FRANCE
Medieval France to Age of Discovery
Charlemagne, Charles the Prince (1995) -- early unifier of Frankish kingdoms,. ruled 768 to 814
Carolingian Dynasty (843 to 987)
Capetian Dynasty, Direct Capetians (987 to 1328)
X Yaroslavna, koroleva Frantsii (Yaroslavna, Queen of France) (1978) – Anna Yaroslavna, a Princess of Kiev, was the queen consort of France as the wife of Henry I (1027-1060) & regent for her son Philip I
X Gates to Paradise (1968) -- 1212, launching of the Children's Crusade; set in France
X Les rois maudits (The Cursed Kings) (2005) -- King Philippe IV (ruled 1285-1314) tries to plunder the Knights Templar and other organizations (French language only)
Capetian Dynasty, House of Valois (1328-1589)
House of Lancaster (1422-1453)
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) -- 1428; under Charles VII (ruled 1422-1461); Hundred Year's War with England (1337-1453)
Joan of Arc (1999) -- with Leelee Sobieski
X Joan of Arc (1948) -- with Ingrid Bergman
X Le passion de Jeanne d'arc (Passion of Joan of Arc) (1928) -- French film
X Das Mädchen Johanna (Joan of Arc) (1935) – German movie about Joan of Arc
X Ciocârlia (The Lark) (2002) – Romanian film about Joan of Arc
X Wired Angel (1999) -- very "different" approach to telling the Joan of Arc story
X Jeanne la Pucelle I - Les batailles (1994) -- Joan of Arc
X Jeanne la Pucelle II - Les prisons (Joan the Maid 2: The Prisons) (1994) – Joan of Arc
X Proces de Jeanne d'Arc (The Trial of Joan of Arc) (1962) -- life and death of a more sophisticated Joan of Arc focusing on the psychological and physical torture used to break her
X Beatrice (1988) -- set during the Hundred Year's War (1337-1453), a revisionist view of the noble Knights
Le Retour de Martin Guerre (The Return of Martin Guerre) (1982) -- fascinating film about Medieval France
X Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) -- 1483 Louis XI Notre Dame de Paris
X Quentin Durward (The Adventures of Quentin Durward) (1955) – in 1465 Quentin Durwood travels to France for an arranged marriage to suit King Louis XI ($200)
Capetian Dynasty, Valois-Orléans Branch (1498-1515)
Capetian Dynasty, Valois-Angoulme Branch (1515-1589)
The Sword and the Rose (1953) -- English King's sister Mary Tudor married to King Louis XII, who ruled from 1498-1515
CATHOLIC COUNTER-REFORMATION
La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV (Princess of Cleves) (1966) – the princess in the royal court of Henry II of France; she marries but loves another who she thinks has been unfaithful
FRANCE & HOLLAND TO FRENCH REVOLUTION
Reformation & Religious Conflict
Capetian Dynasty, Valois-Angoulme Branch (1515-1589)
X Diane (1956) -- mistress of King Henri II, first emperor of the French Renaissance (rule from 1547 to 1559) -- ($59)
Queen Margot (1994) -- sister of Frances's Charles IX (ruled 1560-1574) weds in 16th c; marries the future King Henri IV
X Saint-Germain ou La négociation (2003) -- Charles IX sends Catholic Baron to Protestant representatives (includes St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572)
Capetian Dynasty, House of Borbon (1589-1792)
X Les samedis de l'histoire: Henri IV (1977) – story of Henri IV of France (reign 1589-1610) who enacted the Edict of Nantes for religious freedom
Louis XIII
X Cardinal Richelieu (1935) -- Cardinal Richelieu oppresses French Protestants, known as Huguenots (under King Louis XIII, 1610-1643)
X Under the Red Robe (1937) -- Cardinal Richelieu worried about opposition from the Huguenots in the south (currently unavailable)
X The Three Musketeers (1935) -- the Musketeers fight against the forces of Cardinal Richelieu.
