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While various European film industries were decimated over the decades, France still stands strong, cranking out dozens of movies a year in every genre imaginable.
Now, streaming allows us to sample this diversity, bringing over not just the art-house fare that fed generations of American cinephiles, but also the box-office hits and left-field oddities that were not so frequently exported. As you can see with the following (mostly) lesser-known selections, there is a recent French movie for every niche.
Love Story
‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ (2020)
Bonkers Satire
‘Jacky in the Kingdom of Women’ (2014)
Fans of “Idiocracy,” “1984” and, er, “Cinderella” should check out this satire set in a bizarro world where men are subservient to women. Written and directed by the French-Syrian cartoonist Riad Sattouf (“The Arab of the Future”), the movie imagines a military kingdom where polygamous women monopolize power and literacy, while their mates, led on leashes, cower beneath long robes. It is consistently, provocatively funny, all the way until a jaw-dropping ending.
Rent or buy from Amazon Prime Video, Vudu or YouTube.
Eccentric Postwar Extravaganza
‘See You Up There’ (2017)
Set right after World War I, Albert Dupontel’s outsize tale pitches a disfigured vet (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) not only against his commanding officer (Laurent Lafitte) but also the establishment that honors the same soldiers it sent to slaughter. Closer to the fantastical overtones of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Tim Burton than to your average war drama, “See You Up There” also has the epic breadth of 19th-century novels.
Rent or buy from Apple, FandangoNow or YouTube.
Sociopolitical Intrigue
‘This Is Our Land’ (2018)
Pauline Duhez (Émilie Dequenne) is a nurse making house calls in an economically depressed northern French town. Encouraged by a local doctor (the veteran actor André Dussollier), she decides to run for office on a far-right list (modeled on the real-life National Front). The Belgian director Lucas Belvaux calmly shows how a political party cleans up its image to peddle extremist views as it exploits financial distress and fears of “the other.” The movie creates an unease that will feel familiar to many American viewers.
Musical Mockumentary
‘Guy’ (2018)
Guy Jamet has had a long career as a popular but hopelessly uncool singer. Now, he’s back on tour, tailed by a young videographer (Tom Dingler). Alex Lutz, who directed “Guy” and plays the title role, uses familiar mockumentary tropes like sideways glances to the camera and “vintage” footage. But this comedy’s key asset is the way it doubles as a sneakily thoughtful, tender reflection on aging and fatherhood.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video.
Gritty Social Drama
‘Les Misérables’ (2019)
We discover the disenfranchised Parisian suburb of Montfermeil through the startled eyes of Stéphane (Damien Bonnard), a transferred cop teamed up with a couple of colleagues who like playing hard and fast with both rules and people. By now it should be obvious that this “Misérables” is not the musical.
After a flare gun is fired, the fragile equilibrium between Montfermeil and its police is thrown out of whack, and the director Ladj Ly cranks up the tension until a finale worthy of a heart-stopping thriller. Ly deftly positions “Les Misérables” at the intersection of the “banlieue” movie tradition, the French riots that regularly pit youth versus cops, and American grit à la “Boyz N the Hood.”
B-Movie Thrills
‘Fast Convoy’ (2016)
French noir directors have long learned to turn limited budgets into assets — their films tend to be lean and mean. Frédéric Schoendoerffer’s “Fast Convoy” has a neat simplicity: a motorcade of four cars must transport 3,000 pounds of hashish from the south of Spain to Paris; naturally things go haywire, and then it’s pedal to the metal. Benoît Magimel (“The Piano Teacher”) plays the obligatory taciturn strong man, but it’s the banter among the driving teams that keeps the action moving.
Rent or buy from Amazon Prime Video, Vudu and YouTube.
What the Doctor Ordered
‘Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor’ (2015)
What the Hell?
‘Evolution’ (2016)
The director Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s universe is primal yet sophisticated, and definitely not for everybody. In her second feature, “Evolution,” tween boys are raised by women in nurse outfits who feed them vile, wormy gruel. Cryptic stuff happens, very slowly, and you can’t stop watching. As in her debut, “Innocence” (2004), which took place in a girls’ boarding school, the filmmaker is obsessed with body horror, especially linked to puberty. We have met the stranger, and it is within us.
Stream on Hulu.
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