En Français - French alternatives to Hollywood cinema.

by Luke Jones

With the success of The Artist at this year’s Oscars (released on Blu-Ray May 28th) it seems that French cinema has caught the attention of the movie-going public like never before, which seems something of a cheat when for most of its running time there is no dialogue. Yet if monsieur Dujardin has left you with a craving for more gallic entertainment then here are a few suggestions on where to begin.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec.

From Luc Besson (director of The Fifth Element and Leon) this comic adaptation sits somewhere between Tintin and Indiana Jones as a thoroughly silly but immensely enjoyable yarn. As Blanc-Sec, Louise Bourgoin is as capable and unflappable as her American counterparts, jet-setting across the globe in a story that involves errant Mummies, prison-breaks and a resurrected Pterodactyl. Extra points if you can spot former Bond villain Mathieu Almaric acting under layers of unnerving prosthetics.

Hidden (Caché)

Michael Haneke has a reputation for uncompromising cinema that gets under the skin of the viewer (both his original and remake of Funny Games actively taunt the audience for enjoying the violence shown on screen) but his most effective works have been conventional dramas in disguise. Hidden takes a disturbing central idea (a couple receive a series of anonymous video tapes surveilling their personal lives) and twists it into a nightmarish tale of how fragile domestic lives can be. Prescient in 2005, it only continues to grow in power as the importance of surveillance in modern life grows.

The City of Lost Children

Amélie may be his best known film, and Delicatessen his most satirical, but visionary director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s City of Lost Children is a masterpiece of steampunk cinema, somehow managing to out-grime Blade Runner. The story, which sees a hermetic scientist kidnapping children to steal their dreams, is slight, but it is full of the charm and off-beat humour that typifies so much of Jeunet’s work (Alien: Resurrection aside), plus it features not one but six performances from Jeunet regular Dominique Pinon, possessor of one of the most emotive faces in acting. 

Mesrine: Killer Instinct / Public Enemy No. 1

Proving that not all French cinema is middle-class naval gazing and offbeat comedy, this two part gangster epic features a towering performance from Vincent ‘the nostrils’ Cassel charting the life of real life criminal Jacques Mesrine. As visually dynamic as Goodfellas, it even scores points for being the only film on this list to star Gerard Depardieu.

Swimming Pool

While her attempts to break into Hollywood have been less than stellar, French superstar Ludivine Sagnier’s charms are all on display in this French comedy-noir. As the somewhat spoilt but ultimately vulnerable Julie, Sagnier displays an awful lot of flesh but brings honesty to a character that could easily be written off as unlikeable. Charlotte Rampling and Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister to you and me) keep the British end up in a film that is worth seeing for the gorgeous vistas of Southern France.

Of Gods and Men

The runner up at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, this story about Trappist monks forced to question their pacifist ways during the Algerian Civil War doesn’t seem to scream entertainment. Yet give it a chance and you will be rewarded with an exceptional cast dealing with difficult questions in a film that never feels preachy despite its difficult subject matter. Lambert Wilson was rightly derided for his scenery chewing Merovingian in the two Matrix sequels, but here he shows restraint as the leader of a group that, perhaps rightly, question whether they should remain in the face of imminent danger. 

A Prophet

Another awards darling, this was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2010 Oscars and is another hard-hitting drama, this time looking at the pervasiveness of organised crime in the French penal system. The film works both as a straight crime thriller, with lead Malik forced to balance a tightrope between conflicting religious groups within the prison walls, and a statement about the religious tensions in France today. It is perhaps no coincidence that, along with Of Gods and Men, this films also deals with the conflict between Christianity and Islam that garners so many headlines in France. Unrelenting, violent, after watching Un Prophète you’ll need to go back to the beginning and watch Adèle Blanc-sec to calm down again.