X The Three Musketeers (1939)
X The Three Musketeers (1948)
X The Three Musketeers (1973) -- King Louis XIII of France, 1610-1643
X The Three Musketeers (1993)
La Kermesse Héroique (aka Carnival in Flanders) (1935) – a French comedy set during the 1616 Spanish invasion of Flanders
Alatriste (2006) -- heroic Spanish soldier fighting in Flanders in 17th century has to look after a dying friend's son in Madrid
Matka Joanna od aniolów (Mother Joan of the Angels) (1961) -- 1630s; womanizing priest Grandier executed for sorcery & the next priest tries to heal the nuns
X Cautio Criminalis oder Der Hexenanwalt (1974) – German movie; witchcraft
The Headsman (Shadow of the Sword) (2005) -- 16th century Tyrol, Austria; of two childhood friends one becomes a friar and the other an executioner, but both are involved in witch hunting
Le moine et la sorcire (Sorceress) (1987) – supposed witchcraft in 13th century France
The Devils (1971) -- witchcraft in 17th c. France
Vredens dag (Day of Wrath) (1943) -- accusations of witchcraft in a 17th c. Danish village
Witches' Hammer (1970) -- witch hunting in Czechoslovakia
X Posledná bosorka (The Last Witch) (1957) – a painter of a nude model angers the clergy so they condemn the model as a witch
The Hour of the Pig (aka The Advocate) (1993) -- a lawyer defends animals accused of being involved in witchcraft
X Anna Göldin, letzte Hex (Anna Goldin, the Last Witch) -- $70
Rembrandt (1936) -- 1630 Dutch painter
Rembrandt (1940) --
Rembrandt (1999) --
X Rembrandt fecit 1669 (Rembrandt - 1669) (1977) --
Night watching (2007) -- Rembrandt's romantic and professional life
X Rembrandt: Fathers and Sons (1999) --
Girl with a Pearl Earring -- Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, 1665
Louis XIV
La Prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV (The Taking of Power by Louis XIV) (1966) -- Louis XIV (1643-1715)
X Versailles, le reve d'un roi (Versailles: The Dream of a King) (2008) – Louis XIV
X Jeanne Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (2006) – mistress of King Louis XIV
Vatel (2000) -- in 1671, Prince de Condé hosts Louis XIV for three days of excess
X Saint-Cyr (The King's Daughters) (2000) -- France under the rule of Louis XIV (including his lady friend and his mistress) ($55)
X Louis, enfant roi (Louis, the Child King) (1993) -- formative years of the young king Louis XIV
X Liselotte von der Pfalz (The Private Life of Louis XIV) (1935) – Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatine (or Pfalz) marries brother of Louis XIV of France and becomes known for her correspondence
X Liselotte von der Pfalz (1966) -- ($40)
X La reine et le cardinal (2009) – Mazarin functioned as co-ruler of France with Queen Anne during the regency for young King Louis XIV; later Mazarin directed French policy with the monarch
X Voltaire (1933)
Louis XV
Cartouche (1962) -- French Robin Hood during the time of the Régence, 1715-1723, the regent part of the reign of King Louis XV (1715-1774)
Que la fête commence... (Let Joy Reign Supreme) (1975) -- the Regent over Louis XV, France
X Jeanne Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (2006) – mistress of King Louis XIV, 1745-1764
Madame du Barry (aka Passion) (1917) -- mistress of King Louis XV of France
Madame du Barry (1954) -- 1768 Louis XV and the Countess Du Barry
FRANCE IN NORTH AMERICA
Last of the Mohicans (1920) -- silent film
Last of the Mohicans (1936)
Last of the Mohicans (1992) -- Daniel Day Lewis -- French and Indian War, 1756-1763; best version
Northwest Passage (1940) -- French & Indian War
Mohawk (1956) Indians attack a frontier outpost; Scott Brady
Frontier Times (1987) -- swashbuckler set during the French and Indian War
AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776
Lafayette (1962) -- the Frenchman who fought for American independence
FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1789
Louis XVI
Ridicule (1966) -- wit proves the key to social success at the court of Louis XVI (1774-1792)
Marie Antoinette (2006)
X Marie Antoinette (Shadow of the Guillotine) (1956) -- Marie-Antoinette
X Marie Antoinette (1938) -- daughter of Francis II of Austria; wife of Louis XVI
The Affair of the Necklace (2001) -- with Hilary Swank
