Godard's hugely influential debut went on to inspire a new wave of French cinema and this is the film which epitomised the iconoclasm of the early Nouvelle Vague. Belmondo is the hip gangster, modelled on Bogart, whose escapades, including shooting a cop, leave him and his girlfriend on the run from both the cops and his enemies. The insolent casual style and cool moods make this the ultimate film noir.

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Godard's bleak sci-fi noir, with the stony-faced gumshoe Lemmy Caution turning inter-galactic agent to re-enact the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice in conquering Alpha 60, the strange automated city where such emotions as love and tenderness are banished. A brilliantly realised and stylish satire on the dehumanising nature of technology. find out more...

Franz and Arthur team up with an innocent young girl, Odile, and decide to plan a heist, but as the trio cruise the bars and cafes of Paris hatching the perfect crime it becomes apparent, in their less than professional approach, that everything may not go as smoothly as at first hoped. The Outsiders is a tongue-in-cheek homage to early American pulp crime flicks, fast paced and free spirited, Godard's film retains much of its freshness and excitement. find out more...

Phyllis Dietrichson is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who inspires in her nothing but contempt, but rather than leave him Phyllis decides to kill him and collect on the insurance policy she's had set up with the help of her lover, and naive partner in crime, insurance salesman Walter Neff. The only flaws in their plan are the company's reluctance to pay out so much, the diligence of Neff's increasingly suspicious colleague, (and his 'little man'), and the exemplary ruthlessness of Ph find out more...

The moody 28-year-old Mifune is the violent gangster whom boozy doctor Shimura diagnoses as suffering from TB ('a hole in the heart,' says the sour 'angel', ruefully). The movie breathes the polluted air of post-war pessimism, dissipation and poetic fatalism, symbolised in the shots of the oily, malaria-ridden swamp of a Tokyo dockside, but it is dramatically qualified by Mifune's suggested redeemability and Shimura's stoical humanism. Fascinating, highly enjoyable and filled with great scenes - find out more...

Adapted from Zola's novel, this powerful tale concerns a triangle of love and murder in which a train driver becomes passionately involved with a femme fatale. With its images of trains and railways as symbols of human destiny this is a visually arresting film; Gallic and tragic. find out more...

Melville's masterful take on the American crime thriller perfectly combines the Hollywood gangster film with his uniquely French style. Alain Delon as a master thief, Yves Montand as an alcoholic ex-cop and Gian-Maria Volonte as an escaped criminal plot a daring heist of an upmarket Parisian jewellery store against impossible odds. find out more...

The studied peace of a small provincial town is slowly unravelled when a series of poison pen letters signed "The Raven" begin to circulate amongst the residents. What began as an uncomfortable embarrassment for the more prominent members of society begins to take on ever-darker tones as the mysterious revelations begin to tear the town apart. Banned upon its release, in 1943, Clouzot's dark thriller is a gripping study of fear and suspicion, and also a fascinating observation of a battered, une find out more...

Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, when acts of both revenge and kindness turn him into front-page news. Based on the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan, 'Quai Des Brumes' is a quintessential example of cinematic poetic realism/romantic crime thriller, starkly portraying an underworld of lonely souls wrestling with their own destinies. find out more...

Ronet is the disgruntled war vet who plots to kill his boss and elope with his wife. Meanwhile, other events implicate him in a murder elsewhere, whilst he remains stuck in an immobile lift. Tense, clever plot with cool, minimalist direction by Malle and a great Miles Davis score. find out more...