Topic: French Poetic Realism

Explore the top movies, series, and documentaries on French Poetic Realism. Enjoy the must-watch titles that define this topic.


Children of Paradise

1945 · Movie · 190 min. · France

Direction Marcel Carné

Cast Jean-Louis Barrault · Pierre Brasseur · Pierre Renoir · Arletty

Plot It follows a mysterious woman (Arletty) loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a mime (Jean-Louis Barrault), in...

8.2

3K votes

8.2

3K votes

The Rules of the Game

1939 · Movie · 113 min. · France

Direction Jean Renoir

Cast Marcel Dalio · Nora Gregor · Jean Renoir · Roland Toutain

Plot André Jurieu (Roland Toutain), a French aviation hero, has fallen in love with Christine de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor), who is married to wealthy aristocrat Marquis Robert de la Chesnaye...

8.0

7K votes

8.0

7K votes

Grande Illusion

1937 · Movie · 114 min. · France

Direction Jean Renoir

Cast Jean Gabin · Erich von Stroheim · Pierre Fresnay · Marcel Dalio

Plot 1916, during World War I. Lieutenant Maréchal and Capitaine de Boeldieu are two combat pilots who are shot down by the Germans. They are taken to a prisoner of war...

8.0

8K votes

8.0

8K votes

L'Atalante

1934 · Movie · 82 min. · France

Direction Jean Vigo

Cast Jean Dasté · Dita Parlo · Michel Simon · Gilles Margaritis

Plot When Juliette marries Jean, she comes to live on his ship, on board of which are, besides the two of them, only a cabin boy and the strange old second...

7.9

5K votes

7.9

5K votes

A Day in the Country

1936 · Movie · 40 min. · France

Direction Jean Renoir

Cast Sylvia Bataille · Georges Darnoux · Jane Marken · André Gabriello

Plot The family of a Parisian shop-owner spends a day in the country. The daughter falls in love to a man at the inn, where they spend the day.

Max

7.8

3K votes

7.8

3K votes

7.5

270 votes

Port of Shadows

1938 · Movie · 88 min. · France

Direction Marcel Carné

Cast Jean Gabin · Michèle Morgan · Michel Simon · Pierre Brasseur

Plot Life's a rotten business, says Jean, a deserter who arrives at night in Le Havre, looking to leave the country. He lucks into civilian clothes, a little bit of money,...

7.5

2K votes

7.5

2K votes

Zero for Conduct (Zero De Conduite)

1933 · Movie · 49 min. · France

Direction Jean Vigo

Cast Louis Lefebvre · Gilbert Pluchon · Gérard de Bédarieux · Constantin Goldstein-Kehler

Plot So effervescent and charming that one can easily forget its importance in film history, Jean Vigo’s enormously influential portrait of prankish boarding-school students is one of cinema’s great acts of...

7.4

3K votes

7.4

3K votes

The Lower Depths

1936 · Movie · 92 min. · France

Direction Jean Renoir

Cast Jean Gabin · Junie Astor · Suzy Prim · Louis Jouvet

Plot The film treats the imprisoning hold of poverty; the disheartening odds of people rising from such social despair, and the ease in which those in the upper spheres of Society...

7.4

867 votes

7.4

867 votes

La bête humaine

1938 · Movie · 99 min. · France

Direction Jean Renoir

Cast Jean Gabin · Simone Simon · Fernand Ledoux · Julien Carette

Plot In this classic adaptation of Emile Zola's novel, a tortured train engineer falls in love with a troubled married woman who has helped her husband commit a murder.

7.4

2K votes

7.4

2K votes

The Crime of Monsieur Lange

1936 · Movie · 80 min. · France

Direction Jean Renoir

Cast René Lefèvre · Florelle · Jules Berry · Marcel Lévesque

Plot A man and a woman arrive in a cafe-hotel near the belgian frontier. The customers recognize the man from the police's description. His name is Amedee Lange, he murdered Batala...

7.4

954 votes

7.4

954 votes

Lady Killer

1937 · Movie · 94 min. · France

Direction Jean Grémillon

Cast Jean Gabin · Mireille Balin · René Lefèvre · Marguerite Deval

Plot Lucien Bourrache, a good looking non-commissioned officer at the Spahis, is used to charm many women. He met Madeleine Courtois at Cannes. She is beautiful and lives in luxury. He...

7.4

130 votes

7.4

130 votes

Toni

1935 · Movie · 82 min. · France

Direction Jean Renoir

Cast Charles Blavette · Celia Montalván · Édouard Delmont · Max Dalban

Plot The story is the basic "good man destroyed by bad woman" conceit: An Italian laborer sets the gears in motion for Zola-esque tragedy by falling in love with a young...

7.4

853 votes

7.4

853 votes

7.3

102 votes

7.3

85 votes

Daybreak

1939 · Movie · 89 min. · France

Direction Marcel Carné

Cast Jean Gabin · Jacqueline Laurent · Arletty · Jules Berry

Plot François has shot and killed a man and is now holed up in his apartment, under siege by the police. Over the course of a long night, he reflects on...

7.2

958 votes

7.2

958 votes

Falbalas

1945 · Movie · 115 min. · France

Direction Jacques Becker

Cast Raymond Rouleau · Micheline Presle · Jean Chevrier · Gabrielle Dorziat

Plot Micheline arrives in Paris to prepare her marriage to Daniel Rousseau. There she falls in love with her fiancé’s best friend, dress designer Philippe Clarence, an impenitent ladies’ man who...

7.2

117 votes

7.2

117 votes

They Were Five

1936 · Movie · 100 min. · France

Direction Julien Duvivier

Cast Jean Gabin · Charles Vanel · Raymond Aimos · Viviane Romance

Plot Those five are unemployed penniless workers. Together they win 100,000 Francs with the national lottery. Instead of sharing the money, they buy a ruin and build an open-air cafe. But...

7.2

59 votes

7.2

59 votes

À nous la liberté (Freedom for Us)

1931 · Movie · 79 min. · France

Direction René Clair

Cast Raymond Cordy · Henri Marchand · Paul Ollivier · André Michaud

Plot A famous left-wing satirical comedy about two ex-convicts, one of whom works his way up from salesman to factory owner, where he oversees a highly mechanised operation where the workers...

7.2

774 votes

7.2

774 votes

Pépé le Moko

1937 · Movie · 94 min. · France

Direction Julien Duvivier

Cast Jean Gabin · Mireille Balin · Gabriel Gabrio · Lucas Gridoux

Plot In the 30's, in Algeria, the charming Parisian gangster Pépé le Moko (Jean Gabin) rules in the district of Casbah. Surrounded and protected by the women and his gang, he...

7.1

866 votes

7.1

866 votes