X Le collier de la reine (The Queen’s Necklace) (1929) -- affair of the necklace reflects badly on innocent Marie Antoinette
X L'autrichienne (1990) – last days of Queen Marie Antoinette
The Beloved Rogue (1927) -- French poet-patriot Francois Villon battles wits with King Louis XI
X Galgenfrist (2008) – French poet, vagabond Francois Villon convicted of murder
Jefferson in Paris (1995) -- Jefferson's experiences as French ambassador along with his love life
La Marseillaise (1938) -- French Revolution
X La Révolution française (1989) -- the French Revolution
X l'cavaliere di Maison Rouge (The Glorious Avenger) (1953) -- French Revolution
A Tale of Two Cities (1980) -- French Revolution
X A Tale of Two Cities (1958)
X A Tale of Two Cities (1935) -- with Ronald Coleman
Reign of Terror (The Black Book) (1949) -- 1789 French Revolution (DVD with poor production quality)
Scaramouche (1952) -- only set in the 1789 French Revolution
Danton (1982) -- radical but pragmatic leader in the French Revolution
X Danton (1932) -- Georges Jacques Danton (1759–1794)
L' Anglaise et le duc (The Lady and the Duke) (2001) -- Scottish courtesan observes and writes about the French Revolution
X Nuit de Varennes (That Night in Varennes) (1982) -- French film about stagecoach passengers who get caught up in the arrest of King Louis XVI in the town of Varenne
X Sade (2000) -- 1794, Marquis de Sade faces execution by Robespierre's regime
Quills (2000) -- Marquis de Sade at the Charenton Mental Asylum
X Lady Oscar (1979) -- in her youth a female guard to Marie Antoinette loved Andre, but they meet again at the assault on the Bastille on opposites sides
Dangerous Exile (1957) -- fate of ten year old Louis XVII, who died in 1795, (many thought he escaped from his French revolutionary captors)
X Caroline chérie (Dear Caroline) (1968) -- French Revolution
X Madame Guillotine (1931) -- French Revolution
X Madame Recamier; Or, The Price of Virtue (1923) – Jeanne-Françoise Julie Adélade Bernard Récamier (777-1849) was a leader of the literary/political circles of the early 19th century
X Madame Récamier (1928) --
X Le diable boiteux (The Lame Devil) (1948) – the French diplomat Talleyrand (1754–1838) worked successfully under the following: Louis XVI, Napoleon I, Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis-Philippe
AGE OF NAPOLEON. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents
X Napoleon (2003)
Napoleon (1955) -- film made by the French
X Napoleon (1927)
X Joséphine (2006) – Napoleon and Josephine
X A Royal Divorce (1938) -- Napoleon and Josephine
Passion in the Desert (1997) – young French officer in Egypt during Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign to capture the country
X Adieu Bonaparte (1985) -- reactions of three Egyptian brothers to French Occupation and crushing of Mameluke rule
X Raffl (1984) -- Franz Raffl betrays the great rebel leader Andreas Hofer fighting the French and Bavarians and becomes the "Judas of Tyrol", 1809
X Das Heilige Land Tyrol (2010) -- Katharina and her husband escape from Bavaria to Tyrol and get into a revolutionary hotspot with leader Andreas Hofer
X Austerlitz (1960) -- Napoleon
X Kolberg (Burning Hearts) (1945) – Napoleon’s troops in Germany have isolated Kolberg, but the citizens refuse to surrender; French prepare massive bombardments (April-July 1807)
Napoleon in Russia:
War and Peace (1956) -- Napoleon's invasion of Russia, 1812 (from Tolstoy's great novel)
X War and Peace (1972) -- ditto, but with Anthony Hopkins
X Война и мир; Vojna i mir (War and Peace) (1968) -- expensive Russian version of War and Peace
X Pushkin: Poslednyaya duel (2006) – Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), considered greatest Russian poet
X Poslednyaya doroga (The Last Road) (1986) – death and the 'last road' of Aleksandr Pushkin
1814 (2007) -- mystery story in the time of Pushkin
After Russian Defeat:
Venere imperiale (Imperial Venus) (1963) -- Italian/French production of story of Paolina Bonaparte, sister of Emperor Napoleon I
Madame Sans-Gene (Madame) (1962) -- wife of Marshal Lefebvre, one of Napoleon's generals and Marshal of France, who constantly gets him into trouble
Waterloo (1970) -- Napoleon in his second romp defeated in this 1815 battle
