Best French Film 1930-1939
Seven best French films by year (1930-1939)
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- DirectorMaurice TourneurStarsGaby MorlaySuzanne DelvéCamille BertNo mercy for a woman who has been living in sin for six years.Director: Maurice Tourneur
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsGaston ModotLya LysCaridad de LaberdesqueA surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.Director: Luis Bunuel
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsDita ParloGinette MaddieAndrée BrabantDenise, an orphaned girl, moves to Paris where she hopes to find work at her uncle's store. But the glamorous department store 'Aux Bonheur des Dames' across the street crunches all the little businesses around. She finds a position there.Director: Julien Duvivier
- DirectorWilhelm ThieleMax de VaucorbeilStarsLilian HarveyHenri GaratRené LefèvreThree young friends working at a filling station all fall in love with the same woman.Simultaneously filmed French version of the German musical, Die Drei Von Der Tankstelle.French Version
Director: Wilhelm Thiele - DirectorAugusto GeninaStarsLouise BrooksGeorges CharliaAugusto BandiniLucienne, typist and gorgeous bathing beauty, decides to enter the 'Miss Europe' pageant sponsored by the French newspaper she works for. She finds her jealous lover Andre violently disapproves of such events and tries to withdraw, but it's too late; she's even then being named Miss France. The night Andre planned to propose to her, she's being whisked off to the Miss Europe finals in Spain, where admirers swarm around her. Win or lose, what will the harvest be?Director: Augusto Genina
- DirectorRené ClairStarsAlbert PréjeanPola IlléryEdmond T. GrévilleAlbert is smitten for Pola but ends up wrongly committed in jail, in the meantime her affections are sought after by his friend, and on his release both love and friendship must be tested.Director: René Clair
Best French Film of the year 1930 - DirectorRaymond BernardStarsÉdith JéhannePaule AndralOlaf FjordEmperess Catherine II wants to get rid of Princess Elisabeth Tarakanova who is to replace her on the throne of Russia. She asks Prince Orloff to travel to Venice so he can seduce Elisabeth and bring her back to Russia. Orloff and Tarakanova fall in love.Director: Raymond Bernard
- DirectorRené ClairStarsRaymond CordyHenri MarchandRolla FranceSeeking better life, two convicts escape from prison.Director: René Clair
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsMichel SimonJanie MarèseGeorges FlamantMaurice Legrand, a meek cashier married to a nagging wife, has a secret passion: he's a Sunday painter. He falls in love with Lulu, a young woman dominated by Dédé, the pimp who she works for. Dédé pushes Lulu into a relationship with him.Director: Jean Renoir
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsHarry BaurPaule AndralJackie MonnierDavid is a poor but ambitious Polish Jew who reinvents himself as a powerful New York business magnate. After gaining wealth, he relocates to Paris, only to have his selfish and demanding wife squander his fortune.Director: Julien Duvivier
- DirectorRaymond BernardStarsGaby MorlayCharles VanelLine NoroTwo sisters struggle to stay on the straight and narrow.Director: Raymond Bernard
- DirectorAlexander KordaStarsRaimuPierre FresnayFernand CharpinMarius is faced with a choice whether to fulfill his passion by sailing the seas or stay and marry the woman he loves.Director: Alexander Korda
- DirectorMarcel L'HerbierStarsHuguette DuflosKissa KouprineMaxime DesjardinsA professor's daughter is attacked in her sealed bedroom.Her fiance is suspected but a cub journalist finds the surprising culprit.Director: Marcel L'herbier
Release in France: 1931 - DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsRudolf ForsterLotte LenyaCarola NeherThe Gangster Macheath secretly marries the daughter of beggar king Peachum. When Peachum finds out, he instructs the police chief Brown to arrest and hang Macheath. If not, all the beggars of Soho will disturb the upcoming coronation.French Version
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Best French Film of the year 1931 - DirectorRaymond BernardStarsPierre BlancharGabriel GabrioCharles VanelWorld War 1 begins and a young man enlists to fight for his country.Director: Raymond Bernard
