Top 15 French Films on Netflix - According to Moi

France-Amerique, a specialized publication for us frenchies living in the United States, sent out this neat little list of French films to watch on Netflix in their online newsletter today. The list includes comedies like Potiche, documentaries like the 2002 hit To Be and To Have and some classics like Luis Buñuel's That Obscure Object of Desire or Delicatessen. The article is in French, but if language is not an issue for you, I'd love to hear your opinion on the movies that were included and most importantly, which films you think were left out. If I had to make a similar list of the top 15 French films on Netflix, here is what it would look like:

Recent Funny Hits Available on Demand
Heartbreaker ~ this charming Gallic romantic comedy stars Romain Duris (he will come up quite a few times on this list) and Vanessa Paradis (aka Mrs. Johnny Depp) as a professional break-up artist and the girl whose engagement he's been hired to sabotage. The ending is highly predictable (it's une rom-com après tout) but it's still very cute.

OSS 17: Cairo Nest of Spies ~ before they made The Artist (which you most definitely should see) Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo made a hilarious spy-film spoof. Actually, let me rephrase that. Since OSS 17 was such a hit in France, with more than 2 million tickets sold, its director Michel Hazanavicus was able to convince studio executives in France to pretty much let him do anything he wanted as long as he could reunite Jean and Berenice on screen. And that meant letting him film a silent movie in black and white ;-) Jean Dujardin is self-mockingly charming as French secret agent undercover (as a poultry executive) whose mission is to secure the Middle East for French imperialism. Don't bother with the follow up OSS 17: Lost in Rio though. It's also available on demand, but is definitely not as good!

I Do: How to Get Married and Stay Single ~ Luis Costa leads a charmed life: he's a good looking, carefree, single 40-something, with a great job as a nose for a perfume maker and an attentive family that cooks for him and does his laundry. Until they (his mother and five sisters) decide they're tired of waiting on him and try to find him a wife. Consequently, Luis designs what he thinks is the perfect plan: hire someone to pretend to be his fiancee only to ditch him at the altar, which would make his mother and sisters feel so sorry for him that we would stop setting him on blind dates and start taking care of him again. Of course, this is a romantic comedy, so you can easily imagine that things don't quite work out the way he intended ;-)

Funny Hits Not Available on Demand ~ but Funny Nonetheless

The Dinner Game ~ Do not let Dinner for Schmucks mislead you into thinking that the original is not one of the funniest French film ever made. The 1998 Francis Veber hit demonstrates that slapstick humour can be sharp and clever, though some of the nuances and cultural references in this unmistakingly French comedy may be missed by foreign audiences. Veber has a lot of other funny films on Netflix like The Closet with Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu, La Chèvre or The Valet.

Delusions of Grandeur ~ I wanted to have at least one Louis de Funès film in this category, but there are just not many of them on Netflix. (Loosely) inspired by Victor Hugo's play Ruy Blas, it's slapstick humour at its French finest. I absolutely *loved* this film as a kid. Louis de Funès is, well, his typical over the top humourous self (his nickname was the man with 40 faces per minute for a reason), and Yves Montand is absolutely charming as his valet-slash-pawn in his plot to catch the Queen of Spain in an embarassing situation after she demoted him from his job as minister of the treasury.

L'Auberge Espagnole ~ If L'Auberge Espagnole doesn't make you want to move to Barcelona, nothing will.  OK, maybe Woody Allen's Vicky Christina Barcelona will. This ensemble cast film feature Romain Duris (I told you I'd mention him again) as a bookish young graduate who needs to speak Spanish before he can start a boring government job. So he leaves his girlfriend (Audrey Tautou) behind to study in Barcelona, where he befriends a group of students from all over Europe who teach him that there's more to life than what you learn in school, and sometimes, what you've been working towards for so long, isn't what you really want... the sequel Russian Dolls is not as good but it's still a decent little film and is also available on Netflix.

Would I Lie to You ~ this rag-to-riches comedy is set in Paris' garment district and could have been considered scandalous for its borderline offensive caricaturization of Sephardic Jews in the Sentier's neighbourhood. Instead, it was a hit in France and they even made a second one, which isn't bad either, but not as good (and also not available on Netflix.)

Documentaries Available on Demand

March of the Penguins ~ missing from the U.S. version was the amazing soundtrack by Emilie Simon. Nonetheless, the naration by Morgan Freeman makes up for this loss and this film about the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antartica is just delightful, in French or English!

To Be and to Have ~ this documentary has the slow pace of the small provincial town in which it is set. A town so small there is only one school teacher responsible for the education of a small class of mixed aged children (from 4 years old to twelve years old) whom the film follows through a single school year.

For les petits kiddies

The Bear ~ It's the classic cute kid meets grumpy old man story line, but with bears. This movie came out when I was 8 years old and I just remember crying all the tears of my little body as I followed the adventures of an orphaned cub who attempts to befriend a grizzly. The older bear initially rejects the cub, only to finally take him under his wing as they navigate the tricky mountains of British Columbia, filled with mean Canadian hunters and hungry cougars. It's a very sweet film, and best of all if you're not big on reading subtitles, the bears don't actually speak...

Two Brothers ~ same director as The Bear but different animal... this time we follow two cute little tigers who are separated and then reunited by life. The movie is mainly in Thai and English, but it's French (and super cute) nonetheless.

French Dramas
Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources ~ While Manon des Sources is a great film on its own, a lot of the plot will make no sense if you haven't seen (or read) Jean de Florette so I am counting these two films as one. Based on the books by Marcel Pagnol, they follow the sometimes tragic machinations of Provençal peasant life at the turn of the twentieth century, when access to water could make or break fortunes, destroy lives and bring peace to a village.

I've Loved You for So Long ~ I'm convinced that Kristin Scott Thomas is the best French actress around these days. Yes, I know she's not actually French, but she speaks beautiful French and happens to star in some excellent French film like this 2008 drama about a woman struggling to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison.

L'Amant ~ Directed by the man behind The Bear and Two Brothers (and produced by the guy who made Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources), this steamy drama is not quite as family friendly. I mean, what do you expect from a movie titled The Lover? Based on Marguerite Duras' semi-autobiographical book The Lover, it relates the details the illicit affair between a teenage French girl and a wealthy Chinese man in 1929 colonial Vietnam. In very explicit details... Also available on Netflix and set in the same place at the same time is Oscar-winning Indochine featuring Catherine Deneuve. A lot less skin in shown, but the movie is excellent, and would probably have made my list except I only get 15 picks and I had to make some cuts somewhere...

Au Revoir Les Enfants ~ based on director Louis Malle's childhood, this World War II drama seen through the eyes of children is a masterpiece of cinema. It's deeply moving, telling the story of a Jewish child, sheltered in a catholic boarding school by a courageous headmaster until the Gestapo raids the establishment. Louis Malle was in tears at the film's première, and I dare to have dry eyes when the final credits start rolling.

Honorable Mentions
While good French films are slim picking on Netflix, I did have a hard time narrowing it down to just 15. I wish I could have included Merry Christmas, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain or Delicatessen, The Chorus, My Life in Pink or The Beat that my Heart Skipped (last mention of Romain Duris) but I can't so I'll just give them an honrable mention. Which French movies available on Netflix would you have included on this list? Why? As for which French films should be available on Netflix but are not...well, that'll need its own post ;-)