Henri-Georges Clouzot and Romy Schneider
Henri-Georges Clouzot
3 titles, 83rd in total points with 10,033
A formalist, Clouzot’s films adhere to plot and pacing much like Hitchcock, to whom he’s been compared. It’s a pity that there weren’t very many full-length titles in his life’s work, around fifteen total.
These are all the films of classic French director Clouzot that made the top 1000 in
Jean-Pierre Melville
4 titles, 79th in points with 10,778
These are all the films of classic French director Melville that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.
1. Army of Shadows (1969) #277 a small masterpiece
2. Le Samourai (1967) #299 Not as compelling for me as this ranking, a bit too slow
3. Le Cercle Rouge (1970) #378
4. Bob le
Max Ophüls
4 titles, 73rd in points with 11,419
Born in Germany in 1902, became a French citizen in 1938. How many filmmakers did the Nazis run out of Europe - has anyone kept the total? He actually returned to Germany after the war and died in Hamburg in 1957.
Classic films with an almost Baroque look, as Max Ophüls tried to show the aristocratic French lifestyle, usually with ornately
Alain Resnais
5 titles, 59th in points with 13,162
These are all the films of French director Alain Resnais’ that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.
1. Last Year at Marienbad (1961) #213
2. Hiroshima mon amour (1959) #246
3. Night and Fog (1955) #413
4. Providence (1977) #720
5. Muriel ou Le Temps d'un Retour (1963) #816
Out of the top
François Truffaut
5 titles, 29th in points with 20,408
These are all the films of Truffaut’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.
1. The 400 Blows (1959) France, bw #37
2. Jules et Jim (1961) #73
3. Day for Night (1973) #334
4. Shoot the Piano Player (1960) #427
5. Wild Child, The (1970) #904
He had 4 more outside the top 1000
6. Two
Robert Bresson
(8 titles, tied for 11th with 5 others. He is 16th overall in points, with 25,677 – just behind the Coen Brothers and just ahead of Polanski)
Bresson is a very good French filmmaker, with nearly all of these worth watching, especially the top five. Most are classic black-and-white, and beautifully shot, often in low light (Au Hasard Balthazar, Mouchette). This is a pretty
Jean Renoir
8 titles, 23rd in points with 21,372
Jean Renoir is the son of the famous French impressionist painter August Renoir. He is considered by many critics to be perhaps the greatest filmmaker ever. Even though Rules of the Game came in higher on the consensus of all polls, you will more often see La Grande Illusion chosen as someone's choice for all time favorite. Woody Allen said only
These are all the films of Godard’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls. He place third with overall titles, tied with Bergman at 12, behind Hitchcock and Scorsese, and down from 16 in 2009, so he’s actually had four titles fall out of the top 1000. But then, with only 1 in the top 100, he's tied with about 60 others there; compare that
Spanish surrealist Luis Buñuel, a friend of surrealist painter Salvador Dali, has given cinema a glimpse of his unique vision of cinema as art. His most accessible film, Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie [photo below], is a gentle satire of suburban life, in which dinner guest arrive for a dinner that gets continually delayed by the mind of Buñuel and other unforeseen events.
1. Discreet
© William L. Sinclair
All French films listed, including multinational (joint country) projects. 135 total films mentioned in the top 1000 ranked films, 2011 edition. Just French productions alone alone had 87 (down from 94). These are the highest totals after the U.S. Rules of the Game was #1 last time.
Renee Maria Falconetti turned in the best silent performanceof all time in Dreyer's The
