Match Cut's Favorite French Films

[Melville]

The voting occurred last year, so the results should be full of surprises.

First, here are the results of the previous Match Cut List-Fu threads:

Top 100 American Films (http://matchcut.org/viewtopic.php?t=10670)

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Mulholland Dr.
3. Citizen Kane
4. Casablanca
5. Dr. Strangelove
6. Annie Hall
7. Rear Window
8. Apocalypse Now
9. Pulp Fiction
10. Blade Runner
11. Vertigo
12. Empire Strikes Back, The
13. Conversation, The
14. Sunset Blvd.
15. Godfather, The
16. Eraserhead
17. Raiders of the Lost Ark
18. Alien
19. Schindler's List
20. Blue Velvet
21. Taxi Driver
22. City Lights
23. Sunrise
24. Chinatown
25. Big Lebowski, The
26. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
27. Punch-Drunk Love
28. Lawrence of Arabia
29. Big Sleep, The
30. Manhattan
31. Royal Tenenbaums, The
32. Amadeus
33. Singin' in the Rain
34. Jaws
35. Night of the Hunter, The
36. Last Temptation of Christ, The
37. Apartment, The
38. Do the Right Thing
39. Seven
40. Double Indemnity
41. Meshes of the Afternoon
42. A.I.
43. Sherlock Jr.
44. In a Lonely Place
45. Miller's Crossing
46. Duck Amuck
47. Magnolia
48. Notorious
49. Star Wars
50. All That Jazz
51. Before Sunset
52. Nashville
53. Fargo
54. Fly, The
55. Godfather II, The
56. McCabe and Mrs Miller
57. Clockwork Orange, A
58. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
59. Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The
60. Woman Under the Influence, A
61. It's a Wonderful Life
62. Touch of Evil
63. Trouble in Paradise
64. Wizard of Oz, The
65. Night of the Living Dead
66. Rosemary's Baby
67. Searchers, The
68. 12 Angry Men
69. Thin Red Line, The
70. Kill Bill V. 1
71. Third Man, The
72. Raging Bull
73. JFK
74. Maltese Falcon, The
75. Eyes Wide Shut
76. King Kong
77. Seven Chances
78. Boogie Nights
79. Requiem for a Dream
80. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The
81. Psycho
82. Barry Lyndon
83. Lost Highway
84. Thing, The
85. Graduate, The
86. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
87. Silence of the Lambs, The
88. Being John Malkovich
89. Bonnie and Clyde
90. Truman Show, The
91. Purple Rose of Cairo, The
92. Groundhog Day
93. Ghostbusters
94. Rushmore
95. Fantasia
96. Ed Wood
97. Aliens
98. Matrix, The
99. Days of Heaven
100. His Girl Friday

[Melville]

Top 100 Foreign Films (http://matchcut.org/viewtopic.php?t=10735)

1. Seven Samurai, The (A. Kurosawa)
2. 8 1/2 (Fellini)
3. In the Mood For Love (Wong)
4. Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone)
5. F for Fake (Welles)
6. Ran (A. Kurosawa)
7. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Jones)
8. 400 Blows, The (Truffaut)
9. Persona (Bergman)
10. Passion of Joan of Arc, The (Dreyer)
11. Playtime (Tati)
12. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Herzog)
13. Brazil (Gilliam)
14. Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The (Leone)
15. Sweet Hereafter, The (Egoyan)
16. Battle of Algiers, The (Pontecorvo)
17. M (Lang)
18. Stroszek (Herzog)
19. Ikiru (A. Kurosawa)
20. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (A. Lee)
21. A Man Escaped (Bresson)
22. Grave of the Fireflies (Takahata)
23. Amélie (Jeunet)
24. Fitzcarraldo (Herzog)
25. Le Samouraï (Melville)
26. Rules of the Game, The (Renoir)
27. Bicycle Thieves (de Sica)
28. Dogville (von Trier)
29. Metropolis (Lang)
30. Paris, Texas (Wenders)
31. Rififi (Dassin)
32. Sans Soleil (Marker)
33. Three Colors: Blue (Kieslowski)
34. Throne of Blood (A. Kurosawa)
35. Naked (Leigh)
36. Whisper of the Heart (Kondo)
37. Chungking Express (Wong)
38. Life of Brian (Jones)
39. My Life to Live (Godard)
40. Three Colors: Red (Kieslowski)
41. Akira (Ôtomo)
42. Au hasard Balthazar (Bresson)
43. Dead Ringers (Cronenberg)
44. Tokyo Story (Ozu)
45. Band of Outsiders (Godard)
46. Breaking the Waves (von Trier)
47. City of God (Meirelles & Lund)
48. Dancer in the Dark (von Trier)
49. La Jetee (Marker)
50. Spirited Away (Miyazaki)
51. Nights of Cabiria (Fellini)
52. Oldboy (Chan-Wook Park)
53. Princess Mononoke (Miyazaki)
54. Exotica (Egoyan)
55. Hana-Bi (Kitano)
56. La Dolce Vita (Fellini)
57. Los Olvidados (Bunuel)
58. Millenium Actress (Kon)
59. Rashomon (A. Kurosawa)
60. Seventh Seal, The (Bergman)
61. 3-Iron (Kim)
62. All About My Mother (Almodóvar)
63. Conformist, The (Bertolucci)
64. Fanny and Alexander (Bergman)
65. The Vanishing (Sluizer)
66. Umberto D. (de Sica)
67. Blowup (Antonioni)
68. Cries and Whispers (Bergman)
69. Holy Mountain, The (Jodorowsky)
70. Léon: The Professional (Besson)
71. My Neighbor Totoro (Miyazaki)
72. Ugetsu (Mizoguchi)
73. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)
74. Last Year at Marienbad (Resnais)
75. Pride and Prejudice (J. Wright)
76. Straw Dogs (Peckinpah)
77. Talk To Her (Almodovar)
78. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover (Greenaway)
79. Winter Light (Bergman)
80. Delicatessen (Jeunet)
81. Man Who Planted Trees, The (Back)
82. Pather Panchali (Ray)
83. 36th Chamber of Shaolin, The (Chia-Liang Liu)
84. A Zed and Two Noughts (Greenaway)
85. Au Revoir Les Enfants (Malle)
86. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The (Miene)
87. Run Lola Run (Tykwer)
88. Shaun of the Dead (E. Wright)
89. Spirit of the Beehive, The (Erice)
90. Twilight Samurai (Yamada)
91. Walkabout (Roeg)
92. Ordet (Dreyer)
93. Werckmeister Harmonies (Tarr)
94. A Hard Day's Night (Lester)
95. Tropical Malady (Weerasethakul)
96. Wild Strawberries (Bergman)
97. Heavenly Creatures (P. Jackson)
98. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds (Miyazaki)
99. My Night at Maud's (Rohmer)
100. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Wier)

