The Best French Language Films of the Decade 2000-2009

[Chris Knipp]

The Best French Language Films of the Decade 2000-2009

Hommage
Eric Rohmer vient de disparaître: After nearly five decades of wonderful filmmaking, Eric Rohmer is dead, January 11, 2010, at the age of 89, two months short of his 90th birthday.The NYTImes obit is by Dave Kehr.

One of the key figures of France's post-war Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) cinema movement and an articulate and literate devotee of purism in moviemaking, Rohmer made 24 films over a period of 50 years. His main works include his cycle of films Six Moral Tales: shot in 1969, the third in the series, Ma Nuit Chez Maud, brought him international recognition. He also was a former editor of influential French film journal Cahiers du Cinéma.


ERIC ROHMER (1920-2010)


[Listed alphabetically by year]

This list is subject to revision. It includes a couple I don't like or have not seen that are widely admired (Esther Kahn, Amelie)

2000
Code Unknown/ Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages (Michael Haneke)
Esther Kahn (Arnaud Desplechin)
Human Resources/Resources humaines (Laurent Cantet)
Taste of Others, The/Le goût des autres (Agnès Jaoui) César, Best Film
With a Friend Like Harry/Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien (Dominik Moll)

2001
Amelie/Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet) César, Best Film
Pianiste, La (Michael Haneke) Grand Prix, Cannes
Read My Lips/sur mes lèvres (Jacques Audiard)

2002
Man on the Train/L'homme du train (Patrice Lecomte)
Son, The/Le fils (Jean-Luc and Pierre Dardenne)
To Be and to Have/Être et avoir(Nicolas Philibert)

2003
Adieu (Arnaud des Pallières)
Games of Love and chance/L'esquive (Abdel Kechche) César, Best Film 2005
Barbarian Invasions/Les invasions barbares (Denys Arcand) César, Best Film 2004
Son Frère (Patrice Chéreau)
Strayed/Les Egarés (André Téchiné)
Triplets of Bellville, The/Les triplettes de Belleville (Sylvain Chomet)

2004
Intruder, The/L'intrus (Claire Denis)
Kings and Queen/Rois et reine (Arnaud Desplechin)

2005
Beat My Heart Skipped, The/De battre mon cœur s'est arrêté (Jacques Audiard) César, Best Film
Child, The/L'enfant (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne) Palme d'Or, Cannes
Gabrielle (Patrice Chéreau)
Hidden/Caché (Michael Haneke)
Petit lieutenant, Le (Xavier Beauvois)
Regular Lovers/Les amants réguliers (Philippe Garrel)
Zim & Co. (Pierre Jolivet)

2006
Dans Paris (Christophe Honoré)
Flanders/Flandres (Bruno Dumont) Grand Prix, Cannes
Lady Chatterley (Pascale Ferran) César, Best Film
Singer, The/Quand j'étais chanteur (Xavier Giannoli)
Tell No One/Ne le dis à personne (Guillaume Canet)

2007
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The/Le scaphandre et le papillon (Julian Schnabel)
Last Mistress, The/Une vieille maîtresse (Catherine Breillat)
Love Songs/Les chansons d'amour (Christophe Honoré)
Secret of the Grain, The/La graine et le mulet (Abdel Kechche) César, Best Film
Vie en Rose, La/La môme (Olivier Dahan)

2008
35 Shots of Rum/35 rhums (Claire Denis)
Christmas Tale, A/Un conte de Noël (Arnaud Desplechin)
Class, The/Entre les murs (Laurent Cantet) (Palme d'Or, Cannes)
I've Loved You So Long/Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (Philippe Claudel)
Mesrine (two films, L'Instinct de mort and L'Ennemi public no. 1, Jean-François Richet)
Séraphine (Martin Provost) César, Best Film
Silence of Lorna, The/Le silence de Lorna (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Summer Hours/L'heure d'été (Olivier Assayas)

2009
Prophet, A/Un prophète (Jacques Audiard) Grand Prix, Cannes

[Howard Schumann]

Good list. I think many are on my best of the decade list. I did not include Beau Travail because of its IMdb date of 1999, though I can easily see how it could be considered a 2000 film. It was 17th on my best of the 90s list. I can see why Le Soufflé wasn't included because you haven't seen it. I'll see if I can make a copy and send it to you (I have to find it first).

[Chris Knipp]

Beau Travail is wrong. I'll take it off. I want to go strictly by the French release dates. I would love to see Le souffle; if you could send it that would be very generous.

There may be some others I'll add or subtract. I also want to make more comments. Certain directors emerged during the decade, such as Christophe Honoré: pretty much all of his films were done in the 2000's. Audiard has emerged as a very important filmmaker in France in the 2000's, though he did A Self-Made Hero/Un heros très discret in 1996, which got attention, including here. Honoré has yet to draw much attention here; I think there's something about him the US public doesn't quite "get." Honoré's Love Songs revives and transforms the mode of Jacque Demy. Philippe Garrel is a very independent director whose work is always beautiful, who has finally come to international attention with a film of this decade, Regular Lovers, a grand, moody evocation of the revolutionary moment of Paris June 1968, and its sadder aftermath. It helps that he's got an alter ego now in his glamorous son, Louis.