Best French Film of the year 1932 - DirectorFyodor OtsepStarsFritz KortnerAnna StenHanna WaagSimultaneously filmed French version of the German "Der Moerder Dimitri Karamassof": A son is accused of killing his father, whose young mistress he has also loved. Condemned for ten years, he is accompanied by the woman.Director: Fedor Ozep
Release in France: 1932 - DirectorJean RenoirStarsPierre RenoirGeorges TérofWinna WinifriedInspector Maigret investigates the mysterious murder of a Dutch diamond dealer, found dead in a stolen car. The car belongs to an insurance agent, Michonnet, and has been abandoned in the garage belonging to Carl Andersen.Director: Jean Renoir
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsHarry BaurRobert LynenLouis GauthierA red-haired boy is his mother's punching bag ; only his father's presence is a great comfort to him,but this weak man is under the shrew's thumb. His pain is so great he feels suicidal.Director: Julien Duvivier
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsAlexander GranachFritz KampersErnst BuschPlea against war and for friendship between peoples, through the story of French miners rescued by German colleagues after a firedamp explosion.French Version
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Release in France: 1932 - DirectorGeorge CukorErnst LubitschStarsMaurice ChevalierJeanette MacDonaldGenevieve TobinAn unhappily married couple try to come between a happy one.French Version
Director: Ernst Lubitsch - DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsJulian WestMaurice SchutzRena MandelA drifter obsessed with the supernatural stumbles upon an inn where a severely ill adolescent girl is slowly becoming a vampire.Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
- DirectorVictor TrivasStarsVladimir SokoloffMadeleine OzerayMarcelle WormsA gang of poverty-ridden juvenile delinquents progress from petty theft to hard crime, but a kindly judge manages to set most of them on the right path after they are finally apprehended.Director: Victor Trivas
- DirectorMaurice TourneurStarsYvette GuilbertGabriel GabrioEmmy LynnA more small scale version of the story Griffin used for his epic Orphans Of The Storm: a doctor tries to reunite two sisters who have become separated from each other during the whirlwind of the French Revolution.Director: Maurice Tourneur
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsFeodor Chaliapin Sr.DorvilleRené DonnioThe French version of G.W.Pabst's monumental three-language (English, French and German - separate versions each) filming of Cervantes' classic novel. The German version seems to be lost, but it is spoken of in three books, "The Film Till Now", and two of Pauline Kael's books of movie criticism.Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsAntonin ArtaudWanda BarcellaGaston DuboscMelodrama in which a man, learning his wife has turned to her brother in law for romantic comfort, withdraws affection from his daughter, suspecting that she is not really his own.Director: Abel Gance
- DirectorJean Benoît-LévyMarie EpsteinStarsMadeleine RenaudAlice TissotPaulette ÉlambertWhen her father files bankruptcy and then dies, Rose's fiancé jilts her; she takes a job as a maid in a Montmartre kindergarten with 150 poor children. Rose gives each child loving attention, and soon she's their favorite. An especially needy child is Marie, a prostitute's daughter. Rose and she bond, and Marie is jealous of all attentions paid Rose, especially those of Dr. Libois, the school's physician. When Rose inadvertently guides the children through the educational experiment of a visiting scholar, and then discloses she has a college degree and is working beneath her station, the principal wants to fire her. Is there any way she can stay? And what will happen to Marie?Director: Jean-Benoît Lévy
Best French Film of the year 1933 - DirectorRené ClairStarsAnnabellaJorge RigaudRaymond CordyJean is a young cab driver. Anna, a flower-girl neighbour, is in love with him. But he is still thinking to Pola, who just left him. Jean asks her to the bal. Many events (Pola's come back, two villains...) will disturb this arising love.Director: René Clair