[Melville]

Top 51 Directors (http://matchcut.org/viewtopic.php?t=10779)

1. Hitchcock, Alfred 770
2. Kubrick, Stanley 550
3. Kurosawa, Akira 540
4. Bergman, Ingmar 510
5. Lynch, David 500
6. Allen, Woody 480
7. Spielberg, Steven 430
8. Welles, Orson 380
9. Scorsese, Martin 360
10. Altman, Robert 360
11. Herzog, Werner 340
12. Coen, Joel 280
13. Keaton, Buster 280
14. Kitano, Takeshi 270
15. Malick, Terrence 270
16. Anderson, Wes 250
17. Cronenberg, David 220
18. Chaplin, Charles 210
19. Leone, Sergio 200
20. Hawks, Howard 200
21. Wilder, Billy 200
22. Coppola, Francis Ford 200
23. Tarantino, Quentin 200
24. Tarkovsky, Andrei 200
25. Lang, Fritz 200
26. Tati, Jacques 190
27. Godard, Jean-Luc 180
28. Kon, Satoshi 160
29. Jones, Chuck 160
30. Miyazaki, Hayao 160
31. Bunuel, Luis 160
32. Fellini, Federico 150
33. Lean, David 150
34. Ozu, Yasujiro 150
35. Renoir, Jean 150
36. Murnau, F.W. 150
37. Dreyer, Carl Theodor 140
38. Mizoguchi, Kenji 140
39. Cassavetes, John 140
40. Ray, Nicholas 130
41. Bresson, Robert 130
42. Powell, Michael 130
43. Sturges, Preston 130
44. Lumet, Sidney 130
45. Haneke, Michael 130
46. Fincher, David 120
47. Jarmusch, Jim 120
48. Almodovar, Pedro 120
49. Wong, Kar-Wai 120
50. von Trier, Lars 120
51. Tsai, Ming-liang 120

[Philosophe_rouge]

I can't WAIT!!!

[Melville]

Top 99 Japanese Films (http://www.match-cut.org/showthread.php?t=62)

1. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa) 540
2. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952) 530
3. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957) 460
4. Spirited Away (2001 / Hayao Miyazaki) 420
5. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985) 410
6. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950) 390
7. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953) 380
8. Audition (Miike) 330
9. Ugetsu (Mizoguchi, 1953) 330
10. Akira (Otomo) 320
11. Grave of the Fireflies (Takahata) 320
12. Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000) 310
13. Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997) 310
14. My Neighbor Totoro (Miyazaki, 1988) 300
15. Princess Mononoke (1997 / Hayao Miyazaki) 280
16. Lady Snowblood (Toshiya Fujita) 260
17. Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon, 2001) 260
18. Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo, 1964) 250
19. Woman in the Dunes (Teshigahara, 1964) 250
20. After Life (Kore-eda) 230
21. Late Spring (Yasurjiro Ozu, 1949) 230
22. Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo) 230
23. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963) 200
24. Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001) 200
25. Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa, 1949) 200
26. Hana-bi (Takeshi Kitano) 190
27. Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon) 190
28. Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961) 190
29. Twilight Samurai, The (Yamada, 2002) 180
30. Early Summer - (Yasujiro Ozu, 1951) 170
31. Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano) 170
32. Paprika (Satoshi Kon) 170
33. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds(Hayao Miyazaki) 160
34. Porco Rosso (Hayao Miyazaki) 160
35. Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi) 160
36. Eureka (Shinji Aoyama, 2000) 150
37. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Naruse) 150
38. Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa) 140
39. Nobody Knows (Kore-eda) 140
40. Ringu (Hideo Nakata) 140
41. Burmese Harp, The (Ichikawa, 1956) 130
42. Taste of Tea, The (Ishii, 2004) 130
43. Gojira (Ishiro Honda) 120
44. Kids Return (Takeshi Kitano, 1996) 120
45. Maborosi (Hirokazu Kore-eda) 120
46. Metropolis (Rintaro) 120
47. My Neighbors the Yamadas (Takahata, 1999, Japan) 120
48. Red Beard (Akira Kurosawa) 120
49. Sanjuro (Akira Kurosawa, 1962) 120
50. Sword of Doom (Okamoto) 120
51. Castle in the Sky (Miyazaki, 1986) 110
52. Doppelganger (Kurosawa, 2003, Japan) 110
53. Happiness of the Katakuris (Miike) 110
54. Harakiri/Seppuku (Masaki Kobayashi) 110
55. Tokyo Godfathers (Satoshi Kon) 110
56. Mind Game (2004 / Masaaki Yuasa) 100
57. Tampopo (Juzo Itami) 100
58. Vengeance is Mine (Imamura) 100
59. Bright Future (Kiyoshi Kurosawa) 90
60. Dolls (Kitano) 90
61. Linda Linda Linda (Yamashita) 90
62. Takeshis' (Kitano, 2005) 90
63. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000 / Yoshiaki Kawajiri) 90
64. Bird People in China, The (Miike, Japan) 80
65. Fires on the Plain (Ichikawa) 80
66. Life of Oharu (Kenji Mizoguchi) 80
67. Samurai Rebellion (Masaki Kobayashi) 80
68. Tetsuo (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989) 80
69. Bullet Ballet (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1998) 70
70. Female Prisoner 701 Scorpion (Shunya Ito) 70
71. Ghost in the Shell (1995 / Mamoru Oshii) 70
72. Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa) 70
73. Kiki’s Delivery Service (Miyazaki) 70
74. Memories (Koji, Tensai, Katsuhiro) 70
75. Steamboy (Katsuhiro Otomo) 70
76. Tokyo Twilight (Yasujiro Ozu) 70
77. Uzumaki (Higuchinsky) 70
78. Violent Cop (Kitano) 70
79. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (Shichiniro Watanabe) 60
80. Dead or Alive 2: Birds (Miike, Japan) 60
81. End of Evangelion (Anno) 60
82. Human Condition I: No Greater Love (Masaki Kobayashi) 60
83. I Live in Fear (Akira Kurosawa) 60
84. Kwaidan 60
85. Mothra vs. Godzilla (Honda) 60
86. Street Fighter, The (Shigehiro Ozawa) 60
87. Tokyo Drifter (Suzuki, 1966) 60
88. Zatoichi (Takeshi Kitano) 60
89. 2LDK (Yukihiko Tsutsumi) 50
90. A Snake of June (Shinya Tsukamoto) 50
91 All About Lily Chou-Chou (Iwai) 50
92. Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa) 50
93. Gozu 50
94. Hidden Blade, The 50
95. Ichi the Killer (2001 / Takashi Miike) 50
96. Samurai III: Duel on Ganryu Island (Hiroshi Inagaki) 50
97. Tekkonkinkreet - Michael Arias 50
98. Visitor Q (Miike, 2001) 50
99. Vital (Shinya Tsukamoto, 2004) 50

