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Films with theme "French war films", sorted by rating
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The Algerian War (1972)
, 2h40Directed by Philippe Monnier
Origin France
Genres Documentary
Themes French war films, La colonisation française, Algerian War films, Histoire de France
Actors Jean Brassat, Jacques Charby, Francis Morane, Bruno Cremer
Les faits marquants de la guerre d'Algérie, de 1954 à 1962, présentés à l'aide de bandes d'actualités, de reportages et de photos.
Joyeux Noel (2005)
, 1h56Directed by Christian Carion
Origin France
Genres Drama, War, Historical, Musical, Romance
Themes French war films, Christmas films, Political films
Actors Benno Fürmann, Guillaume Canet, Daniel Brühl, Diane Kruger, Gary Lewis, Dany Boon
The story centers mainly upon six characters: Gordon (a Lieutenant of the Royal Scots Fusiliers); Audebert (a French Lieutenant in the 26th Infantry and reluctant son of a general); Horstmayer (a Jewish German Lieutenant of the 93rd Infantry); Palmer (a Scottish priest working as a stretcher-bearer); and German tenor Nikolaus Sprink and his Danish fiance, mezzo-soprano, Anna Sørensen (two famous opera stars).
J'accuse (1919)
, 2h46Directed by Abel Gance
Origin France
Genres Drama, War, Horror, Historical, Romance
Themes French war films, Political films
Actors Romuald Joubé, Séverin-Mars, Maryse Dauvray, Maxime Desjardins
In a Provençal village in the south of France, the villagers welcome the declaration of war with Germany in 1914 and flock to enlist. Among them is François Laurin, a man of jealous and violent temperament, who is married to Édith, the daughter of an upright veteran soldier Maria Lazare. François suspects, correctly, that Édith is conducting an affair with the poet Jean Diaz who lives in the village with his mother, and he sends Édith to stay with his parents in Lorraine - where she is subsequently captured and raped by German soldiers. François and Jean find themselves serving in the same battalion at the front, where the initial tensions between them give way to a close friendship that acknowledges that they both love Édith.
Wooden Crosses (1932)
, 1h50Directed by Raymond Bernard
Origin France
Genres Drama, War
Themes French war films, Politique, Political films
Actors Pierre Blanchar, Gabriel Lelièvre, Harry Baur, Charles Vanel, Raymond Aimos, Antonin Artaud
The young and patriotic student Demachy joins the French army in 1914 to defend his country. But he and his comrades soon experience the terrifying, endless trench war in Champagne, where more and more wooden crosses have to be erected for this cannon fodder.
Camp de Thiaroye (1988)
, 2h27Directed by Ousmane Sembène
Origin Senegal
Genres Drama, War
Themes French war films
Actors Sidiki Bakaba, Jean-Daniel Simon, Marthe Mercadier, Pierre Londiche
Des tirailleurs sénégalais venus des colonies de l'Afrique-Occidentale française, anciens combattants de l'armée française et prisonniers en Europe durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, sont rassemblés avant leur démobilisation en novembre 1944 au camp de transit de Thiaroye au Sénégal. Soumis à divers humiliations, ils apprennent enfin que le montant des indemnités et pécule qui doit leur être payé (arriéré de solde, pécule, prime de démobilisation) sera divisé par deux.
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
, 2h14Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Origin France
Genres Drama, War, Romance
Themes French war films, Medical-themed films, Seafaring films, Prison films, Transport films, Films about psychiatry, Films about disabilities, Political films, Films about capital punishment
Actors Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Clovis Cornillac, Marion Cotillard, Dominique Pinon, Albert Dupontel
Five French soldiers are convicted of self-mutilation in order to escape military service during World War I. They are condemned to face near certain death in the no man's land between the French and German trench lines. It appears that all of them were killed in a subsequent battle, but Mathilde, the fiancée of one of the soldiers, refuses to give up hope and begins to uncover clues as to what actually took place on the battlefield. She is all the while driven by the constant reminder of what her fiancé had carved into one of the bells of the church near their home, MMM for Manech Aime Mathilde (Manech Loves Mathilde; a pun on the French word aime, which is pronounced like the letter "M". In the English-language version, this is changed to "Manech's Marrying Mathilde").
Train of Life (1998)
, 1h43Directed by Radu Mihaileanu
Origin France
Genres Drama, War, Comedy, Comedy-drama
Themes French war films, Medical-themed films, Films about religion, Transport films, La culture tzigane, Rail transport films, Films about psychiatry, Political films, Films about Jews and Judaism, Film se déroulant dans un train
Actors Lionel Abelanski, Rufus, Agathe de La Fontaine, Michel Muller (humoriste), Clément Harari, Gad Elmaleh
The movie starts off with a man, named Schlomo (Lionel Abelanski), running crazily through a forest, with his voice playing in the background, saying that he has seen the horror of the Nazis in a nearby town, and he must tell the others. Once he gets into town, he informs the rabbi, and together they run through the town and once they have got enough people together, they hold a town meeting. At first, many of the men do not believe the horrors they are being told, and many criticize Schlomo, for he is the town lunatic, and who could possibly believe him? But the rabbi believes him, and then they try to tackle the problem of the coming terrors. Amidst the pondering and the arguing, Schlomo suggests that they build a train, so they can escape by deporting themselves. Some of their members pretend to be Nazis in order to ostensibly transport them to a concentration camp, when in reality, they are going to Palestine via Russia. Thus the Train of Life is born.