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeOtto WernickeThomy BourdelleA criminal mastermind uses hypnosis to rule the rackets after death.French Version
Director: Fritz Lang - DirectorMarcel PagnolStarsOrane DemazisFernandelHenri PouponA young and naive peasant girl in Provence, who has been seduced and abandoned, moves to Marseilles and becomes a street-walker after having her baby.Director: Marcel Pagnol
- DirectorJean VigoStarsDita ParloJean DastéGilles MargaritisNewly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.Director: Jean Vigo
- DirectorJacques FeyderStarsMarie BellPierre Richard-WillmCharles VanelPierre (Pierre Richard-Willm), a young lawyer, has enormous debts due to his mistress Florence (Marie Bell), and her whims of luxury life. Pierre has gone too far and put the family firm in jeopardy. They ask him to expatriate. To avoid scandal, Pierre joins the Foreign Legion. In Morocco, near the desert, Pierre goes with his comrades of the Legion to a bar-restaurant-brothel, owned by a shady character, Mr. Clement (Charles Vanel). Clement lives more or less with Ms.Blanche (Françoise Rosay) who is a fortune teller with cards, as a hobby. But Clement is also after his girls now and then. Pierre is still obsessed with Florence but he meets Irma (Marie Bell), one of Clement's girls, who is the double of Florence except for hair color. Irma has had an accident and has lost part of her memory at a certain point of her recent past, and Pierre slowly persuades himself she is Florence, but cannot remember it. Advised by Ms.Blanche, Irma finally accepts to act as if she was Florence because she is falling in love with Pierre. Near the end of his contract with the Legion, Pierre receives news from France. He has inherited a fortune. He asks Irma to come to France with him, and they make plans. But Clement tries to rape Irma and Pierre has to kill him.Director: Jacques Feyder
- DirectorMarc AllégretStarsRosine DeréanSimone SimonIla MecséryA handsome but penniless young man takes a summer job as a swimming instructor in a picturesque Alpine lake resort. He falls in love with a young heiress who is staying there with her father, but he also grabs the attention of tomboyish Puck who lives on the other side of the lake and who saves him from drowning one foggy night. Further havoc is caused by the arrival of Eric's old sweetheart whose husband is wanted by the police.Director: Marc Allégret
- DirectorRaymond BernardStarsHarry BaurCharles VanelPaul AzaïsThe lives of numerous people over the course of 20 years in 19th century France, weaved together by the story of an ex-convict named Jean Valjean on the run from an obsessive police inspector, who pursues him for only a minor offense.Director: Raymond Bernard
Best French Film of the year 1934 - DirectorDimitri KirsanoffStarsDita ParloGeymond VitalJeanne Marie-LaurentHans has killed the dog of Firmin, a shepherd. Wild with rage, Firmin kidnaps Elsi, Hans' fiancée and locks her up at his home. Hans, a peddler, vows to find the missing girl. This is what he does and he manages, with the help of Mathias, a trader who travels between both villages, to give Elsi a letter. On seeing her, the changeling falls in love at first sight with the young woman. Elsi soon realizes that Mânu, the village idiot, can become her instrument of vengeance.Original Title: Rapt
Director: Dimitri Kirsanoff - DirectorMax OphülsStarsAbel TarrideMagda SchneiderSimone HéliardA young German officer's (Wolfgang Liebeneiner) life is turned upside when he tries to end his affair with a married baroness (Olga Tschechowa) after falling for an innocent young singer (Magda Schneider).Original Title: Libelei
French Version
Director: Max Ophüls
Release in France: 1934 - DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsAnnabellaJean GabinRobert Le ViganPierre Gilieth has committed a murder in Paris. He flees to Barcelona, where he runs out of money. So he joins the Spanish Foreign Legion. He meets there two fellow countrymen, Mulot and Lucas. He tries to forget his fault... but Lucas's friendship soon appears to be less unselfish...Director: Julien Duvivier
