Best French Films Ever.

Two films, one set about fifteen years after the other telling a wonderful story, full of period and regional detail, that takes your emotions on a roller coaster ride.

The story is set in Provence in the South of France in the early twentieth century, and centres on a farm with a "source" (a natural spring) on it - a valuable commodity in this region. But the deeper story is a classic Greek tragedy in which Nemesis tracks Hubris with heartbreaking consequences.

Marcel Pagnol, the author of the book on which the film is based, claimed to have been told the core story as an actual event which took place in this area (where he spent his childhood).

Brilliant performances by Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil.

Look out for some words of the local language (the Provençal dialect of Occitan, the language of the Troubadours). Examples are Papet (grandfather) and fada (insane - litterally "with the fairies"); note also the wonderful rich southern accent.

If you don't feel you've learned anything about human nature by the end of the second part then you must be phenomenally wise or uniquely dim.

By the way, it's worth learning French just to be able to read the books by Marcel Pagnol on which these films are based. They are even more riveting and moving than the films - if you can imagine such a thing.

Click on the flags below for details of the books, and how to buy through Amazon.

A note on Location.

Pagnol spent his childhood summers in the Provençal countryside near to Marseille, described in his Souvenirs d'un Enfance (Memories of a Childhood).

When he became a film maker he shot many of his films here at the foot of his beloved Garlaban, including an early version of Jean de Florette / Manon des Sources. (His wife, Jacqueline, played Manon in his version)

Claude Berri came back to the Garlaban in the 1980's to remake Jean de Florette / Manon des Sources, but found it so changed that he decided to shoot further east around Cuges-les-Pine and Riboux. The village and Manon's well were filmed in Mirabeau, in the Lubéron.

Today you can walk the Circuit Pagnol, a hike in the arid garrigues (scrublands) around Marseille and Aubagne. Drive to La Treille northeast of Aubagne and follow the signs.

A wonderful, clever, life affirming film.

Superficially a farce, the plot is more intricate than than you might expect, and Josiane Balasko pulls off the clever trick for a farce of making the story credible and the characters sympathetic.

The film is set in the South of France, near Avignon. Here we find Laurent (Alain Chabat), a womanising real estate agent, and his gorgeous Spanish wife, Loli (Victoria Abril) about to have their lives turned upside down by Marijo (Josiane Balasko), who comes to their house by accident and stays.

Soon, a captivating love triangle emerges, but a dynamic triangle like no other you have seen in any cinema.

All of the characters are perfectly cast and the unusually abrupt editing also works brilliantly.

Balasko wrote the film as well as directing and starring in it. She has produced a real pearl. Like many great films this one veers deliberately between high comedy and tragedy. In between the belly laughs, there is pathos in the Antoine character, in Lauren's comeuppance, and in Marijo's scene on the streets of Paris.

The film encapsulates the most notable difference between European and modern Hollywood films, namely that it is not always obvious how the plot is going to develop - and the unexpected yet plausible twists and turns provide the film's greatest attraction. See if you can guess the final plot twist.

If you do not fall in love with Loli, please seek immediate medical attention, as there must be something seriously wrong with you.

Set in the 16th century, the film relates a true story about a young man from Southern France who leaves his village to fight in the Wars of Religion. He comes back to his village and family eight years after he left - now a different man.

Nobody questions the changes in him after so many years until one day a vagrant claims to recognise him and says that he is not the real Martin Guerre. His family are forced to consider the possibility that he may not be who he claims to be. Eventually the question goes to court.

Nathalie Baye as Martin's wife is exceptional, and so is Roger Planchon, (Jean de Coras) whose wisdom and humanity come across so well. (At the end of the film we are reminded of the historical foundation of the story, and its setting during the Wars of Religion, when we learn that Jean de Coras was later burned as a heretic for his Huguenot beliefs.)

The action takes place in the countryside of the County of Foix in southern France, and at the Parliament at Toulouse, the regional capital. Both are superbly portrayed - and the historical detail is impeccable.

The film was remade for parochial US audiences as "Somersby" - as always, a very poor imitation of the original.

Two gay men (Renato and Albin) live together and run a nightclub in St. Tropez in the South of France. They have their lives turned upside down when the son of one of the men decides to get married to the daughter of a deputé (roughly an MP or a Senator). As the deputé belongs to a party representing the Moral Majority, it is necessary to give a makeover to the two men before they meet the deputé and his straight-laced wife.

Wonderfully sympathetic yet also massively politically incorrect - always a good combination. This film has served the useful purpose of converting hundreds of homophobes into relatively normal human beings.