The Old Gun (1975)
, 1h43Directed by Robert Enrico
Origin France
Genres Drama, Historical
Themes French war films, Films about sexuality, Rape in fiction, Erotic films, Rape and revenge films, Political films, Auto-justice, Histoire de France, L'Occupation allemande en France
Actors Philippe Noiret, Romy Schneider, Jean Bouise, Joachim Hansen, Karl Michael Vogler, Robert Hoffmann
In Montauban in 1944, during the German retreat from France, Julien Dandieu is an ageing, embittered surgeon in the local hospital. Frightened by the German army entering Montauban, Dandieu asks his friend Francois to drive his wife and his daughter to the remote village where he owns a chateau. One week later, Dandieu sets off to meet them for the weekend, but the Germans have now occupied the village. He finds that all the villagers have been herded into the church and shot. In the château, he finds his daughter shot and his wife immolated by a flame-thrower.
The Tin Drum (1979)
, 2h15Directed by Volker Schlöndorff
Origin German
Genres Drama, War, Historical
Themes French war films, Films about children, Films about music and musicians, Films about religion, Political films, Films about Jews and Judaism
Actors David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Daniel Olbrychski, Katharina Thalbach, Charles Aznavour
In 1899, the grandfather of Oskar Matzerath, the main character, is being pursued by the police through rural Kashubia. He hides underneath the skirts of a young woman named Anna Bronski, with whom he later has a daughter – Oskar's mother. He evades the authorities for a year, but when they find him again, he either drowns or escapes to America and becomes a millionaire.
Beau Geste (1939)
, 1h52Directed by William A. Wellman, Richard Talmadge
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Action, Adventure
Themes French war films
Actors Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward, J. Carrol Naish
The film opens up with a company of French Foreign Legionaries approaching a fort. From a distance it is perceived to be occupied, but upon closer inspection the bodies representing are found to be dead, only mounted for deception. However, a lone shot is fired from inside and two people investigate. One goes missing and the other finds a death note on one of the bodies admitting to the stealing of a valuable sapphire called the "Blue Water".
Life and Nothing But (1989)
, 2h15Directed by Bertrand Tavernier
Origin France
Genres Drama, War
Themes French war films, Political films
Actors Philippe Noiret, Sabine Azéma, Maurice Barrier, Pascale Vignal, Jean-Pol Dubois, François Perrot
Set in October 1920, it tells the story of Major Dellaplane, a man whose job is to find the identities of unknown dead soldiers after World War I. Dellaplane forms a relationship with a woman who is looking for her missing husband, but a dilemma begins when he learns that her husband may still be alive. The movie is a sensitive examination of the deep psychological scars left behind by the Great War, clear of sentiment yet with delicately nuanced irony.
The 17th Parallel (1968)
, 1h53Directed by Joris Ivens, Marceline Loridan-Ivens
Origin Vietnam
Genres War, Documentary
Themes French war films, Politique, Documentary films about war, Documentary films about historical events, Political films
En 1968, entre le Sud Viêt Nam sous contrôle de l'armée américaine et le Nord Viêt Nam en lutte pour l’indépendance, s'étend une zone démilitarisée autour du 17e parallèle. Joris Ivens et son épouse, Marceline Loridan, partent dans cette région autour du village de Vĩnh Linh pendant deux mois, afin de vivre parmi les paysans qui se sont réfugiés dans des caves pour tenter de survivre aux bombardements incessants de l'artillerie américaine.
See You Up There (2017)
, 1h55Directed by Albert Dupontel
Origin France
Genres Drama, War, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Crime
Themes French war films, Escroquerie
Actors Mélanie Thierry, Laurent Baffie, Émilie Dequenne, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Albert Dupontel, Michel Vuillermoz
En novembre 1920, Albert Maillard est interrogé par un officier de la Gendarmerie française, au Maroc. À travers son témoignage, il raconte la fin de sa participation à la Première Guerre mondiale, sa rencontre avec Édouard Péricourt, fils de bonne famille parisienne défiguré lors du conflit. Ensemble, ils montent une opération d'escroquerie. L'histoire suit également Henri d'Aulnay-Pradelle, leur ancien lieutenant va-t-en guerre devenu lui aussi escroc et qui est parvenu à intégrer la famille Péricourt, dont le patriarche règne sur la classe politique parisienne.
Opium and the Stick (1970)
, 2h15Directed by Ahmed Rachedi
Origin Algerie
Genres Drama, War, Action
Themes French war films, La colonisation française, Algerian War films, Histoire de France
Actors Marie-Josée Nat, Rouiched, Sid Ali Kouiret, Jean-Claude Bercq, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Mahieddine Bachtarzi
Dans un village de montagne en Kabylie, pendant la guerre d'Algérie, la majorité de la population a rallié le mouvement indépendantiste du FLN. L'armée française décide de le rayer de la carte.
The Professional (1981)
, 1h48Directed by Georges Lautner
Origin France
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action, Adventure, Spy, Crime
Themes Films set in Africa, French war films, Spy films, Monde imaginaire, Politique, Transport en Île-de-France, Political films, Métro parisien dans la culture populaire
Actors Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Desailly, Robert Hossein, Élisabeth Margoni, Cyrielle Clair, Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu
French secret agent Josselin Beaumont is sent to kill Colonel Njala, the dictator of Malagawi, a fictional African country. However, before he manages to accomplish his mission, the political situation changes drastically and the French secret service resorts to handing over Beaumont to the Malagawian authorities. After a long, unfair trial, during which Beaumont is injected with drugs, he is sentenced to long-term penal servitude at a "re-education camp".