The Cinema of France remains very impressive. Every year they continue to produce the great French Movies. Here we have selected the very best French movies of the last decades. We cannot say that it has been easy, as France has made a huge amount of great films. For every movie we have provided a summary, review and a trailer. Enjoy our list. Please feel free to leave a review of the French movies in the comment sections. For now we are using the IMDb Rating system, until we have developed our own.
This beste French movie top 10 list is based on our personal opinion and the Internet Movie Database rating by the users. All movies have been seen by a many people in France and in the rest of the world.
For more background information and French film lists visit our French Movies Section. We also have a top list about the best French TV Series.
Best French Movies top 10
All these movies by be purchased in our DVD section where all the best French movies are for sale. You can also watch most of these online, some of them even for free with English subtitles!
1. Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain – Amélie (2001)
- Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- Cast: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz and Rufus
- IMDb Rating: 8.5
Amelie is about a young naïve girl who desperately wants to help others. Along the way she also finds love. Perhaps an easy pick, but it remains one of our all-time best French movies.
2. Le scaphandre et le papillon – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
- Directed by Julian Schnabel
- Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner and Marie-Josée Croze
- IMDb Rating: 8.1.
This touching and emotional film is based on the real life-story of Jean-Dominique Bauby who in 1995 got a stroke.
3. Au revoir les enfants (1987)
- Directed by Louis Malle
- Cast: Raphael Fejtö, Gaspard Manesse and Francine Racette
- IMDb Rating: 8.1.
At the time of the Second World War two young boys at a French private school share a secret that the german occupier should not find out. It without a doubt deserves a mention on our best French Movies list.
4. Trois couleurs: Rouge – Three Colours: Red (1994)
- Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Irène Jacob and Frédérique Feder
- IMDb Rating: 8.1
Three colors red tells the story of a young French model that finds out that her neighbor, a retired judge, spies on people walking on the street. She starts a friendship with him anyway.
- Directed by Claude Berri
- Cast: Gérard Depardieu, Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil
- IMDb Rating: 8.1
A corrupt and rich land-owner and his evil nephew block the water supply of a small French country village,
6. Un prophète- A prophet (2009)
- Director: Jacques Audiard
- Cast: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup en Adel Bencherif
- IMDb Rating: 8.0
The film tells the tale of a young French-Arabic boy, who goes to prison and turns out to become a big shot. According to the critics one of the best French movies of recent years. We agree wholeheartedly.
- Director: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
- Cast: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve en Gena Rowlands
- IMDb Rating: 8.0
An animated black and white movie telling a coming-of-age story of a young Iranian woman at the time of the Iranian revolution.
8. Trois couleurs: Bleu – Three colors: Blue (1993)
- Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Cast: Juliette Binoche, Zbigniew Zamachowski en Julie Delpy
- IMDb Rating:7.9.
Another film of the trilogy of Kieslowsky. This time with the great Juliette Binoche. She loses both husband and child, and has to find a way to cope with this terrible loss.
9. Un long dimanche de fiançailles – A very long engagement (2004)
- Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- Cast: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel en Jodie Foster
- IMDb Rating: 7.8
With Adurey Tautou in the leading role and with Jean-Pierre Jeunet for a director, this movie was promoted to be the new Amelie movie. It is about a young stubborn woman who desperately searches for her fiance who disappeared in the first world war.
- Director: Jean-Pierre Jeune and Marc Caro
- Cast: Marie-Laure Dougnac, Dominique Pinon and Pascal Benezech
- IMDb Rating: 7.8
The movie sets in a post-apocolyptic World in which food is a difficult thing to come by. The landlord mysteriously does get his hands on some food.
Want more best French Movies? We also have a look at the very best French films by Genre. Like for example our French romantic movies.