Best French Film 1990-1999
Seven best French films by year (1990-1999)
List activity
55K views
• 38 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
70 titles
- DirectorJean-Paul RappeneauStarsGérard DepardieuAnne BrochetVincent PerezFamed swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac is in love with his cousin Roxane. He has never expressed his love for her as he his large nose undermines his self-confidence. Then he finds a way to express his love to her, indirectly.Best French Film of the year 1990
- DirectorYves RobertStarsPhilippe CaubèreNathalie RousselDidier PainAt the end of the nineteenth century, little Marcel lives with his parents in the Provence countryside. During his holiday, Marcel meets Lili, a local boy who knows all the secrets of the hills, and the two become fast friends.
- DirectorPatrice LeconteStarsJean RochefortAnna GalienaRoland BertinAntoine has always been fascinated by a hairdresser's delicate touch, the beguiling perfume and the enticing figure of a woman with an opulent bosom. After all, he always knew he would marry one, completing his idealised love fantasy.
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsMiou-MiouMichel PiccoliMichel DuchaussoyDuring the events of May 1968 in France, different worldviews of conflicting relatives collide in their family estate.
- DirectorLuc BessonStarsAnne ParillaudMarc DuretPatrick FontanaConvicted felon Nikita isn't going to jail; she's given a new identity and trained, stylishly, as a top secret spy/assassin.
- DirectorJacques DoillonStarsRichard AnconinaGérald ThomassinClotilde CourauMarc and Nathalie are brother and sister living separately since their parents' separation. Marc decides to visit Nathalie but in order to finance his trip he robs a shop bringing him to the attention of the police.
- DirectorClaude BerriStarsPhilippe NoiretGérard DepardieuMichel BlancAfter World War II, a small French village struggles to put the war behind as the controlling Communist Party tries to flush out Petain loyalists. The local bar owner, a simple man who likes to write poetry, who only wants to be left alone to do his job, becomes a target for Communist harassment as they try and locate a particular loyalist, and he pushes back.
- DirectorLeos CaraxStarsJuliette BinocheDenis LavantKlaus-Michael GrüberAlex, who's homeless and addicted to alcohol, and Michèle, who's losing her sight, form a relationship while sleeping rough on Paris's Pont-Neuf bridge.
- DirectorJacques RivetteStarsMichel PiccoliJane BirkinEmmanuelle BéartThe former famous painter Frenhofer revisits an abandoned project using the girlfriend of a young visiting artist. Questions about truth, life, and artistic limits are explored.
- DirectorMarc CaroJean-Pierre JeunetStarsMarie-Laure DougnacDominique PinonPascal BenezechPost-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy about the landlord of an apartment building who occasionally prepares a delicacy for his odd tenants.
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsIrène JacobWladyslaw KowalskiHalina GryglaszewskaTwo parallel stories about two identical women; one living in Poland, the other in France. They don't know each other, but their lives are nevertheless profoundly connected.
- DirectorBertrand BlierStarsCharlotte GainsbourgAnouk GrinbergMichel BlancA lonely teenage girl studying her exams meets a homeless woman and befriend with her.
- DirectorAlain CorneauStarsGérard DepardieuJean-Pierre MarielleAnne BrochetThe story of Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, fierce and somber man, grand master of the viola da gamba and professor of Marin Marais, prestigious musician in the court of Louis XIV.Best French Film of the year 1991
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsJacques DutroncAlexandra LondonBernard Le CoqThe final sixty-seven days of Van Gogh's life are examined.
- DirectorJean-Jacques AnnaudStarsJane MarchTony Ka Fai LeungJeanne MoreauIn 1929 French Indochina, a French teenage girl embarks on a reckless and forbidden romance with a wealthy, older Chinese man, each knowing that knowledge of their affair will bring drastic consequences to each other.
- DirectorColine SerreauStarsVincent LindonPatrick TimsitZabou BreitmanVictor's wife leaves him, and on the same day he loses his job. Depressed, he tries to find someone to listen to his grief, but the only person ready to show some empathy is the simple-minded Michou whom Victor finds irritating.
- DirectorRégis WargnierStarsCatherine DeneuveVincent PerezLinh-Dan PhamEliane adopts Camille, whose Vietnamese parents were friends. In 1930, a French navy officer is interested in Eliane (owns 60km2 plantation) and later in Camille. There's an uprising in Vietnam against French colonial power.
- DirectorBertrand TavernierStarsDidier BezaceJean-Paul ComartCharlotte KadyRelentless struggle of the Parisian police against the drug trade.