- DirectorPierre ChenalStarsHarry BaurPierre BlancharMadeleine OzerayRaskolnikov is a Russian man who follows an unusual moral code. A combination of vigilantism and hubris fuels his decision to aid a hapless prostitute by removing her antagonist, a local merchant. Raskolnikov is locked up for the murder, and while he does not deny committing the crime, he tries to persuade the police that he should not be charged.Director: Pierre Chenal
- DirectorMax OphülsStarsSimone BerriauJorge RigaudGina ManèsA country girl starts to work as a chorus girl in Paris and then finds true love with a good-looking milkman.Director: Max Ophüls
- DirectorJacques FeyderStarsFrançoise RosayAndré AlermeJean MuratTells the story of the Spanish invasion of FlandersDirector: Jacques Feyder
Best French Film of the year 1935 - DirectorEdmond T. GrévilleStarsJeanne BoitelJean GallandMaurice MaillotThe happiness of a newly-married couple, Henry and Jeannie Saint Clair, is shattered when the husband is made a paralytic in an automobile accident. The wife still loves him, although he is incapable of any physical love. She is slowly drawn into a short-lived affair with a handsome athlete, Robert Vanier. When the husband learns of the affair, he commits suicide. But the wife cannot forget him and she sends her lover away.Director: Edmond T. Gréville
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsCharles BlavetteCelia MontalvánJenny HéliaIn the 1920s, the Provence is a magnet for immigrants seeking work in the quarries or in agriculture. Many mingle with locals and settle down permanently - like Toni, an Italian who has moved in with Marie, a Frenchwoman. Even a well-ordered existence is not immune from boredom, friendship, love, or enmity, and Toni gets entangled in a web of increasingly passionate relationships. For there is his best pal Fernand, but also Albert, his overbearing foreman; there is Sebastian, a steady Spanish peasant, but also Gabi, his young rogue relative; there is Marie, but there is also Josefa.Director: Jean Renoir
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsMaurice ChevalierJeanette MacDonaldEdward Everett HortonWhen a small kingdom's main taxpayer leaves for Paris, its king dispatches a dashing count to win back her allegiance.French Version
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Release in France: 1935 - DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinSuzy PrimLouis JouvetA charismatic thief makes friends with a bankrupt baron who comes to live in the thief's slum. Meanwhile the thief seeks the love of a young woman, who is held emotionally captive by her slumlord family.Director: Jean Renoir
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsJean GabinCharles VanelRaymond AimosFive unemployed penniless workers win 100,000 Francs with the national lottery. Instead of sharing the money, they buy a ruin and build an open-air cafe. But difficulties come to split their friendly group apart.Director: Julien Duvivier
Best French Film of the year 1936 - DirectorMarcel PagnolStarsRaimuPierre FresnayOrane DemazisHonoré Panisse is dying, cheerfully, with friends, wife, and son at his side. He confesses to the priest in front of his friends; he insists that the doctor be truthful. But, he cannot bring himself to tell his son Cesariot that his real father is Marius, the absent son of César, Cesariot's godfather. Panisse leaves that to Fanny, the lad's mother. Dissembling that he's off to see a friend, Cesariot then seeks Marius, now a mechanic in Toulon. Posing as a journalist, Cesariot spends time with Marius and leaves believing tales he is a petty thief. Only after the truth comes out can Marius, Fanny, César, and Cesariot step beyond the falsehoods, benign though they may be.Director: Marcel Pagnol
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsCharles BoyerDanielle DarrieuxMarthe RégnierRudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, is fettered on all sides. He's bored; his father, the emperor, is domineering; his politics are more liberal than his father's, but he knows his views carry no weight. He agrees to marry a princess to sire an heir, then spends his nights as a playboy. In 1888, he meets Marie Vetsera, 17, a baroness's daughter. She is resolute, smitten, and wants nothing in return for her love. The Prime Minister is alarmed; he contrives to have her sent away. Rudolf sinks into dissipation. When she returns, how will the lovers handle the opposition of society and their families? Can Rudolf find a way for them to be together?Director: Anatole Litvak
