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Best/greatest/whateverest French films? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio |  | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4901 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 1 of 21 05 January 2013 at 10:30pm | IP Logged |
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I have been making a spreadsheet of the best/greatest/most popular French films. Basically, I searched for lists of the best French films (by whatever standard), and have given films 1 point for every list they appear on. I also got the list of the highest grossing French films of all time, and included votes for films which won Cesars for best film, best director, best actor and best actress (one film, Le Dernier Métro, got all 4!)
Using the Cesar awards does bias the list towards films made from 1975, but most lists of greatest French films are loaded with films from the 50s and 60s anyway, so it balances out. I made a similar spreadsheet for Hindi films, and found loads of books with titles like "The 50 Greatest Bollywood Films", and other books which had lists of must see Hindi films. But for French films, I've not been able to find much of use, certainly nothing recent. The only book I've found to use is "25 Great French Films" by Roger Ebert. There's another book called "The Great French Films" by James Reid, but as the most recent edition is from 1990, and it is fairly expensive, I don't think I'll use it. I am planning to post the list here within a few weeks. But the reason I'm writing about it now is to ask if anyone can suggest sources of lists of the best French films (by whatever standard). I've used whatever lists I could find on the internet, but I'd like to find more if possible. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4901 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 2 of 21 05 January 2013 at 10:42pm | IP Logged |
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Here are the websites I've used in compiling my list so far. You might find some of them interesting, and you won't suggest any of them to me!
Timeout 100 Best French Films Alliance Francaise Highest Grossing French Films French Today top 10 easy to understand French films About.french.com picks of comedy and romance films Best French Films website Listal lists: 50 Greatest French Films The Best French Language Films La nouvelle vague- Essential Titles There were lots of lists on Listal; I picked those which seemed comprehensive and well thought out. I'm also planning to include The Times' Best 100 French Films. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5009 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 3 of 21 06 January 2013 at 11:41am | IP Logged |
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So you are generating a list based on previous lists that maybe were generated from previous lists... What is the point ?
You could also google the french movies titles and see how many results you get for each one. No point there either. Since we are on a languages learning forum - we should eliminate movies with no speech like The artist or Le monde du silence by Jacque-Yves Cousteau or the first movie ever and worldwide - by the Lumière brothers. Other question what is a french movie. Do you mean a french speaking movie - then you could include some movies from Belgium, Canada, etc - A french title is not enough to make a work - french - L'odeur de la papaille verte is a vietnamese one which has nothing of french beside its title and some money. So what make the movie french ? The director, the actor, the main language, where the money comes from... Do all movies with Gérard Depardieu now turn to be russian because he just got a russian passport from Putin ? If you ask people what movies do they prefer ? There is a matter of time. Old movies lose their fans with time. If you watch a movie too many times there is a point when it starts to become less pleasant. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4674 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 4 of 21 06 January 2013 at 12:03pm | IP Logged |
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I knew the Timeout list, but not the others.
Another site similar lo listal is www.listology.com . The book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die has plenty of French movies. Besides, it's slightly modified for each country where it is published. The French edition adds about 17 French movies (check http://www.listology.com/flogged/list/1001-movies-you-must-s ee-you-die ) Would you be so kind as to share your spreadsheet (Google Drive, Rapidshare or wherever?) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4901 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 5 of 21 06 January 2013 at 4:32pm | IP Logged |
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@Michel: at the start of this project, I knew nothing about French films, so I had no idea where to start. I could have simply picked a single list and started exploring there. But every list has its own idiosyncrasies. Combining the lists makes for a more complete list, giving me a wider selection to choose from, and smooths out many of the idiosyncrasies. For example, the list of the highest grossing films includes many films which nobody else included on their lists. There are some films which received Cesar awards, but have not been included on anyone's list of great films. Probably these were considered great when they came out, but have had little impact since then.
With all of the lists combined, with all of the different personal reasons for inclusion, I have created a fairly broad list of films to choose from. The total list is 335 films, but only 142 of these have actually appeared on more than one list. I think it should be fairly obvious that a film which appears on more lists of "great" or "must see" films is obviously more important than a film which might only appear on one. For example, Les 400 Coups appears on 7 different lists, while La peau douce by the same director was only on 2 lists. Which film is better? That is obviously a matter of taste, but it is certainly clear that Les 400 coups is the one generally considered more important. If I used a single list which had both, I wouldn't have had any idea that one is more famous than the other. So what's the use of this list? For me, if a film is high on the list (the top 20 or so), I figure I'll probably watch it someday simply because it has had quite an impact on the world of cinema. Anything else on the list I consider worth looking into. That's it. Simple and useful to me. If you don't find it useful (and as you're a native speaker, why would you?) then you don't need to use it. But I'm sure others will find it useful as well. As to the question of what makes a film French, I don't make that decision. Some films on the list are silent, some are made in different countries, one of them is in English. I have just included whatever the lists included, and each list probably had their own criteria for what makes a film "French". Again, this is the advantage of combining lists. The Fifth Element, directed by Luc Besson, got a Cesar even though it's in English; none of the other lists included it because it's not in French. As a result, it ranks quite low. I'm not going to bother making decisions about what makes a film "French", or remove films which are silent or in other languages. Many people learn French because they are interested in French cinema, which includes many silent films. Others, like myself, become interested in French cinema because they are learning French. But my interest has gone beyond simply using French cinema to practice French, and I'm sure that will be the case with many language learners. Anyone who wants to use the list can ignore the silent films if they want, or watch them simply as a monument in the history of cinema. We're free to choose! @Quique: I have the book 1001 Movies you Must See Before You Die, but it would just be too time consuming to go through and pick out the French films. Thank you for the link, though. I plan to make the spreadsheet available when I've finished tidying it up. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4707 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 6 of 21 06 January 2013 at 5:24pm | IP Logged |
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I've watched a very nice and interesting French film yesterday. It's called "Jeux d'Enfants". It's one of those movies that you really don't know what the next scene is gonna bring, and it had Marion Cotillard =) Recommended!
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| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5009 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 7 of 21 06 January 2013 at 7:47pm | IP Logged |
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@Jeffers each our own way. If your method works for you - that is great.
To me it sounds strange to watch a movie because it comes on one or more lists. I would watch a movie because it is broadcasted on tv when I have free time or because it speaks a language I am learning or a language I hope to learn in the future. Of course nowdays with digital tv we could have more than one movie broadcasted at the same time. I would probably get some info to pick one. What is the story, do I know an actor, the director, who wrote the music - did I see movies with those persons before and did I like it ? Am I in the mood for humour, space opera, suspense, new things or what else ? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4350 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 8 of 21 06 January 2013 at 10:27pm | IP Logged |
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Hiroshima mon amour.
Les choristes. Cyrano de Bergerac (1990). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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