- DirectorCyril CollardStarsCyril CollardRomane BohringerCarlos LópezJean is 30 years old. He lives with Laura, 17 years old, a violent and eventful love story. He learns that he is HIV positive.Best French Film of the year 1992
- DirectorChristine PascalStarsRichard BerryAnémoneMarie KleiberA divorced Swiss couple must come to terms with their daughter's life-threatening illness. He, a scientist, snatches his daughter from the examining table at the clinic and takes her away as if to kidnap her from the disease. His ex-wife, an actress, takes to bed weeping uncontrollably when she learns of her daughter's tumor. The girl's step-mother, an Asian-American physician, is clinical in her response, outlining a treatment regimen of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. It is left to the girl herself, ten-year-old Violette, to be calm, reassuring, philosophical, and even metaphysical as she faces death.
- DirectorClaude SautetStarsDaniel AuteuilEmmanuelle BéartAndré DussollierStéphane is an emotionally distant but professionally dedicated violin restorer whose cold heart is tested when his employer's new girlfriend, a beautiful violinist, falls for him.
- DirectorLaurence Ferreira BarbosaStarsValeria Bruni TedeschiMelvil PoupaudMarc CittiAfter hitting her head, a woman has to face living in a mental institution for a period of time.
- DirectorClaude BerriStarsRenaudGérard DepardieuMiou-MiouIn mid-nineteenth-century northern France, a coal mining town's workers are exploited by the mine's owner. One day, they decide to go on strike, and the authorities repress them.
- DirectorAndré TéchinéStarsCatherine DeneuveDaniel AuteuilMarthe VillalongaOld woman Berthe leaves her house to live in her daugter Emilie's one. Emilie and her brother Antoine have fallen out three years ago and have not seen each other since, but Emilie invites him for Christmas. Memories will come up, and will be depicted both Berthe's destiny and the strange relationship between Emilie and Antoine.
- DirectorAnh Hung TranStarsNu Yên-Khê TranMan San LuThi Loc TruongA Vietnamese servant girl, Mui, observes lives within two different Saigon families: the first, a woman textile seller with three boys and a frequently absent husband; the second, a handsome young pianist with his fiancée.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsSabine AzémaPierre ArditiPeter HudsonAn examination of the possible consequences of a certain event.Best French Film of the year 1993
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsJuliette BinocheZbigniew ZamachowskiJulie DelpyA woman struggles to find a way to live her life after the death of her husband and child.
- DirectorJean-Marie PoiréStarsChristian ClavierJean RenoValérie LemercierA medieval knight and his servant ask a familiar wizard to move them back in time to prevent father-in-law's accidentally killing. Instead, they fly away to the 20th century.
- DirectorNicole GarciaStarsGérard LanvinBernard GiraudeauJean-Marc BarrA film shows a family through an adult man's figure, and his weekdays. The main character is one of the sons of an old and ill man who is in hospital nowadays. The father has 2 other sons too. Jean Paul visits his father all day. After he divorced his life is unexciting and troubled. He has a lot of dark suits, a good car, a big house but he has some debts, and his private life touch bottom. He has to call his brothers and ask them to help.
- DirectorJacques RivetteStarsTatiana MoukhineSandrine BonnaireJean-Marie RichierA part of Joan of Arc's life. At the beginning, Jeanne (Joan) has already left Domremy, she is trying to convince a captain to escort her to the Dauphin. It ends during Jeanne's first battle, at Orleans. Meanwhile, Jeanne is depicted more as a warrior than a saint (all cliches are avoided), with only her faith for strength.
- DirectorLuc BessonStarsJean RenoGary OldmanNatalie Portman12-year-old Mathilda is reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. An unusual relationship forms as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin's trade.
- DirectorEric RochantStarsYvan AttalRichard MasurAllen GarfieldAt 18, Ariel Brenner leaves Paris and his family to live in Israel. He secretly joins the Mossad, the Isreali secret service. After years of training, his first mission is in Paris to steal secrets from Remy Prieur, a French atomic scientist. We will assist to the methods, the manipulations, the abuses, the machiavellism, the doubts of secret agents.
- DirectorPatrice ChéreauStarsIsabelle AdjaniDaniel AuteuilJean-Hugues AngladeYoung Queen Margot finds herself trapped in an arranged marriage amidst a religious war between Catholics and Protestants. She hopes to escape with a new lover, but finds herself imprisoned by her powerful and ruthless family.
- DirectorAndré TéchinéStarsÉlodie BouchezGaël MorelStéphane RideauThe fates of two partners are divided.Best French Film of the year 1994
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsIrène JacobJean-Louis TrintignantFrédérique FederA model discovers a retired judge is keen on invading people's privacy.
- DirectorÉtienne ChatiliezStarsMichel SerraultEddy MitchellSabine AzémaFrancis, the boss of a small plumbing supply company, is harassed by tax collectors, striking employees, and an impossible wife and daughter. His only joy is sharing lunch with his friend Gerard. Then a TV show called "where are you?" shows a woman from Gers who is searching for her husband who disappeared 28 years ago. The lost husband looks like an identical twin of Francis...