Michel Serrault (a superb actor) and Benny Luke both have great fun camping it up, while Ugo Tognazzi plays it relatively straight - but watch out for his pinkie. Michel Galabru as the conservative deputé, Simon Charrier, steals the show - watch out for the scene where his wife reminds him of his humble origins - and the one where he learns that the leader of his party has died in the arms of a prostitute.

Overall, this film is nicely calculated, with just the right amount of pathos.

The film was remade for US audiences as "Birdcage" - as always, a poor imitation of the original.

A very black comedy, set in an apartment block somewhere in post apocalyptic France,. The story focuses on a collection of bizarre tenants, their predatory landlord and his unusual culinary proclivities.

Very atmospheric, although it is difficult to imagine what apocalypse has struck, or when - presumably some time in the twentieth century. It's also a rather touching love story. There is something very special about Dominique Pinon, and the character he portrays.

If you liked Terry gilliam's movie, Brazil, then you'll like this. If you didn't, you won't.

Severine loves her husband, a doctor, but cannot bring herself to have sex with him. A beautiful young woman, she converts her sexual fantasises into reality. This leads her into bad company and unforeseen consequences.

As normal with Bunuel, the message is more subtle than any factual summary could convey. Deferent viewers read different things into this film, but it certainly manages to convey unsettling eroticism without even the slightest lapse into explicit pornographic content.

Although we think we are all familiar with fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast, there is much more to them than we ever learned in the Nursery.

Jean Cocteau's version of Beauty and the Beast is very far away from the nursery version, so don't expect an anodyne Walt Disney style film. Think rather, sparkling surrealism and magical special effects achieved while the supporting technology was still at its most basic.

An old man sets out one night in the fog to go home. He finds himself on the property of the Beast, a half-human creature, possessed of magic powers, .

The Beast captures the old man when he picks a rose from the Beast's garden, but lets him go on condition that he brings one of his daughters to take his place.

Bella, who is a Cinderella figure to her two sisters, and for whom her father had picked the rose, agrees to go, and arrives at the Beast's castle, where she takes up residence.

In time she realises that despite his Bestial appearance and magical powers, her new custodian has a human heart within - more than usually gentle, and more than usually tortured.

Bela returns home to visit her ailing father, an event which triggers unforeseen consequences and the eventual denouement.

The film is famed not only for its graceful story, but also for the sets and atmosphere. It is entirely in tune with the original dark folk tales that we have so often converted into children's stories.

A genuine World classic, though the very end might seem a little too Holywwod fairy tale for some.

The film starts in Paris 1900. Two friends, Jules (Oskar Werner) an Austrian, and Jim (Henri Serre) a Frenchman, fall in love with Catherine (Jeanne Moreau).

The film relates how their relationship evolves with the years .Initially they live in a conventional French menage a trois, but eventually Catherine marries Jules.

During the Great War (WWI) the two men fight on opposite sides, but are reunited after the war. They meet again in Germany. Catherine falls in love with Jim - recreating the classic love triangle.

There again, perhaps its a parable about the state of Europe in the early twentieth century. Or is it an allegory about strength and weakness, fatalism and the human condition.

See what you think.

A slick thriller with a good, if improbable, plot, set in Paris. It combines drama with opera (les Wallies).

Jules, a young postman, makes an illegal recording of a diva's live performance. But the tape gets switched with another tape cassette containing information of interest to the Police.

Jules has to rely for his survival on Alba, a young girl, and her mysterious and very, very cool friend - a sort of French James Bond figure who is relaxed enough to be able to fit in completing a giant jig-saw puzzle, giving instruction in the correct way to butter a baguette, and relaxing in the bath, all while chain smoking cigarettes and foiling the forces of evil with casual insouciance.

Notable for its New-Wave production values and for those who like this sort of thing, an extended motorcycle chase.

Incidentally, before casting, the producers were looking for an actress who fit the description the Diva in the original novel. What they needed was a beautiful Black American woman who could sing an operatic soprano role flawlessly, and who could speak English and French fluently. Not knowing where to start they went to the opera to see Carmen. Wilhemenia Fernandez, a perfect fit, happened to be playing the title role that night.

Each year a group of actors put on a traditional passion play in Montreal, Canada. This year a new director decides to inject a bit of realism by including all manner of historically accurate detail. This upsets the Church since it so attached to its traditional story-line full of the sort of inaccuracies to be found in most Christian inspired renditions - the sort of thing found in Holleywood movies and even in supposedly realistic offerings like The Passion of the Christ.

The real story is how the actors' lives begin to mirror the story of the Passion itself.

You don't need to be a Christian to enjoy this film. In fact it will probably appeal to non-Christians more than Christian believers, since it does a fantastic job of portraying institutional Church hypocrisy.