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César Award - Best French Film

52 films Ranked Updated 3 days ago
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Le vieux fusil
Robert Enrico 1975 1h 43m 7.8

In Montauban in 1944, Julien Dandieu is a surgeon in the local hospital. Frightened by the German army entering Montauban, he asks his friend Francois to drive his wife and his daughter in the back country village where Julien has an old castle. One week later, Julien decides to meet them for the week end, but the Germans are already occupying t...

Mr. Klein
Joseph Losey 1976 2h 3m 8.3

In 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?

Providence
Alain Resnais 1977 1h 50m 9.0

Clive Langham (Sir John Gielgud) spends one tormenting night in his bed suffering from health problems and thinking up a story based on his relatives. He is a bitter man and he shows, through flashbacks, how spiteful, conniving and treacherous his family is. But is this how they really are or is it his own vindictive slant on things?

L'argent des autres
1978 1h 45m

Henri Rainier has everything a man could want. A glamorous wife, two beautiful daughters and a well-paid job with a large bank. Then, one day, his entire world collapses. In the wake of a high-profile financial scandal, he is summoned into his director's office and accused of negligence. Rainier has no choice but to resign, but he soon realises ...

Tess
5.

Tess

Roman Polanski 1979 2h 52m 6.6

A strong-willed young peasant girl attracts the affection of two men.

Le dernier métro
François Truffaut 1980 2h 11m 7.6

In occupied Paris, an actress married to a Jewish theater owner must keep him hidden from the Nazis while doing both of their jobs.

La guerre du feu
Jean-Jacques Annaud 1981 1h 40m 7.8

A tribe searches for a source of fire during the Stone Age when the ways to create new fire were not yet well-known.

La balance
Bob Swaim 1982 1h 43m

A Paris police detective plays rough with a prostitute and her pimp/lover, whom he wants as an informant.

Le bal
9.

Le bal

Ettore Scola 1983 1h 52m 7.0

Dans une salle de bal redéfile l'histoire de la France, des années 20 aux années 80, au gré des musiques qui ony rythmé ces décennies. Le Front Populaire, la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la Libération et Mai 68 sont ainsi évoqués sur fond de jazz, de rock'n'roll et de musique disco.

À nos amours
Maurice Pialat 1983 1h 42m 7.7

Fifteen-year-old Suzanne seeks refuge from a disintegrating family in a series of impulsive, promiscuous affairs. Her fulsome sexuality further ratchets up the suppressed passions of her narcissistic brother, insecure mother and brooding, authoritarian father.

Les ripoux
Claude Zidi 1984 1h 47m 7.0

René est inspecteur de police dans le 18ème arrondissement de Paris. Depuis des années, il tient son quartier à coups de combines. François jeune inspecteur fraîchement diplômé et droit comme la justice est le nouveau partenaire de René. La cohabitation s'annonce difficile...

3 hommes et un couffin
Coline Serreau 1985 1h 46m 5.6

Three young men - Jacques, Pierre, and Michel - share an apartment in Paris, and have many girlfriends and parties. Once, during a party, a friend of Jacques' tells him he has a quite compromising package to deliver, and asks him if he can leave it discreetly at their place. Jacques agrees and, as he works as a steward, flies away for a one-mont...

Thérèse
13.

Thérèse

Alain Cavalier 1986 1h 34m 8.3

The life of little St. Therese of Lisieux, depicted in minimalist vignettes. Therese and her sisters are all nuns in a Carmelite convent. Her devotion to Jesus and her concept of "the little way" to God are shown clearly, using plain modern language. A sense of angelic simplicity comes across without fancy lights, choirs, or showy miracles.

Au revoir les enfants
Louis Malle 1987 1h 45m 7.5

Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss concerning two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely obs...

Camille Claudel
Bruno Nuytten 1988 2h 55m 6.8

The life of Camille Claudel, a French sculptor who becomes the apprentice of Auguste Rodin and later his lover. Her passion for her art and Rodin drive her further away from reason and rationality.

Trop belle pour toi
Bertrand Blier 1989 1h 31m 7.0

L'histoire d'un homme qui a epousé une femme qui a l'air d'etre sa maitresse et qui tombe amoureux d'une maitresse qui a l'air d'etre sa femme.