- DirectorJacques de BaroncelliRichard EichbergStarsAnton WalbrookColette DarfeuilArmand BernardThe Czar charges a man to deliver a message to the Grand Duke behind enemy lines.On his way he encounters a number of adventures.Director: Jacques de Baroncelli
- DirectorSacha GuitryStarsSacha GuitryAdolphe BorchardMarcel LucienA charming scoundrel reflects on his exploits, from childhood through to manhood.Director: Sacha Guitry
- DirectorMaurice TourneurStarsHarry BaurGaby MorlayAndré LefaurJacques Brachart is a parvenu in the finance, the boss of the African Coppers. The D'Andeline are noble but pennyless. They make their daughter Anne-Marie marry Brachart. A marriage of convenience for them. But Brachart is really in love with Anne-Marie, though she can hardly stand him. One days, she takes a lover, Jerome Le Govain, a dandy whose money comes from Brachart's advises... A fierce melodrama.Director: Maurice Tourneur
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinDita ParloPierre FresnayDuring WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.Director: Jean Renoir
Best French Film of the year 1937 - DirectorJean GrémillonStarsJean GabinMireille BalinPierre EtchepareSoldier Lucien meets elegant Madeleine one night in Cannes. Lovestruck, he follows her to Paris after he is discharged. Their love affair begins anew, but eventually runs cold and he returns to Orange in the south of France. She follows.Director: Jean Grémillon
- DirectorPierre ChenalStarsPierre BlancharIsa MirandaCatherine FonteneyMathias Pascal, saddled with a stupid wife and a nagging mother-in-law, leaves home and is extremely lucky at several gambling resorts. He returns home and discovers that a drowned man, fished out of the river, bears an uncanny likeness to him and is being buried by his family as him. This, to him, is a pleasant turn of events and he goes to Rome, where he falls in love with Louise Paleari. Count Papiano, a jealous suitor of Louise's, threatens him with arrest unless he produces credentials to prove his identity.Director: Pierre Chenal
- DirectorChristian-JaqueSacha GuitryStarsJacqueline DelubacSacha GuitryLyn HardingThree narrators (French writer Jean Martin, an English royal equerry, and a papal chamberlain) tell the story of seven matched pearls, four of them now in the British Crown. Episodes whirl us from Pope Clement VII to Mary Queen of Scots, from whom the pearls are stolen while she's occupied with the headsman. Historic events are seasoned with sly, satiric humor, and famous beauties are portrayed by stunning actresses. Then the narrators meet, and decide to try tracing the three unrecovered pearls from 1587 to the present...Director: Sacha Guitry and Christian-Jaque
- DirectorMarcel PagnolStarsGabriel GabrioOrane DemazisFernandelThe narrative revolves around a farming village where only three inhabitants remain, but they are told that if only one of them, Panturle, manages to find a wife, the village will be able to prosper againDirector: Marcel Pagnol
Release: 1937 in France - DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsMarie BellFrançoise RosayLouis JouvetChristine, newly widowed and consumed by the memory of a ball she attended age 16, decides to track down the men she danced with that night and discover their fates.Director: Julien Duvivier
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsHarry BaurAnnie DucauxJany HoltLyrical biography of the classical composer, depicted as a romantical hero, an accursed artist.Director: Abel Gance
Release in France: 1937 - DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinJulien CaretteSimone SimonIn this classic adaptation of Emile Zola's novel, a tortured train engineer falls in love with a troubled married woman who has helped her husband commit a murder.Director: Jean Renoir
- DirectorChristian-JaqueStarsErich von StroheimMichel SimonArmand BernardStrange things happen at night at the Saint-Argil secondary school. Baume, Sorgues and Macroy, three of the school's pupils, discover a suspicious man on the premises. Shortly after this unsettling event, pupils begin to go missing.Director: Christian-Jaque