[Melville]

50. (Tie) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)

http://www.dvdtown.com/images/displayimage.php?id=2722

Jacques Demy's 1964 masterpiece is a pop-art opera, or, to borrow the director's own description, a film in song. This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher (Nino Castelnuovo), a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery (a luminous Catherine Deneuve), an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant (Marc Michel, reprising his role from Demy's masterful debut, Lola). A completely sung movie, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is closest in form to a cinematic opera. Composer Michel Legrand composed the score, modeling it around the patterns of everyday conversation.—Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide



50. (Tie) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, 1972)

http://img.timeinc.net/time/2005/100movies/images/discreet_charm_of_the_b.jpg

Minor social embarrassment—people start showing up for a dinner party its hosts are unaware they are throwing—turns into a genial exercise in surrealism. Buñuel, who had previously explored similar situations more dramatically, is in a good-natured, autumnal mood here (he was 72 when he made this movie). His six middle-class friends keep trying to have a nice meal together, but something—love-making, military exercises, criminal activities, even a sequence where they find themselves on stage in a play, playing themselves—keeps preventing them from breaking bread. Buñuel, abetted by his long time screenwriting partner, Jean-Claude Carrière, is a deft and casual movie magician, here grown rather fond of a class he has previously savaged on a regular basis, so he never strains for effect or big-time meaning. He just lets the fun (and the surprises) roll on. The result is sheer delight. —Richard Schickel

[dreamdead]

This list is already exposing my deficiencies in French cinema. Looking forward to learning what's mandatory viewing, though.

Thanks for taking this on, Melville.

[Melville]

50. (Tie) That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977)

http://celebvids.blog.hu/media/image/Carole_Bouquet-That_Obscure_Object_of_Desire-1.jpg

Set in Spain and France against the backdrop of a terrorist insurgency, the film tells the story of an aging Frenchman who falls in love with a young woman who repeatedly frustrates his romantic and sexual desires. Written by Buñuel himself with long-time collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière, it is based on the French novel La Femme et le pantin by Pierre Louÿs, although many changes were made for the screenplay.—Wikipedia



50. (Tie) Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)

http://ekatocato.hippy.jp/gazou/bresson06.jpg

Picking pockets without a persons knowledge or approval of you picking their pocket is a crime, a form of larceny which involves the stealing of money and valuables from the person of a victim without their noticing the theft at the time. It requires considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection. Someone who picks pockets is known as a pickpocket.—Wikipedia

[Eleven]

Picking pockets without a persons knowledge or approval of you picking their pocket is a crime, a form of larceny which involves the stealing of money and valuables from the person of a victim without their noticing the theft at the time. It requires considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection. Someone who picks pockets is known as a pickpocket.—Wikipedia

And now it all fits into place.

[Melville]

50. (Tie) Leon: The Professional (Luc Beson, 1994)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v602/kevind360/up-leon_the_professional.jpg

Luc Besson's lone-hitman thriller sees a 12 year-old Natalie Portman push the boundaries of love and peodophilia. As emotionally complex as it is a slick action thrill-ride.—Shannon J. Harvey



50. (Tie) Irreversible (Gaspar Noé, 2002)

http://ruthlessreviews.com/pics3/irreversible.jpg

The reverse chronology makes Irreversible a film that structurally argues against rape and violence, while ordinary chronology would lead us down a seductive narrative path toward a shocking, exploitative payoff.—Roger Ebert

[Melville]

50. (Tie) Delicatessen (Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1991)

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff317/FaulknerFan/deli.jpg

Combining the cruel humour of Grimm's fairy stories, with the spirit of Terry Gilliam and that peculiarly French knack of putting magic into film, this feverish tale of star-crossed lovers and small town cannibalism has endured as a true masterpiece of the fantastique. With "Delicatessen", Jeunet and Caro gave the world a canny and confident calling card for that most coveted of talents - commercial arthouse cinema. Brilliant.—Matt Ford



50. (That's right) Blood of the Beasts (Georges Franju, 1949)

http://www.filmreference.com/images/sjff_01_img0432.jpg

Franju's film contrasts peaceful scenes of Parisian suburbia with scenes from a slaughterhouse. The film documents the slaughtering of a horse, sheep, and calves; once the horse is stunned by a pistol, it is bled and butchered. The film is narrated without emotive language.