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsIsabelle HuppertSandrine BonnaireJacqueline BissetA newly hired maid for a rich countryside family befriends a post-office clerk who encourages her to rebel against her employers.
- DirectorMarc CaroJean-Pierre JeunetStarsRon PerlmanDaniel EmilforkJudith VittetA scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.
- DirectorJosiane BalaskoStarsVictoria AbrilJosiane BalaskoAlain ChabatAfter learning of her husband's infidelities, a housewife invites an itinerant lesbian to move in with them. None of their lives will ever be the same again.
- DirectorMathieu KassovitzStarsVincent CasselHubert KoundéSaïd Taghmaoui24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.Best French Film of the year 1995
- DirectorJean-Paul RappeneauStarsOlivier MartinezJuliette BinochePierre ArditiIn a time of war and disease, a young officer gallantly tries to help a young woman find her husband.
- DirectorClaude SautetStarsEmmanuelle BéartMichel SerraultJean-Hugues AngladeWhen Nelly, a woman being just divorced, meets by chance M. Arnaud, a mature salesman just retired, begins a strange and special relationship between the two personalities.
- DirectorBertrand TavernierStarsPhilippe TorretonSamuel Le BihanBernard Le CoqThe war exploits of French captain Conan and his men during World War I and during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.
- DirectorJaco Van DormaelStarsDaniel AuteuilPascal DuquenneMiou-MiouAn unusual and wonderful friendship develops between a busy but unhappy salesman and a resident of a mental asylum.
- DirectorJacques DoillonStarsVictoire ThivisolDelphine SchiltzMatiaz Bureau CatonA four-year-old girl tries to come to terms with the sudden death of her mother.
- DirectorPatrice LeconteStarsCharles BerlingJean RochefortFanny ArdantTo get royal backing on a needed drainage project, a poor French lord must learn to play the delicate games of wit at court at Versailles.Best French Film of the year 1996
- DirectorCédric KlapischStarsJean-Pierre BacriJean-Pierre DarroussinCatherine FrotAn upper middle-class French family celebrates a birthday in a restaurant. In one evening and during one meal, family history, tensions, collective and separate grudges, delights, and memories both clash and coalesce.
- DirectorJacques AudiardStarsMathieu KassovitzAnouk GrinbergSandrine KiberlainSet in France at the end of World War II Albert Dehousse finds out his father wasn't a war hero and his mother is a collaborator. He leaves his wife and goes to Paris. Gradually he inveigles himself with the resistance movement. They trust him and he helps them trace collaborators.
- DirectorAndré TéchinéStarsCatherine DeneuveDaniel AuteuilLaurence CôteThe fates of four different people - a thief, a cop, a female professor of philosophy, a suicidal girl - unexpectedly collide.
- DirectorPhilippe de BrocaStarsDaniel AuteuilFabrice LuchiniVincent PerezThe Comte de Gonzague schemes against his cousin, the Duc de Nevers, even though he is the Duke's heir and will inherit his estates. The Count has kept secret the existence of the Duke's bastard, recently born. When the Duke learns of his child, he journeys to wed the mother, a baron's daughter, in her father's isolated chateau. The occupants of the castle are surprised and murdered by the Count and his men. The only ones to escape are the Duke's friend, the skilled swordsman Lagardère, and the infant, a girl, now the rightful heiress to the Duke's vast fortune. The Count believes the pair to have drowned, when in fact they have been concealed by a travelling troupe of Italian players. Twenty years pass. The Count has discovered that the two survive and seeks to have them slain. But Lagardère gains the confidence of the Count, and employment as his bookkeeper, through his clever disguise as a hunch-back...
- DirectorLuc BessonStarsBruce WillisMilla JovovichGary OldmanIn the colorful future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon to keep Evil and Mr. Zorg at bay.
- DirectorRobert GuédiguianStarsAriane AscarideGérard MeylanPascale RobertsMarius is the keeper of an abandoned cement works staying high above the quarter of l'Estaque in Marseilles. Jeannette is bringing up her two children alone with her poor checkout operator salary. Their meeting won't be without trouble, since besides material difficulties, both of them are wounded by life. They have to learn how to be happy again.
- DirectorAlain BerlinerStarsGeorges Du FresneMichèle LaroqueJean-Philippe ÉcoffeyLudovic is an innocent seven-year-old child who provokes horror in his community when he dresses in girls clothes and insists he's a girl.
