Topic: French Poetic Realism
Explore the top movies, series, and documentaries on French Poetic Realism. Enjoy the must-watch titles that define this topic.
Titles found: 36
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.
7.8
3K votes
7.8
3K votes
Stormy Waters
1941 · Movie · 81 min. · France
Direction Jean Grémillon
Cast Jean Gabin · Madeleine Renaud · Michèle Morgan · Charles Blavette
7.5
270 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
Lumière d'été
1943 · Movie · 112 min. · France
Direction Jean Grémillon
Cast Madeleine Renaud · Pierre Brasseur · Madeleine Robinson · Paul Bernard
7.3
102 votes
7.3
102 votes
The Woman Who Dared
1944 · Movie · 105 min. · France
Direction Jean Grémillon
Cast Madeleine Renaud · Charles Vanel · Jean Debucourt · Raymonde Vernay
7.3
85 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