Franju states that he wasn't interested on the subject of slaughterhouses when he decided to make the film, but the location around the building was the Ourcq Canal allowing him to make a documentary film. Franju stated by using a documentary film format, he was able to use both locations as lyical counterpoints and "to explain it as a realist while remaining a surrealist by displacing the object in another context. In this new setting, the object rediscovers it's quality as an object".—Wikipedia

[Melville]

49. Au Revoir Les Enfants (Louis Malle, 1987)

http://img5.allocine.fr/acmedia/rsz/434/x/x/x/medias/nmedia/18/36/37/80/18478449.jpg

Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss between 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 observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.—Criterion synopsis

47. (Tie) Friday Night (Claire Denis, 2002)

http://www.offoffoff.com/film/2003/images/fridaynight.jpg

Denis imbues the simple details of a one-night stand with powerful eroticism and humane understanding.—Bob Strauss

[Melville]

47. (Tie) Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955)

http://www.filmreference.com/images/sjff_01_img0154.jpg

Rififi, shot on the rainy streets of Paris, is imbued with the same gritty realism that marked Dassin's earlier work in New York (The Naked City) and London (Night and the City). Jean Servais plays Tony le Stéphanois, an aging crook whose thin lips and tired, seen-it-all eyes give him a look somewhere between Humphrey Bogart and Harry Dean Stanton. Out of jail after a five-year stretch, he joins up with a couple of pals to pull one last heist: a jewel robbery that is portrayed in such detail (including tips on how to silence an alarm using a fire extinguisher) that the film was banned in several countries.—Simon Leake


46. The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophuls, 1953)

http://ebimg.sv.publicus.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=EB&Date=20011111&Category=REVIEWS08&ArtNo=111110301&Ref=AR&Profile=1023&Maxw=438

'The Earrings of Madame de...,'' directed in 1953 by Max Ophuls, is one of the most mannered and contrived love movies ever filmed. It glitters and dazzles, and beneath the artifice it creates a heart, and breaks it. The film is famous for its elaborate camera movements, its graceful style, its sets, its costumes and of course its jewelry. It stars Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer and Vittorio De Sica, who effortlessly embody elegance. It could have been a mannered trifle. We sit in admiration of Ophuls' visual display, so fluid and intricate. Then to our surprise we find ourselves caring.—Roger Ebert

[Melville]

45. Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967)

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/images/07/43/mouchette.jpg

Bresson’s films, however austere and obsessed with each man’s own private Calvary, have a precision of imagery, an understanding of character, that gives them life, makes them a joy to watch. Mouchette, one of the purest Bressons, is the story of a teenage outcast (Nadine Nortier) so abused by everyone in her village that death seems like God's caress, and so maladroit that she must try three times before she succeeds in drowning herself. Its effect as you watch it is beautifully unforgiving; as you recall it, brutally radiant.—Richard Corliss


44. Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle, 1958)

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/7/7b/250px-MoreauAscenseur.jpg

In his mesmerizing debut feature, twenty-four-year-old director Louis Malle brought together the beauty of Jeanne Moreau, the camerawork of Henri Decaë, and a now legendary score by Miles Davis. A touchstone of the careers of both its star and director, Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud) is a richly atmospheric thriller of murder and mistaken identity unfolding over one restless Parisian night.—Criterion synopsis

[Melville]

43. Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967)

http://www.peoples.ru/art/cinema/actor/deneuve/deneuve_1.jpg

It is possibly the best-known erotic film of modern times, perhaps the best. That's because it understands eroticism from the inside-out--understands how it exists not in sweat and skin, but in the imagination. "Belle de Jour'' is seen entirely through the eyes of Severine, the proper 23-year-old surgeon's wife, played by Catherine Deneuve. Bunuel, who was 67 when the film was released, had spent a lifetime making sly films about the secret terrain of human nature, and he knew one thing most directors never discover: For a woman like Severine, walking into a room to have sex, the erotic charge comes not from who is waiting in the room, but from the fact that she is walking into it.—Ebert



42. Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)

http://perceptivetravel.com/images0907/beau_travail.jpg

IN THE time before steamships, or then more frequently than now, a stroller along the docks of any considerable sea-port would occasionally have his attention arrested by a group of bronzed mariners, man-of-war's men or merchant-sailors in holiday attire ashore on liberty. In certain instances they would flank, or, like a body-guard quite surround some superior figure of their own class, moving along with them like Aldebaran among the lesser lights of his constellation. That signal object was the "Handsome Sailor" of the less prosaic time alike of the military and merchant navies. With no perceptible trace of the vainglorious about him, rather with the off-hand unaffectedness of natural regality, he seemed to accept the spontaneous homage of his shipmates.—Herman Melville

[Melville]

41. Masculin-Feminin (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/babsjohnson1134/MasculinFeminin2.jpg

With Masculin féminin, ruthless stylist and iconoclast Jean-Luc Godard introduces the world to "the children of Marx and Coca-Cola," through a gang of restless youths engaged in hopeless love affairs with music, revolution, and each other. French new wave icon Jean-Pierre Leaud stars as Paul, an idealistic would-be intellectual struggling to forge a relationship with the adorable pop star Madeleine (real-life yé-yé girl Chantal Goya). Through their tempestuous affair, Godard fashions a candid and wildly funny free-form examination of youth culture in throbbing 1960s Paris, mixing satire and tragedy as only Godard can.—Criterion synopsis


Top 40 later.

[Philosophe_rouge]

I'm happy Madame de... made the list but would like to have seen it further. From what I've otherwise seen, I have no disagreements.

[DSNT]

So many good French flicks to see .. really looking forward to the list.

I'm surprised at the low placement of Au Revoir Les Enfants, a favorite coming-of-age film of mine.

[Duncan]

I really must see some more Buñuel. What a great director.

[Bosco B Thug]

I'll put it up that I'll end up having seen less than, let's say, 25% of this list when it's done. Not that I have anything against French cinema, I doubt I've seen enough Japanese cinema either.

[Melville]

40. Cache (Michael Haneke, 2005)

http://www.indiewire.com/movies/cache2.jpg

However valid these themes may be, these are not issues that keep me awake at night. They do not squat on my brain like some fantasticated octopus of guilt.—Ken Hanke


39. La Promesse (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, 1996)

http://www.cinergie.be/film/promesse_la/promesse.jpg

A penetrating coming-of-age story, one that argues that adulthood begins with the emergence of moral convictions.—Marjorie Baumgarten

[Melville]

38. Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955)

http://www.bergen-filmklubb.no/images/Les_Diaboliques_stort.jpg

Psycho is usually credited with changing the entire landscape of thriller/horror cinema, but in fact that honour rightfully belongs to Les Diaboliques. With its everyday setting, dark psychological overtones, black humour (in a little personal “in-joke� Clouzot has the headmaster killed in a hotel in Niort, his birthplace), hints at the supernatural, and the plot twist that alters the audience's entire perception of what has gone before, the film paved the way for numerous attempts based on the same template.—Fiona Watson


37. Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955)

http://www.strike-the-root.com/3/russell/night&fog.jpg

One of the first cinematic reflections on the horrors of the Holocaust, Night and Fog (Nuit et Brouillard) contrasts the stillness of the abandoned camps’ quiet, empty buildings with haunting wartime footage. With Night and Fog, Resnais investigates the cyclical nature of man’s violence toward man and presents the unsettling suggestion that such horrors could come again.—Criterion synopsis

[Melville]

36. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

http://janusmuseum.org/panabasis/atalante1.jpg

The subject of L'Atalante—Vigo's only feature-length film, completed just before his death—was not of his own choosing. The interest of the film lies in his engagement with material that was partly congenial in its unconventionality (life on a barge, with its freedom from the restrictions of established society, its alternative community of unsocialized eccentrics), and partly highly conventional (problems of the heterosexual couple, mutual adjustment to marriage, break-up and reunion). The subject enabled him to develop the affectionate examination of anarchic behaviour already expressed in Zéro de conduite, but within the confines of an archetypal classical narrative of order (equated with marriage)/disruption of order/restoration of order.—Robin Wood

[Melville]

34. (tie) My Night at Maud's (Eric Rohmer, 1969)

http://www.princeton.edu/~npotlapa/files/pictures/films/Maud2.jpg

In a period when makers of tony romantic comedies were scrambling for credible ways to delay their characters' making love, the austere French writer-director Eric Rohmer, doing what came naturally, hit on religious scruples. His Catholic hero (Jean-Louis Trintignant), steeped in Pascal, bets that holding out for his ideal—blonde, also Catholic—will have a better payoff than dallying with the raven-tressed nonbeliever Maud (Françoise Fabian). The movie's centrepiece and high point is his night at Maud's, a chaste yet ticklish probing of male emotions and convictions. Rohmer and Trintignant create a man who's so fixed on a mental image that he can't appreciate what's in his grasp. While the pale beauty played by Marie-Christine Barrault fits his ideal, it's Maud—initially intriguing, ultimately haunting—who leaves vibrations in her wake, partly because Fabian is so flesh-tingling and sophisticated. Nestor Almendros did the peerless, sensuous black-and-white cinematography.—Michael Sragow


34. (tie) The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1991)

http://www.theaspectratio.net/verofond.jpg

Krzysztof Kieslowski's international breakthrough remains one of his most beloved films, a ravishing, mysterious rumination on identity, love, and human intuition. Irène Jacob is incandescent as both Weronika, a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Véronique, a French music teacher. Though unknown to each other, the two women share an enigmatic, purely emotional bond, which Kieslowski details in gorgeous reflections, colors, and movements. Aided by Slawomir Idziak's shimmering cinematography and Zbigniew Preisner's haunting, operatic score, Kieslowski creates one of cinema's most purely metaphysical works. The Double Life of Véronique is an unforgettable symphony of feeling.—Criterion synopsis

[Melville]

33. The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, 2001)

http://img5.allocine.fr/acmedia/rsz/434/x/x/x/medias/nmedia/00/02/27/51/69215069_ph1.jpg

A film of Artaudian cruelty, and a boundary-breaker in the cinema's exploration of its own erotic and artisanal id.—Nick Davis


32. Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut, 1960)

http://10kbullets.com/images/2006/01/shootpiano-02.jpg

François Truffaut is drunk on the possibilities of cinema in this, his most playful film. Part thriller, part comedy, part tragedy, Shoot the Piano Player relates the adventures of mild-mannered piano player Charlie (Charles Aznavour, in a triumph of hangdog deadpan) as he stumbles into the criminal underworld and a whirlwind love affair. Loaded with gags, guns, clowns, and thugs, this razor-sharp homage to the American gangster film is pure nouvelle vague.—Criterion synopsis

[Qrazy]

Excellent going just making the list M, preciate it, and of course well executed.

[Philosophe_rouge]

L'Atalante and Les Diaboliques are wonderful. I wish I had more to say, but I don't.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

L'Atalante is way too low. I didn't pay attention to any of the ballots but if Paris Je'Taime ends up on this list I will not like it.

[Mysterious Dude]

I didn't pay attention to any of the ballots but if Paris Je'Taime ends up on this list I will not like it.
It won't.

[Melville]

31. The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy & Agnès Varda, 1967)

http://performingarts.nd.edu/images/performers/youngGirlsOfRochefort.JPG

Now I know where Kurious Jorge's old av is from.—Jonathan Rosenbaum


30. Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel, 1929)

http://www.nicklacey.org.uk/images/chien_andalou.gif

In spite of varying interpretations, Buñuel made clear throughout his writings that, between DalÃ* and himself, the only rule for the writing of the script was that "no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted." Moreover, he stated that, "Nothing, in the film, symbolizes anything. The only method of investigation of the symbols would be, perhaps, psychoanalysis."—Wikipedia

[Melville]

29. Sans soleil (Chris Marker, 1983)

http://www.devildingo.net/marker_DD%20Ranch/Marker_web/sans_soleil_cats600w.jpg

The first image he told me about was of three children on a road in Iceland, in 1965. He said that for him it was the image of happiness and also that he had tried several times to link it to other images, but it never worked. He wrote me: one day I'll have to put it all alone at the beginning of a film with a long piece of black leader; if they don't see happiness in the picture, at least they'll see the black.—Alexandra Stewart


28. The Son (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, 2002)

http://www.erratamag.com/images/son.jpg

The practice of work is central to Le fils (The Son), a deceptively complex (sic) movie about revenge and redemption. The film, like all of the Dardennes’, seems straightforward enough: Olivier, a carpenter (played by Olivier Gourmet, who, like Duquenne, earned an acting prize at Cannes), takes on a young man named Francis as an apprentice. Francis is newly released from juvenile detention, and Olivier slowly discovers that Francis played a part in the death of his son some years earlier. Francis is unaware of the connection he shares with Olivier, and the Dardennes’ use this asymmetrical relationship to investigate the ideas of forgiveness and vindication. “For all its quasi-documentary materialism, The Son is ultimately a Christian allegory of one man's inchoate desire to return good for evil.” In this way Le fils is something of a departure from the Dardennes’ earlier work: it’s not the sort of movie that gets labor legislation named after it. Olivier’s carpentry is observed with unstinting and careful detail; it is not a means for sustenence but a means for existence. “It is hardly surprising that the Dardennes put together their naturalist fable with such a fanatical, self-effacing sense of craft. They are obsessed with work in the way that some of their European counterparts are obsessed with sex: the textures and rhythms of manual labor are, for them, at once irreducibly physical and saturated with an almost spiritual significance.”—Wikipedia