I omitted Eric Rohmer's Romance of Astree and Celadon, which is on your list, and I feel bad since he just died, and I love his films, but I didn't really like it, or find his films of the 2000's up to his best. He did wonderful things in the 1990's and even more wonderful ones in the 1980's.

There is a certain kind of genial comedy, such as those of Danièle Thompson, that sometimes wind up as Hollywood remakes, that the French do ver well but I don't seem to consider very memorable. I like the French adaptations of American genre, of long history, the "polar noir" such as Tell No One, or the even more edgy remake of James Toback's Fingers, The Beat My Heart Skipped, and the epic coming-of-age gangster film also by Audiard, A Prophet. Similarly the epic gangster biopic of this year Mesrine, in two feature-length parts, with a heroic lead performance by Vincent Cassel. I omitted Belvaux's trilogy, or anything starring Sylvie Testud, though she's one of the most powerful actresses in French cinema. There are also some grand old men directors besides Eric Rohmer whose work I haven't mentioned, such as Chabrol, though his Girl Cut in Two (2007) was pretty vintage, Merci pour le chocolat (2000), with the help of the knife-sharp Isabelle Huppert, had even more of the old bite; but there are so many; some would think his political study, a relative departure, A Comedy of Power (2006), is even better. Again with Huppert and in the main role François Berléand, a significant character actor who can be marvellously sulky and mean with the right director or in the right role. He and Huppert made a married couple from hell to chew on in Les soeurs fâchées . . . Huppert is almost always fun to watch. I did not list any film directed by Benoît Jacquot. His films are interesting, but none of his recent ones has fully succeeded, I've felt.

There are several perhaps more independent, unusual films that Oscar likes that I have omitted, because I've overlooked them on my lists that I've kept, but I could add them later, there's one in particular about girls with almost no dialog that we discussed but I can't remember the name of it now.*

I think this page shows the French film industry is alive. I'd like to give more space to the newcomers; I'm sure I've missed some important ones because of lack of direct contact (most of the time) with France. Help in bringing me up to date on this will be appreciated.

*Hadzihalilovic. See Oscar's entry below. Innocence, 2004. Nothing new since, yet. Sundance 2009 note: "Lucille Hadzihalilovic was one of five winners of the NHK award, helping her get her new film Evolution made."

[Howard Schumann]

I admit I have not seen any films by Honoré but am aware of the esteem in which his films are held so - one of these days. Neither have I seen anything by Ozon, Belvaux, or Klapisch. My bad. I looked hard tonight for my copy of Le Soufflé but could not find it. I know it's around somewhere so I'll keep looking.

[Howard Schumann]

A couple of others come to mind as well: Breillat's The Last Mistress, Lelouch's Roman de Gare, and Rivette's The Duchess of Langeais.

[oscar jubis]

I had fun putting this together. There's a Top 10, a next Ten, and 10 Honorable Mentions roughly ranked based on merit as I see it.

1) THE SON (Dardenne)
1) TIME OUT (Cantet)
3) THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (Arcand)
3) CODE UNKNOWN (Haneke)
3) IN PRAISE OF LOVE (Godard)
3) THE GLEANERS AND I (Varda)
3) LA COMMUNE-PARIS 1871 (Watkins)
3) NOT ON THE LIPS (Resnais)
9) THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (Schnabel)
9) INNOCENCE (Hadzihalilovic)

EAT, FOR THIS IS MY BODY (Quay)
FAT GIRL (Breillat)
LA CAPTIVE (Akerman)
35 SHOTS OF RUM (Denis)
RAJA (Doillon)
I’M GOING HOME (Oliveira)
FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (Hou)
PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES (Resnais)
BELLE TOJOURS (Oliveira)
KINGS AND QUEEN (Desplechin)

THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (Chomet)
THE BEACHES OF AGNES (Varda)
LADY CHATTERLEY (Ferran)
THE DUCHESS OF LANGEAIS (Rivette)
REGULAR LOVERS (Garrel)
GABRIELLE (Chereau)
UNDER THE SAND (Ozon)
PERSEPOLIS (Satrapi)
L'INTRUS (Denis)
NOTRE MUSIQUE (Godard)

[Chris Knipp]

[To Howard]

Yes. But I didn't really like The Duchess of Langeais. But I did like The Last Mistress. I might add that to have Breillat represented. Roman de Gare is entertaining but I could omit it. I'm not trying to list everything I liked or it would be a list of 100 and that was not my intention.

I have expanded my previous post about things I've omitted, by the way. I also might mention that I like the actor Clovis Cornillac (b. 1967), very talented in both comic and serious roles; he is in the overbearingly period tragedy of female oppression La Femme de Gilles with the great Emmanuelle Devos and in the same fall season in Parisi n 2004 starred in the uproarious comedy [b]Mensonges et trahisons. I think you could say that Devos and Matthieu Amalric have become the two indispensable new actors in French cinema this decade.

