# French movies, anyone?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-movies-anyone/194339
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 11, 2003, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-movies-anyone/194339 "2003-08-11T06:56:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-movies-anyone/194339/21 "2003-08-13T02:18:09Z")
Can I be silly and recommend some French Canadian films? I don’t know that any of these are classics by any means in the Grand Scheme of Things but for pure entertainment value, may I suggest the Roch Demers movies? \*\*Opération Beurre de Peanut \*\* (actually, I hate this movie - scared me half to death when I was a kid, but I know lots of people like it) **, Bach et Bottine, La Guerre des tuques, Vincent et moi** etc.
I hear that the current Quebecois movie, **La grande séduction** is a hoot, and I can’t wait to get to see it myself!
I’m sure there are other Dopers here more educated in the Quebec movie scene, but odd bits of conversation all day had me thinking about the Demers films and I just felt I had to add a comment about them! 🙂
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### Author:  [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-movies-anyone/194339/22 "2003-08-13T08:09:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Nichol\_storm \*
> Is [La Haine](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0113247), starring Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, and Saïd Taghmaoui any good? I’ve heard some positive things and it sounds interesting.
That’s a movie that had a cult following if there ever was one. It’s not perfect, but it’s very powerful. Also, it looks fabulous - in grainy black & white. Definitely worth watching. (Just remember, though, that things are _that_ bad in Paris (usually, kind of).) It might be very hard to understand without subtitles as the street slang is a bit thick.
**Doberman** was positively the worst movie I have ever been forced to watch. Puke-inducingly bad, violent and stupid.
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by mnemosyne_
> Can I be silly and recommend some French Canadian films? I don’t know that any of these are classics by any means in the Grand Scheme of Things but for pure entertainment value, may I suggest the Roch Demers movies? Opération Beurre de Peanut (actually, I hate this movie - scared me half to death when I was a kid, but I know lots of people like it) , Bach et Bottine, La Guerre des tuques, Vincent et moi etc.
Well, I suppose, but that’s like recommending Home Alone…
Must-see French Canadian films:
**Mon oncle Antoine**
**Les bons débaras**
**Régeane Padovani**
**Le déclin de l’empire Américain** and its sequel, **Les invasions barbares**
**Jésus de Montréal**
**Léolo**
**El Dorado**
**Maudit Calvaire**
**Le Party**
**Zigrail**
**Maelstrom**
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### Author:  [@Dragon\_Phoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragon_Phoenix)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-movies-anyone/194339/23 "2003-08-13T09:33:54Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Tusculan \*
> \*\*Strange that the DVD’s in a French library would all be exclusively French. OTOH you say it is a company library. What kind of DVD’s would that be, or: what company is that?
>
> Maybe the library copies are rentals (which may be different from the ones for buying)? Or possibly French DVD-producers have wisened up. \*\*
There’s plenty of (recent) American movies in the library as well (with optional French dubbing and/or subtitles). All the French ones come in French only though. They\*\* are \*\*marked _for rental_, so maybe there’s a difference with what you can buy. We never buy DVD’s, so I don’t know. The library is just for the convenience of the staff and has about 200 DVDs of main-stream movies (in addition to books and CDs).
Anyway, if you want to order some French DVDs, it’s worthwhile checking whether they include subtitles.
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### Author:  [@Zazie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zazie)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-movies-anyone/194339/24 "2003-08-13T13:07:36Z")
I second to see “la haine”. I found that one in my regular Blockbuster one day. Not a master piece but I liked it.
jovan, it can be that bad, believe me. The “cites” (I guess we can compare or translate to the projects) are getting pretty bad. I have experienced and seen the problems when growing up in France and that was 10 years ago almost… It’s gotten worse now.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-movies-anyone/194339/25 "2003-08-13T13:10:10Z")
If you found it in your local Blockbuster, then it doesn’t fit the OP’s request: French films that are **not** available on DVD or VHS in the United States.
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-movies-anyone/194339/26 "2003-08-13T16:57:57Z")
Organized by director:
**Jean-Luc Godard** : _La Chinoise, Sauve qui Peut, Le Gai Savoir, Hail Mary, Tout va Bien, Nouvelle Vague, Made in U.S.A., Le Vend d’Est_ & _The History of Cinema_ series
**Robert Bresson** : _, Angels of the Streets, Trial of Joan of Arc_ & _Au Hasard, Balthazar_
**Jean Renoir** : _A Day in the Country, La Marseillaise_ & _Toni_
**Claude Chabrol** : _The Cousins, Violette Noiziere_ & _Poulet au Vinaigre_
**Jacques Rivette** : _La Belle Noiseuse, Paris Belongs to Us, Out One, L’Amour Fou_ & _Love on the Ground_
**Marcel Carne** : _Hotel du Nord_ & _The Adultress_
**Alain Resnais** : _Melo_ & _Smoking/No Smoking_
**Jacques Becker** : _Casque d’Or, Rendezvous in July_ & _Goupi Mains Rouges_
**Eric Rohmer** : _The Sign of Leo_ & _The Tree, the Mayor, and the Mediatheque_
**Jean Gremillon** : _Lumiere d’ete, La Croisiere de l’Atalante_ & _The Lighthouse Keepers_
**Jean Vigo** : _A Propos de Nice_
**Jacques Tati** : _Jour de Fete_
**Louis Feuillade** : _Judex_ & the _Fantomas_ series
**Louis Malle** : _Lacombe Lucien, The Fire Within, The Metro, Zazie in the Subway_ & _Au Revoir, Les Enfants_
**Henri-Georges Clouzot** : _The Truth, Woman in Chains_ & _L’Assassin Habite au 21_
**Rene Clair** : _14 Juillet_
**Jean-Pierre Melville** : _Army in the Shadows_ & _The Red Circle_
**Bertrand Blier** : _My Best Friend’s Girl_ & _Our Story_
**Abel Gance** : _J’Accuse!, La Roue, End of the World_ & _Cyrano et d’Artagnan_
**Georges Franju** : _Blood of the Beasts, Therese, Judex, Shadowman_ & _Le Grand Melies_
**Jacques Demy** : _Bay of Angels_ & _The Pied Piper_
**Maurice Pialat** : _L’Enfance Nue_ & _We Will Not Grow Old Together_
**Chris Marker** : _Le Joli Mai_ & _Letter from Siberia_
**Jean-Marie Straub** : _The Death of Empedocles, Sicilia!, Fortini/Cani, Moses and Aaron_ & _From the Clouds to the Resistance_
If I were to pick 7 that I’d most like to own, I’d pick the ones in Red
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