Cyrano de Bergerac
Jean-Paul Rappeneau 1990 2h 17m 8.2

Famed swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac is in love with his cousin Roxane. He has never expressed his love for her as he his large nose undermines his self-confidence. Then he finds a way to express his love to her, indirectly.

Tous les matins du monde
Alain Corneau 1991 1h 55m 8.0

Following the death of his wife, a renowned musician ostracises himself from the outer world and dedicates his life to music. However, his life changes when a young man approaches him to learn music.

Les nuits fauves
Cyril Collard 1992 2h 6m 8.3

Jean is young, gay, and promiscuous. Only after he meets one or two women, including Laura does he come to realize his bisexuality. Jean has to overcome a personal crisis (he is HIV-positive) and a tough choice between Laura and his male lover Samy

Smoking/No Smoking
Alain Resnais 1993 4h 40m 8.5

Those are two films. Smoking and No smoking. All characters played by two comedians. Set is meant to look like pictures used to teach English to French school-children. Both films start the same except in one she decide to quit smoking while in the other she chain smokes. Then what if... and it goes off with a whole different ending.

Les roseaux sauvages
André Téchiné 1994 1h 55m 8.0

As the Algerian War draws to a close, a teenager with a girlfriend starts feeling homosexual urges for two of his classmates: a country boy, and a French-Algerian intellectual.

La haine
22.

La haine

Mathieu Kassovitz 1995 1h 38m 8.3

Abdel, a local hoodlum, is hospitalized after a riot, where a policeman lost his gun. His friend Vinz finds it and claims he will kill a cop if Abdel dies.

Ridicule
23.

Ridicule

Patrice Leconte 1996 1h 42m 7.6

To get royal backing on a needed drainage project, a poor French lord must learn to play the delicate games of wit at court at Versailles.

On connaît la chanson
Alain Resnais 1997 2h 8.2

A musical story about how people find their love on the streets of beautiful Paris.

La vie rêvée des anges
Erick Zonca 1998 1h 53m 7.5

Isa and Marie bond while working in a French sweatshop and soon begin sharing an apartment that Marie is watching for a hospitalized mother and daughter. Marie, hoping to avoid a life of struggle and poverty, takes up with Chriss, a nightclub owner whose most attractive asset is his money. Isa recognizes the ultimate futility of the relationship...

Vénus beauté (institut)
Tonie Marshall 1999 1h 45m

Aging beautician Angèle, already wounded by a long-ago romance, gets awkwardly dumped at a train station. Witnessing how she turns around a humiliating situation, younger sculptor Antoine becomes so smitten that he breaks up with his fiancée and sets out to win Angèle's heart. Meanwhile, Angèle attempts to quash the budding romance of her young ...

Le goût des autres
Agnès Jaoui 2000 1h 52m 7.4

Unpolished and ultra-pragmatic industrialist Jean-Jacques Castella reluctantly attends Racine's tragedy "Berenice" in order to see his niece play a bit part. He is taken with the play's strangely familiar-looking leading lady Clara Devaux. During the course of the show, Castella soon remembers that he once hired and then promptly fired the actre...

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
Jean-Pierre Jeunet 2001 2h 2m 8.6

At a tiny Parisian café, the adorable yet painfully shy Amélie accidentally discovers a gift for helping others. Soon Amelie is spending her days as a matchmaker, guardian angel, and all-around do-gooder. But when she bumps into a handsome stranger, will she find the courage to become the star of her very own love story?

The Pianist
Roman Polanski 2002 2h 30m 8.6

The Pianist is a film adapted from the biography of Wladyslaw Szpilman. A Jewish-Polish pianist who during the second world war lived and hid miraculously in Warsaw after having gone through a terrible tragedy. A film from Roman Polanski.

Les invasions barbares
Denys Arcand 2003 1h 39m 8.1

During his final days, a dying man is reunited with old friends, former lovers, his ex-wife, and his estranged son.

L'esquive
31.

L'esquive

Abdellatif Kechiche 2003 2h 4m 7.3

Krimo a 15 years old shy boy falls in love for Lídia who is his classmate.To be able to assume his love for her he decides to take a part in the play that was to be one of his friends.

De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté
Jacques Audiard 2005 1h 47m 7.7

A ruthless real estate agent discovers a passion for piano and auditions with help from a young virtuoso, but the pressures of his corrupt career threaten to derail his musical aspirations.

