Frenchman Julien Maroyeur and a Jewish German woman (Anna Kupfer) met on a train while escaping the German army entering France.
- DirectorAlain JessuaStarsAlain DelonAnnie GirardotRobert HirschA French businesswoman goes to a remote and popular rejuvenation clinic after a breakup, and begins to suspect the treatment methods used by the head doctor, and slowly uncovers the horrible secret behind the clinic's success.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsCatherine DeneuveFernando ReyFranco NeroShortly after her mother's death, an innocent and youthful woman will find refuge into the household of her middle-aged aristocratic guardian, who will submit her to his sexual advances.
- DirectorPierre Granier-DeferreStarsRomy SchneiderPhilippe NoiretVictor LanouxMargot Santorini is an aristocratic woman in 1936 in Greece, who amuses herself pursuing a shallow loveless affair with a nobleman, but unexpectedly falls in love with a political activist.
- DirectorClaude SautetStarsRomy SchneiderClaude BrasseurBruno CremerA simple story about simple people. A 38 year old divorced woman (Marie), who now has a lover (Serge) but decides to leave him, abort his baby, and then returns with her ex-husband (Georges). Their daily life and of their friends, who have the same typical problems.
- DirectorYves RobertStarsJean RochefortClaude BrasseurGuy BedosAs loyal as a dove, a family man is about to tell his first lie to his wife when he falls for an enchanting woman in a billowy red dress. With a bit of help, he just might get what he wishes for; however, is love always a bed of roses?
- DirectorJacques DoillonStarsRichard ConstantiniPaul-Eric ShulmannJoseph GoldenbergTwo young French Jewish boys and their family struggle to survive in WWII during the invasion of Germans.
- DirectorBertrand BlierStarsGérard DepardieuMiou-MiouPatrick DewaereTwo thugs harass assault, steal, murder, Marie-Ange, a jaded, passive hairdresser, joins them as lover, cook, and mother confessor, on her own search for seemingly unattainable sexual pleasure.
- DirectorPierre Granier-DeferreStarsAlain DelonSimone SignoretOttavia PiccoloJohn, an escaped convict, takes refuge on the farm of Widow Couderc. He becomes the older woman's lover and admits that he's on the run. The widow's in-laws, who despise her,
- DirectorMoshé MizrahiStarsSimone SignoretMichal Bat-AdamSamy Ben-YoubMadame Rosa, an ex-prostitute of Jewish origin, lives in a dilapidated old building in Belleville. Tired and worn out by life, she looks after young children, placed in her care by the social welfare people.
- DirectorRobert EnricoStarsPhilippe NoiretRomy SchneiderJean BouiseDuring World War II, a peaceful French surgeon decides to ruthlessly exterminate an SS squad because of the atrocities they'd just committed in his countryside home and childhood village.
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsIsabelle HuppertStéphane AudranJean CarmetIn an interwar France struggling with profound social and political change, 18-year-old Violette Noziere rebels against the constraints of her claustrophobic, working-class (and possibly incestuous) family, with troubling consequences.