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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Resnais's controversial attempt at collaboration with avant garde author Alain Robbe-Grillet. The film sets up a puzzle that is never resolved, a man meets a woman in a rambling hotel and believes he may have had an affair with her the previous year at Marienbad - or did he? Or was it somewhere else? Deliberately scrambling chronology to the point where past, present and future become meaningless, Resnais creates a vaguely unsettling mood by means of stylish composition, long, smooth tracking sh find out more...

The catalyst is the mystery disappearance of a young girl on holiday, but the film concentrates on the burgeoning romance between the missing girl's lover and her best friend as the pair embark on a distinctly half-hearted search. Set against a desolate Sicilian landscape, this highly stylised drama was once considered the be all and end all of art house poseur, it's reputation has sunk but it's still a must see film classic. find out more...

Originally reviled, Renoir's bleak masterpiece has endured to become a true classic of French cinema. Black and funny, it is the story of a lavish weekend party given by the local Marquis. Renoir manages to capture in intricate detail the antics and drama of a society and class on the brink of extinction. 'We are dancing on the rim of a volcano' said Jean at the time. The Danse Macabre scene is breathtaking and dark. Superb. find out more...

This masterpiece is understandably on many people's all time favourite list. The lives of six Parisians are intertwined against the backdrop of the early-19th Century popular theatre and underworld, with the film a multi-layered meditation on the nature of performance. Flawlessly executed and cast. find out more...

One of the great cinema love stories as a one-night stand leads to a life of yearning for the beautiful Lisa but was just another **** for handsome Stefan. Years later a chance encounter leads to his receiving a letter from Lisa telling her tale. A piercing fable of doomed love. Tear-jerker. find out more...

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Life is crazy. You're crazy, I'm crazy, we're all crazy. We're all a little bit Minnie, and a little bit Moskowitz. Sometimes it does seem best to be sensible...but then what might you be missing out on? You gotta be you. You don't have to park cars and semi-randomly yell at people, but you can't hide yourself behind a veil (or dark sunglasses) and pretend and act like ever find out more...

A couple on the run, him leaving his wife, child and work, her fleeing a couple of Algerian hitmen, drive from Paris to the Med, hang out together a lot and discover they don't really have that much in common. A kind of a thriller and a kind of a love story, inevitably it is the quirks of character that Godard exposes that make it fascinating. This is one of Godard's more down to earth films though, to quote; "Godard confronts his doubts about the possibilities of cinema in this startling dissec find out more...

German folklore pervades this romantic tale of a man deciding to murder his wife and then changing his mind, in the end spending an enjoyable day with her. Dreamlike lyricism underlies the moral fable, achieving images of undeniable emotion and beauty. A silent, perhaps THE silent classic. find out more...