- DirectorJean GrémillonStarsRaimuPierre BlancharMadeleine RenaudAn innocent man spends time in prison for murder, then escapes and falls in love with the wife of the real perpetrator.Director: Jean Grémillon
- DirectorMarcel PagnolStarsRaimuGinette LeclercFernand CharpinA small village rejoices at the arrival of a new baker. But when his young wife runs off with another man, he is unable to keep baking and the village is thrown into disarray.Director: Marcel Pagnol
- DirectorMarcel CarnéStarsAnnabellaJean-Pierre AumontLouis JouvetOn the meandering Canal St. Martin, at the Parisian Hôtel du Nord, a nearly fatal gunshot separates a dejected young couple. But, amid a sad but beautiful panorama of lively characters, love has the final say. Can life be a fairy tale?Director: Marcel Carné
Best French Film of the year 1938 - DirectorAbel GanceStarsVictor FrancenLine NoroSylvie GanceA traumatized World War I veteran builds a machine to prevent war. When the government subverts his machine and a second world war seems increasingly inevitable, in desperation the inventor summons the ghosts of the war dead to protest.Director: Abel Gance
- DirectorHenri DecoinStarsDanielle DarrieuxPierre DuxJacques DumesnilMarried to Karl Ammer, the station master of Thaya, a Hungarian quiet village, Anita is a pretty young peasant who feels deeply bored. She dreams of another life while watching the daily express trains to Budapest. An incident will force her to leave her province: she has to go to Budapest to attend the funeral of an aunt and receive a share of the inheritance. After completing the formalities, Anita misses the train to go back home and then she finds herself alone in the capital.Director: Henri Decoin
Release in France: 1938 - DirectorPierre ChenalStarsFernand GraveyMichel SimonMarcel ValléeFrank, a hobo, ends up in a garage-truck stop in the middle of nowhere. Nick Marino, its older, kind and naive owner, is married to Cora, a sexy and mercenary woman half his age. Frank, although not a fan of hard work, accepts Nick's offer to work for him. Of course, it is not for Nick's sake that the young man becomes his attendant, but for the love of Cora under whose spell he has fallen at once. It does not take long before Cora, who despises her husband, asks her lover to help her get rid of him. Frank is reluctant at first but.Director: Pierre Chenal
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsVictor FrancenMichel SimonLouis JouvetAged penniless actors are living in a old people's home. They always talk about their past glory or failures. One day Raphael Saint-Clair comes; he has been a famous actor and had a lot of love affairs. Passions come back, and jealousies.Director: Julien Duvivier
Best French Film of the year 1939 - DirectorSacha GuitryStarsSacha GuitryMax DearlyElvire PopescoFast-thinking Guitry contrives a scheme to earn easy money from rich women with expiring visas by marrying them with clochards and at the same time to win the charms of beautiful Polish countess. Everything seems to go wrong when the clochards, once married with the foreigners, want to comply with their marital duties...Director: Sacha Guitry
- DirectorMarcel CarnéStarsJean GabinJacqueline LaurentArlettyAfter committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events that led him to the killing.Director: Marcel Carné
- DirectorRaymond BernardStarsAnnie VernaySaturnin FabreFernand CharpinAt the biginning of World War I in a village in the country of La Marne, two families are against the marriage of their children. The war changes the positions.Director: Raymond Bernard
- DirectorRobert SiodmakStarsMaurice ChevalierPierre RenoirMarie DéaAfter one of her fellow taxi dancers is murdered by an unknown man who she met through a personal column advert, Adrienne Charpentier is recruited by the police to answer a series of similar adverts to try to track down the killer.Director: Robert Siodmak
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsMarcel DalioNora GregorPaulette DubostA bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.Director: Jean Renoir