[Chris Knipp]

Oscar, our entries overlapped.

Innocence! That's the one I knew you'd remember but I forgot. It's on your list so I'll leave it to you.
Most of our films are the same, it's just that you chose to rank them, for some odd reason (ha!)

I thought of Persepolis, but omitted it. What happened to that plan to make an English-dubbed version, I wonder, a Sean Penn project I believe. The others that I didn't list I'll leave to you. I have the Commune on my to-watch list. I think we talked about Raja, and I watched it, too. I'll be interested in watching Doillon's new one, because of the cast. Title: Aux quatre vents/To the Four Winds.

See my footnote on Lucille Hadzihalilovic to my original entry above; she has gotten NHK funding for a new film called Evolution . . .see here.

I'll get the ones I haven't seen from Netflix where I can. Eat, isn't there (yet anyway) i shouldn't have missed The Captive -- Proust! (Well....) I will try Not on the Lips, though I think I rented it before and found it boring. I don't at all share your passion for "late" Resnais.

I think I've seen the others.

[oscar jubis]

[QUOTE=Chris Knipp;23722]
Most of our films are the same, it's just that you chose to rank them, for some odd reason (ha!)
Only 10 of my 30 are on your list which is good; it speaks highly of the vitality of French-speaking cinema.

I thought of Persepolis, but omitted it. What happened to that plan to make an English-dubbed version, I wonder, a Sean Penn project I believe. It's available on the DVD, as an alternative to the French soundtrack of the theater version. Someday I will check it out.

[Chris Knipp]

I'm adding a couple to my list that I didn't mean to omit. I added The Triplets of Belleville when I took off Beau Travail. I didn't mean to forget 35 Shots of Rum I said it was subject to revision. I don't think these things are written in stone. They're written on air, the air of the Web. I guess what I meant to say was that most of your lists are films that I considered listing, and a few I have not seen, which as before I will endeavor to watch.

[oscar jubis]

I think we talked about Raja, and I watched it, too.(CK)
This is what I posted when I watched it 5 years ago:
Jacques Doillon is known in America for Ponette, the only film he directed to receive wide distribution. Raja had an official US premiere in March 2004, but it appears to have had a commercial run only in NYC. It's been rescued from oblivion by the organization "Film Movement" as part of their monthly series of quality dvds.
Raja is a 19 y.o. orphan living in Marrakesh who catches the eye of a middle-aged rich Frenchman while working in his garden. The melancholic Fred lives alone and seems adrift in his beautiful estate. Raja has a traumatic past and alternates between a friend's apartment and the room where her boyfriend-cum-pimp lives. Raja's relationship with the latter is rather vague and ambivalent, perhaps all her relationships with men are complicated by negative past experience. Her relationship with Fred is further complicated by disparities in culture, language, age and financial status. Actually, I don't recall another film that depicts with such honesty a more complex, hard-to-pin-down relationship as the Raja and Fred's. What each wants and how they go about getting it changes rather frequently. Yet the film never grows tiresome, it's extremely engaging, compelling even. The political subtext is obviously there, but never made explicit. Fred is played by veteran actor Pascal Greggory. Najat Banssalem won an award for Best New Actress at Cannes '04. Doillon's script and direction are truly special.

See my footnote on Lucille Hadzihalilovic to my original entry above; she has gotten NHK funding for a new film called Evolution
I hope it gets made. Husband Gaspar Noe was inspired by a viewing of Lady of the Lake (1947) after taking potent hallucinogenics and made a 3-hour, Tokyo-set, English-language fantasia called Enter the Void, which will have its American premiere at Sundance this month. I am curious.

*I think it is remarkable and a little weird that the top two films on my French list are the top two French-language films in Howard's Fave 100 of the Decade (which was posted earlier; those who know me know I would not under any circumstance "copy" from anyone's list). They are of course, #9 all-decade:THE SON and #15: TIME OUT. This is an amazing congruence of opinion!

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, I know what you said about Raja, and I did watch it, but I did not find the film so memorable as all that. The Son ranks high on a lot of people's lists, real or notional. If one is going to grant the Dardennes the high status they've had at Cannes, this may be the best one. As for Time Out etc., it's just a coincidence I guess, but Cantet has emerged as significant director all along. I still prefer Human Resources--it's unique in its focus on labor/classi issues within a family and factory--and I like The Class a lot--and so did Cannes. After what I've seen I'm not a fan of Gaspar Noe. And Innocence is more fun to think about than to watch. But I wanted to have some more experimental French films of the decade mentioned here, and Innocence certainly is that--and also, in a French way, very stylish. I'm not so interested in ranking these films, actually, just mentioning some of the very best ones; as I agreed with Howard, we could have made our lists both longer, and picking the "top two" doesn't mean much to me.