[Melville]

27. Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)

http://www.gravity7.com/blog/film/main.jpg

Will the young woman and the judge ever meet again? What will come of that? Does it matter? Would it be good, or bad? Such questions, in "Red," become infinitely more interesting than the questions in simple-minded commercial movies, about whether the hero will kill the bad guys, and drive his car fast, and blow things up, or whether his girlfriend will take off her clothes.—Roger Ebert

26. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

http://swampsnalleys.files.wordpress. com/2007/08/breathless-3.jpg

There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless. With its lack of polish, surplus of attitude, crackling personalities of rising stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, and anything-goes crime narrative, Jean-Luc Godard's debut fashioned a simultaneous homage to and critique of the American film genres that influenced and rocked him as a film writer for Cahiers du cinema. Jazzy, free-form, and sexy, Breathless (A bout de souffle) helped launch the French new wave and ensured cinema would never be the same.—Criterion synopsis

[Melville]

25. Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)

http://www.nwfilm.org/screenings/images/354/beauty_and_the_beast.jpg

French visionary poet, playwright and painter Jean Cocteau's first film dreamily visualizes the awesome beauty of the 18th century fairy tale by Madame Leprince de Beaumont. The tale of a young woman's love for an agonized beast is one of the cinema's most poetic works, forging inventive relationships between special make-up effects, photography and art direction. Shot by noted French cinematographer Henri Alekan and featuring an exquisite score by George Auric, Cocteau's atmospheric film, with its shadowy castle and billowing curtains, perfectly suits this timeless tale of innocence, hope and of the power of redemption through love.—New Film Center

24. Le Samourai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)

http://www.girishshambu.com/blog/le-samourai.jpg

In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays a contract killer with samurai instincts. A razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture--with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology--maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville's masterpiece Le Samouraï defines cool.—Criterion synopsis

[Melville]

23. The Man Who Planted Trees (Frédéric Back, 1987)

http://www.awn.com/gallery/back/images/Back11.gif

In order for the character of a human being to reveal truly exceptional qualities, we must have the good fortune to observe its action over a long period of years. If this action is devoid of all selfishness, if the idea that directs it is one of unqualified generosity, if it is absolutely certain that it has not sought recompense anywhere, and if moreover it has left visible marks on the world, then we are unquestionably dealing with an unforgettable character.—Jean Giono

22. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)

http://faculty.frostburg.edu/phil/forum/marienbad.jpg

Hopelessly retro, eternally avant-garde, and one of the most influential movies ever made (as well as one of the most reviled), [Last Year at Marienbad] is both utterly lucid and provocatively opaque - an elaborate joke on the world's corniest pickup line and a drama of erotic fixation that takes Vertigo to the next level of abstraction.—J. Hoberman

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

31. The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy & Agnès Varda, 1967)

http://performingarts.nd.edu/images/performers/youngGirlsOfRochefort.JPG

Now I know where Kurious Jorge's old av is from.—Jonathan Rosenbaum


KJ 1, Rosenbaum 0.

...but does he know where my new av is from????

[Melville]

21. Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927)

http://filmyear.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/napoleon_5.jpg

One of the most ambitious films in cinema history, Abel Gance’s epic six-hour long Napoléon is both a stunningly visual work of cinema and a poetically beautiful telling of the life of France’s most famous general.—James Travers

[Melville]

KJ 1, Rosenbaum 0.

...but does he know where my new av is from????
No. He obviously needs some edumacation.

[Melville]

20. Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969)

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d104/mattcale3/army2.jpg

From the first sight of German soldiers goose-stepping past the Arc de Triomphe to a postscript that spells out the fate of characters whose moral confusion is all too real, Army of Shadows is a movie of its time -- and ours.—top critic Peter Travers


19. La Jetee (Chris Marker, 1962)

http://metaverseterritories.com/imgs/La_jetee3.jpg

Here's the whole damn thing on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RvmJan17q8


18. Hiroshima, mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)

http://stellinacesca.altervista.org/_altervista_ht/Hiroshima-mon-amour.jpg

Hiroshima Mon Amour has been described as "The Birth of a Nation of the French New Wave" by critic Leonard Maltin, due to its innovative style that helped inspire the movement. New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard described the film's inventiveness as "Faulkner plus Stravinsky" and celebrated its originality, calling it "the first film without any cinematic references". Filmmaker Eric Rohmer said, "I think that in a few years, in ten, twenty, or thirty years, we will know whether Hiroshima mon amour was the most important film since the war, the first modern film of sound cinema". Among the film's innovations is Resnais' bold experiments in using very brief flashback sequences intercut into scenes to suggest the idea of a brief flash of memory. Resnais later used similar effects in Last Year at Marienbad.—Wikipedia

[Melville]

17. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, 1945)

http://img.timeinc.net/time/2005/100movies/images/children_of_paradise.jpg

Made in occupied France under the long noses of the Nazis in the last year of World War II, this story about the convergence of theater, crime and sex in 1830s Paris can be seen as an act of subversion, of artistic heroism. But it needs no making-of back story for inclusion here. At 3hr. 9min. the film is an epic romance viewed through an ironic prism. Baptiste the ethereal mime (Jean-Louis Barrault), Garance the worldly-wise courtesan (Arletty) and a dozen other scapegraces and victims are creatures with the fullness and ambiguity of a Balzac novel, thanks to Jacques Prévert, the poet and screenwriter who more than anyone shaped French cinema in one of its richest periods. A love story where soulmates are rarely matched, Les Enfants expresses the holy ache of poignance. Is marriage the repository of true love? "Oh," declares Baptiste, "if everyone who was married was in love, the earth would shine like the sun."—Richard Corliss


16. Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993)

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2007/08/30/binoche460.jpg

Kieslowski uses suffering as a means to illustrate the theme of cathartic liberation. Julie's periodic swims in the pool (which appears blue at night), completion of her husband's unfinished symphony (with a blue pen), and transfer of their country estate to his mistress (who is expecting a boy) are all symbolic acts of closure. Blue stands for liberté, or liberty,in the French flag. There is freedom in having nothing. There is also freedom in losing everything.—Acquarello


15. Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb208/EdwardCopeland/foreign/balthazar.jpg

Oh, that donkey's a martyr! Look how mistreated he is! What a saint! Blah blah blah Susan Sontag blah blah.—Spinal

[Melville]

14. Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)

http://www.ufmg.br/online/arquivos/amelie-poulain04.jpg

Charms with its breezy, stylized storytelling [and] the wide eyes and breathless expression of Audrey Tautou… liabilities include a slightly dragged-out resolution and a rather amoral view of sexuality.—
Steven D. Greydanus, Decent Films Guide

13. Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)

http://www.luispita.com/uploaded_images/mepris_02-703303.jpg

Jean-Luc Godard’s subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a star-studded Cinemascope epic. Contempt (Le Mépris) stars Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European director (played by legendary director Fritz Lang), a crude and arrogant American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife, Camille (Brigitte Bardot) as he attempts to doctor the script for a new film version of The Odyssey. The Criterion Collection is proud to present this brilliant study of marital breakdown, artistic compromise, and the cinematic process in a new special edition.—Criterion synopsis

12. Band of Outsiders (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964)

http://vidiot.typepad.com/telescreen/images/abandeapart_4.jpg

Two restless young men (Sami Frey and Claude Brasseur) enlist the object of their desire (Anna Karina) to help them commit a robbery––in her own home. French New Wave pioneer Jean-Luc Godard takes to the streets of Paris to re-imagine the gangster genre, spinning an audacious yarn that’s at once sentimental and insouciant, romantic and melancholy. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the convention-flauting postmodern classic Band of Outsiders (Bande Ã* part).—Criterion synopsis


11. My Life to Live (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/f/fe/Mylifetolive.jpg

One of the most extraordinary, beautiful, and original works of art that I know of.—Susan Sontag

[Derek]

Good to see Blue so high and as much as I like Amelie, #14 is way, way too high. Spinal's Balthazar quote is immortal.

[Melville]

10. Jules and Jim (Francois Truffaut, 1962)

http://www.menteur.com/rubrik/course.jpg

Nominally the cinema's supreme love triangle (if not its most psychologically fascinating), François Truffaut's landmark is a hard film to resurrect in a contemporary era that favors logic and emotional literalness over the French director's dreamy sense of the inevitability of disappointment and the invisibility of personal morality.—Chuck Rudolph

9. Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)

http://www.moma.org/images/collection/FullSizes/Renoir_GrandIllusion_2.jpg

In 1938, Grand Illusion became the first foreign language film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Also in 1938, the film won the awards for Best Foreign Film at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and the National Board of Review.

After the film won a prize at the Venice Film Festival for "Best Artistic Ensemble" in 1937, the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels declared it "Cinematic Public Enemy No. 1" and ordered the prints to be confiscated and destroyed.—Wikipedia

7. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)

http://www.moviefilmreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/106rules.jpg

Now often cited as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's La Règle du jeu/Rules of the Game was not warmly received on its original release in 1939: audiences at its opening engagements in Paris were openly hostile, responding to the film with shouts of derision, and distributors cut the movie from 113 minutes to a mere 80. It was banned as morally perilous during the German occupation and the original negative was destroyed during WWII.—Mark Deming

6. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)

http://www.ebertfest.com/seven/playtime008.jpg

Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in the age of technology reached their creative apex with Playtime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the endearingly clumsy, resolutely old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a bafflingly modernist Paris. With every inch of its superwide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, Playtime is a lasting testament to a modern age tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion.—Criterion synopsis

[Derek]

Grande Illusion is solid, but overrated. Rules of the Game is where it's at.

Ou est nombre huit?

[Melville]

5. Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)

http://www.cinecultist.com/archives/cleo.jpg

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer (Corinne Marchand) set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.—Criterion synopsis

4. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/Algerian_Independence-lg.jpg

Gillo Pontecorvo's THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS is shows how you can end terrorism?—REEL_REVIEWER


3. A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956)

http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/images/photos/man_escaped2.jpg

What this amounts to is that Bresson has pulverized classic cutting—where a shot of someone looking at something is valid only in relation to the next shot showing what he is looking at—a form of cutting that made cinema a dramatic art, a kind of photographed theatre. Bresson explodes all that and, if in Un Condamné the closeups of hands and objects nonetheless lead to closeups of the face, the succession is no longer ordered in terms of stage dramaturgy. It is in the service of a preestablished harmony of subtle relations among visual and aural elements. Each shot of hands or of a look is autonomous.—Francois Truffaut

2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)

http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/falconetti5.jpg

You cannot know the history of silent film unless you know the face of Renee Maria Falconetti. In a medium without words, where the filmmakers believed that the camera captured the essence of characters through their faces, to see Falconetti in Dreyer's ``The Passion of Joan of Arc'' (1928) is to look into eyes that will never leave you.—Roger Ebert

[Melville]

Ou est nombre huit?
All results are accurate to within one rank, 49 times out of fifty.

[Boner M]

Gillo Pontecorvo's THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS is shows how you can end terrorism?—REEL_REVIEWER
LOL WTF

[Melville]

1. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959)

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff317/FaulknerFan/Children2.jpg

The movie that defined the French New Wave for the world. Partly autobiographical, both realistic and gently experimental in manner, it tells the story of a mischievous boy flirting with full-scale delinquency. TIME thought the director “impressively objective and mature.” It did not mention his uncanny ability to achieve cinematic elegance on a shoestring. Or, more important, his ability to enlist sympathy for his protagonist without unduly sentimentalizing him.—Richard Schickel

[Boner M]

Hmm, I can't seem to remember the Godard/Karina cameos in Cleo... I'm so hopeless.

[Philosophe_rouge]

Hmm, I can't seem to remember the Godard/Karina cameos in Cleo... I'm so hopeless.
They were in the short film that Cleo watches.

[ledfloyd]

Jules et Jim is way too low.

[Philosophe_rouge]

All results are accurate to within one rank, 49 times out of fifty.
I think he was asking where is #8?

[MacGuffin]

Nice job, Melville.

[Melville]

The complete list, with scores (4 points for tier I, 3 for II, 2 for III, and 1 for IV) and with the rankings corrected for the missing number 8. Ties were broken based on the number of tier I votes or on me forgetting that there was a tie.