Lady Chatterley
Pascale Ferran 2006 2h 47m 8.3

French adaption of DH Lawrence's infamous novel about forbidden passion across the class divide. Winner of the 2007 Cesar Award for Best Film.

La graine et le mulet
Abdellatif Kechiche 2007 2h 35m 7.6

In southern France, a Franco-Arabic shipyard worker along with his partner's daughter pursues his dream of opening a restaurant.

Séraphine
Martin Provost 2008 2h 5m 7.0

In 1912 German collector Wilhelm Uhde rents a flat in Senlis to write and take a break from Parisian life. He hires a 48-year old cleaning lady, Séraphine. Some time later, he notices a small painting on wood at a local notable home.

Un prophète
Jacques Audiard 2009 2h 35m 8.3

Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and win...

Des hommes et des dieux
Xavier Beauvois 2010 2h 7.4

A group of Trappist monks reside in the monastery of Tibhirine in Algeria, where they live in harmony with the largely muslim population. When a bloody conflict between Algeria's army and Muslim Jihadi insurgents disrupts the peace, they are forced to consider fleeing the monastery and deserting the villagers they have ministered to. In the face...

The Artist
Michel Hazanavicius 2011 1h 40m 7.8

Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.

Amour
39.

Amour

Michael Haneke 2012 2h 7m 7.7

Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.

Les garçons et Guillaume, à table!
Guillaume Gallienne 2013 1h 25m 7.3

How to become a man when your mother and your closed circle have decided otherwise? This is the challenge Guillaume took up. The film recounts Guillaume's tragicomic battle from the young age of eight, as he adopts the role of a girl then of a homosexual... until, aged 30, he meets the woman who, after his mother, will become the other woman in ...

Timbuktu
41.

Timbuktu

Abderrahmane Sissako 2014 1h 36m 7.6

A look at the brief occupation of Timbuktu by militant Islamic rebels.

Fatima
42.

Fatima

Philippe Faucon 2015 1h 19m

Fatima, a Moroccan-born woman who now lives in France with her two teenage daughters, with whom she is barely able to communicate.

Elle
43.

Elle

Paul Verhoeven 2016 2h 11m 7.6

When Michelle, the CEO of a gaming software company, is attacked in her home by an unknown assailant, she refuses to let it alter her precisely ordered life. She manages crises involving family, all the while becoming engaged in a game of cat and mouse with her stalker.

120 battements par minute
Robin Campillo 2017 2h 23m 8.4

Paris, in the early 1990s: a group of young activists is desperately tied to finding the cure against an unknown lethal disease. They target the pharmaceutical labs that are retaining potential cures, and multiply direct actions, with the hope of saving their lives as well as the ones of future generations.

Jusqu'à la garde
Xavier Legrand 2017 1h 33m 7.0

A broken marriage leads to a bitter custody battle with an embattled son at the centre.

Les misérables
Ladj Ly 2019 1h 44m 7.0

Stéphane has recently joined the Anti-Crime Squad in Montfermeil, in the suburbs of Paris, France, where Victor Hugo set his famed novel “Les Miserables”. Alongside his new colleagues Chris and Gwada – both experienced members of the team – he quickly discovers tensions running high between local gangs. When the trio finds themselves overrun dur...

Adieu les cons
Albert Dupontel 2020 1h 27m 7.0

A seriously-ill woman tries to find her long-lost child with the help of a man in the middle of a burnout and a blind archivist.

Illusions perdues
Xavier Giannoli 2021 2h 29m 7.0

Taking place between the years 1837 and 1843, Balzac’s classic novel focuses on the young poet Lucien de Rubempré, who leaves Angouleme for Paris in the pursuit of becoming an author.

La nuit du 12
Dominik Moll 2022 1h 54m 8.0

Young and ambitious Captain Vivés has just been appointed group leader at the Grenoble Criminal Squad when Clara's murder case lands on his desk. Vivés and his team investigate Clara's complex life and relations, but what starts as a professional and methodical immersion into the victim's life soon turns into a haunting obsession.

Anatomie d'une chute
Justine Triet 2023 2h 31m 8.0

A woman is suspected of her husband’s murder, and their blind son faces a moral dilemma as the sole witness.

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