- DirectorAnne FontaineStarsMiou-MiouCharles BerlingStanislas MerharA bored couple takes in a young man who turns their lives inside out.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsPierre ArditiSabine AzémaJean-Pierre BacriA musical story about how people find their love on the streets of beautiful Paris.Best French Film of the year 1997
- DirectorManuel PoirierStarsSergi LópezSacha BourdoÉlisabeth VitaliCatalonian Paco is a traveling rep for a shoe manufacturer. When he stops to pick up Russian emigree hitchhiker Nino, Paco soon finds himself on the side of the road with everything stolen out from under him. Local gift shop owner Marinette gives the Spaniard a lift. Their mutual attraction manifests itself quickly, and Paco, who was fired over the stolen-car episode, hangs around. When he happens to spot Nino in the same town, he beats up the scrawny Russian, who lands in the hospital. Oddly enough, this marks the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Paco and Nino soon take the trip down the road together.
- DirectorPatrice ChéreauStarsPascal GreggoryValeria Bruni TedeschiCharles BerlingFriends of a recently deceased minor painter Jean-Baptiste take a train in Paris for Limoges, where he wished to be buried, and all the people on the train have their problems.
- DirectorFrancis VeberStarsThierry LhermitteJacques VilleretFrancis HusterA few friends have a weekly fools' dinner, where each brings a fool along. Pierre finds a champion fool for next dinner. Surprise.
- DirectorBruno PodalydèsStarsDenis PodalydèsJeanne BalibarIsabelle CandelierA sound engineer who is chronically hesitant has to make a hard choice between three successively charming young women.
- DirectorTony GatlifStarsRomain DurisRona HartnerIzidor SerbanA man is looking for a singer he had heard on cassette. He finds much more.
- DirectorNicole GarciaStarsCatherine DeneuveJean-Pierre BacriEmmanuelle SeignerRealising a dishonest deal has been found out a diamond merchant commits suicide, leaving the gems in question for his wife. Knowing the business from the time before drink largely took over her life, she decides to sober up and sell them herself. Though they attract much interest, no-one legitimate will touch them. As she tries to get her present life straight the lure of the stones means she may have to confront the past as well.
- DirectorGérard PirèsStarsSamy NaceriFrédéric DiefenthalMarion CotillardTo work off his tarnished driving record, a hip taxi driver must chauffeur a loser police inspector on the trail of German bank robbers.
- DirectorErick ZoncaStarsÉlodie BouchezNatacha RégnierGrégoire ColinThe lives of two dissimilar girls turned out in different ways.Best French Film of the year 1998
- DirectorBertrand TavernierStarsPhilippe TorretonMaria PitarresiNadia KaciA teacher from a small, depressed town is trying to do something useful.
- DirectorJean BeckerStarsJacques VilleretJacques GamblinAndré DussollierA chronicle of a group of friends in rural France between the wars. Garris and Riton live in the marshlands along the banks of the Loire river. Riton is afflicted with a bad-tempered wife and three unruly children. Garris lives alone with his recollections of World War I trenches. Their daily life consists of seasonal work and visits from their two pals: Tane, the local train conductor and Amédée, a dreamer and voracious reader of classics. Meanwhile, Garris is overwhelmed by an unspoken love for a housemaid in the town, Marie.
- DirectorRégis WargnierStarsOleg MenshikovSandrine BonnaireCatherine DeneuveIn June 1946, Stalin invites the Russian exiled from the 1917 Revolution to return home. When the ships comes ashore in Odessa, the passengers are divided in two groups and one of them is executed. Among the survivors are Dr. Aleksei Golovin, his French wife Marie and their young son. Marie is accused to be a spy, her French passport is torn up and Aleksei accepts to move to Kyiv with his family to save her. They are sent to a room in a communal house and soon Marie befriends the super, an old woman who speaks French. But she is denounced and killed by the government agents. Marie feels guilty and brings her grandson Sasha Vasilyev, who will be evicted, to live in her room with her family. Marie wants to return to her family in France, but Aleksei explains that they are imprisoned in Russia. Marie tries a contact with the leftist French actress Gabrielle Develay to ask for help to leave the USSR. While Marie gets distant from her husband, she gets closer to Sacha, who is a great swimmer and the only chance to Marie contact her family.
- DirectorPatrice LeconteStarsVanessa ParadisDaniel AuteuilFrédéric PflugerOne night, a fading entertainer intervenes when a woman contemplates suicide, beginning a strange, unpredictable relationship.
- DirectorLuc BessonStarsMilla JovovichJohn MalkovichRab AffleckA young girl receives a vision that drives her to rid France of its oppressors.
- DirectorMichel DevilleStarsAlbert DupontelValérie DrévilleDominique ReymondThis is a story about the world of a doctor called Bruno Sachs. He wrote a book called 'La Maladie de Sachs' in which he describes his consultations with different patients.
- DirectorTonie MarshallStarsNathalie BayeBulle OgierSamuel Le BihanEmployees of a beauty parlor in search of love and happiness.Best French Film of the year 1999