1. 400 Blows 45
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc 41
3. A Man Escaped 34
4. The Battle of Algiers 31
5. Cleo from 5 to 7 30
6. Playtime 29
7. The Rules of the Game 27
8. Grand Illusion 26
9. Jules and Jim 25
10. My Life to Live 25
11. Band of Outsiders 25
12. Contempt 25
13. Amelie 24
14. Au hasard Balthazar 24
15. Blue 23
16. Children of Paradise 23
17. Hiroshima, mon amour 22
18. La Jetee 20
19. Army of Shadows 20
20. Napoleon 19
21. Last Year at Marienbad 19
22. The Man Who Planted Trees 19
23. Le Samourai 19
24. Beauty and the Beast 19
25. Breathless 18
26. Red 18
27. The Son 17
28. Sans soleil 17
29. Un Chien Andalou 17
30. The Young Girls of Rochefort 15
31. Shoot the Piano Player 15
32. The Piano Teacher 15
33. The Double Life of Veronique 14
34. My Night at Maud's 14
35. L'Atalante 14
36. Night and Fog 14
37. Diabolique 13
38. La Promesse 13
39. Cache 13
40. Masculin-Feminin 12
41. Beau Travail 12
42. Belle de Jour 12
43. Elevator to the Gallows 12
44. Mouchette 12
45. Au Revoir Les Enfants 11
46. Friday Night 11
47. Rififi 11
48. The Earrings of Madame de... 11
49. Blood of the Beasts 10
50. Delicatessen 10
51. Irreversible 10
52. Leon: The Professional 10
53. Pickpocket 10
54. That Obscure Object of Desire 10
55. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 10
56. Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The 10

[Qrazy]

Still have to see these:

20. Napoleon 19
27. The Son 17
34. My Night at Maud's 14
38. La Promesse 13
40. Masculin-Feminin 12
41. Beau Travail 12
46. Friday Night 11

Really looking forward to all of them.

[dreamdead]

Jeunet placed more than Rohmer?

:cry:

What the hell, guys?

[Qrazy]

Jeunet placed more than Rohmer?

:cry:

What the hell, guys?

Probably an issue of viewing habits... I doubt there are few us out there (as film buffs) that started with Rohmer and then tried Jeunet.

I've only seen two or three Rohmer's so far.

[Melville]

I think he was asking where is #8?
Yeah, that was just my way of admitting that I screwed up.

Films I've yet to see:

5. Cleo from 5 to 7 30
19. Army of Shadows 20
30. The Young Girls of Rochefort 15
33. The Double Life of Veronique 14
34. My Night at Maud's 14
40. Masculin-Feminin 12
43. Elevator to the Gallows 12
48. The Earrings of Madame de... 11
50. Delicatessen 10
53. Pickpocket 10
54. That Obscure Object of Desire 10

[dreamdead]

Probably an issue of viewing habits... I doubt there are few us out there (as film buffs) that started with Rohmer and then tried Jeunet.

I've only seen two or three Rohmer's so far.

Yeah, I've done 11 of his films and they're never less than serviceable, and they're frequently transcendent. I've put off the Seasons films beyond A Tale of Summer, so I need to get back on them over summer. And I really should enjoy his more period works, as they just sound so... different than his typical fare. I know Emerson over at Scanners loves Perceval, so maybe I'll do that in between the Seasons films.

[dreamdead]

I still need to get to:

19. Army of Shadows 20
20. Napoleon 19
21. Last Year at Marienbad 19
22. The Man Who Planted Trees 19
24. Beauty and the Beast 19
30. The Young Girls of Rochefort 15
36. Night and Fog 14
43. Elevator to the Gallows 12
45. Au Revoir Les Enfants 11
47. Rififi 11
48. The Earrings of Madame de... 11
49. Blood of the Beasts 10
55. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 10
56. Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The 10

Huh, I've seen more than I thought. Thanks again for putting this together, Melville...

[Qrazy]

Huh, I've seen more than I thought. Thanks again for putting this together, Melville...

*weeps*

Hehe.

[Boner M]

Need to see these:

20. Napoleon
22. The Man Who Planted Trees
30. The Young Girls of Rochefort
45. Au Revoir Les Enfants
48. The Earrings of Madame de...

[Qrazy]

22. The Man Who Planted Trees

I've recently been turned onto Back and he's just awesome.

Crac! is also great... gotta see the rest of his stuff.

[koji]

Thanks Melville and Qrazy. I should have put in my two cents (I would have put Rules of the Game first), but it's still a good list. And despite their many failings, the frogs make good moving pictures. :) Here are ones I have not seen:

10. My Life to Live 25
20. Napoleon 19
21. Last Year at Marienbad 19
22. The Man Who Planted Trees 19
30. The Young Girls of Rochefort 15
40. Masculin-Feminin 12
41. Beau Travail 12
48. The Earrings of Madame de... 11

__________________

[Philosophe_rouge]

I have so many to see, the ones I have I like lots!

1. 400 Blows 45
3. A Man Escaped 34
4. The Battle of Algiers 31
6. Playtime 29
7. The Rules of the Game 27
14. Au hasard Balthazar 24
15. Blue 23
16. Children of Paradise 23
20. Napoleon 19
21. Last Year at Marienbad 19
23. Le Samourai 19
27. The Son 17
28. Sans soleil 17
29. Un Chien Andalou 17
32. The Piano Teacher 15
33. The Double Life of Veronique 14
34. My Night at Maud's 14
36. Night and Fog 14
38. La Promesse 13
39. Cache 13
40. Masculin-Feminin 12
41. Beau Travail 12
44. Mouchette 12
45. Au Revoir Les Enfants 11
46. Friday Night 11
47. Rififi 11
49. Blood of the Beasts 10
50. Delicatessen 10
51. Irreversible 10
53. Pickpocket 10
55. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 10

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

yet to see...

16. Children of Paradise
20. Napoleon
22. The Man Who Planted Trees
27. The Son
38. La Promesse
41. Beau Travail
46. Friday Night
48. The Earrings of Madame de....
50. Delicatessen
51. Irreversible

[Mysterious Dude]

And I guess I need to see:

15. Blue
33. The Double Life of Veronique
44. Mouchette
46. Friday Night

Oh God it's a disaster!