Eagle in a Cage (1971) – Napoleon's exile on St. Helena
Monsieur N. (2003) – conjecture that Napoleon did not die on St. Helena
X Betzi (1978) – imprisonment of Napoleon Bonaparte on St Helena
X N (Io e Napoleone) (Napoleon & Me) (2006) – the librarian on Elba Island hates Napoleon, but learns to respect him
Conquest (1937) -- a Polish countess (played by the great Garbo) becomes the mistress of Napoleon in an attempt to gain freedom for her country
Marysia i Napoleon (Maria and Napoleon) (1966) -- Polish film about Maria Walewska uses her sensuality to try to convince Napoleon to help liberate Poland
X Le destin fabuleux de Désirée Clary (Mlle. Desiree) (1942) – Désirée Clary once the fiancée of Napoleon Bonaparte and later Queen of Sweden & Norway as wife of King Charles XIV John
Desiree (1954) -- the future queen and king of Sweden and Napoleon; a seamstress loves Napoleon, but his marriage to aristocrat Josephine spoils her dreams
X The Kautokeino Rebellion (2008) – religious and cultural reawakening inspires rebellion in a 19th century Norwegian Saami village
Madame Bovary (1991) -- the then scandalous portrait of a bored middle-class married woman engaging in adultery
The Duelists (1977) --- one man is obsessed with killing another, duel over a period of fifteen years covering the Napoleonic era
Napoleon and Love (1974) -- love life of Napoleon
X Fanny Elssler (1937) -- Metternich has Fanny Elsser keep the Duke of Reichstadt (future Napoleon II, ruled 1815) out of French politics, but the two fall in love
X L'aiglon (translation: The Eaglet) (1931) -- Napoleon
English Opponents of Napoleon:
X H. M. S. Defiant (1962) -- based on the Spithead and Nore mutinies, in the form of strikes for better pay and conditions, by sailors of the Royal Navy in 1797 during war with the French Revolutionary government
X Sea Devils (1953) -- woman working as a double agent for England in France and the English fishermen turned smuggler who loves her
X The Nelson Affair (1973) -- British film on the Lord Nelson-Lady Hamilton affair; Nelson puts an end to Napoleon's naval threat
That Hamilton Woman (1941) -- Lord Horatio Nelson and Lady Emma Hart Hamilton 1801
The Divine Lady (1929) -- silent about Nelson, Lady Nelson and Emma Hart in a triangular affair
X A Bequest to the Nation (1973) -- the relationship between Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton
I Remember Nelson (1982) -- TV mini-series presenting Nelson as seen from viewpoints of his wife, his mistress's husband, Captain Hardy and a common seaman
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) -- English naval ship against a more powerful and faster French ship during the Napoleonic Wars, 1805
X Sharpe's Waterloo (2006) -- Battle of Waterloo, 1815
The Iron Duke (1934) – historical drama about the Duke of Wellington starring George Arliss ($80)
Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) -- novelist famous for a tempestuous affair with Lord Byron in 1812; (was also involved with the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon)
Byron (2003) -- the famous English poet who led a scandalous existence
X Shelly (1972) -- famous British author
Becoming Jane (2007) -- early love affair of Jane Austen that affected her later writing
Les Enfants du siecle (Children of the Century) (1999) -- love affair between George Sand and poet Alfred de Musset
X Chopin: Desire for Love (2004)
Impromptu (1991) -- novelist George Sand and composer Frederic Chopin
X Mlodosc Chopina (Young Chopin) (1952) --formative years between 1825 and 1831
Spanish Opposition to Napoleon: House of Bonaparte: Joseph Bonaparte (1808-1813)
The Pride and the Passion (1957) -- Spanish Revolution Against Napoleon 1810
Goya in Bordeaux (1999) -- Spanish painter Francisco Goya (maja is a pretty woman)
Volavérunt (1999) -- Goya and the Duchess of Alba, Goya's "Naked Maja" starring Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and Penélope Cruz
The Naked Maja (La maja desnuda) (1958) -- Goya and the Duchess of Alba starring Ava Gardner
Goya (1985) -- tv mini-series; lots of history
Goya's Ghosts (2006) -- Goya and the Spanish Inquisition
X Augustina (2010) -- "Spanish Joan of Arc" Agustina de Aragón (1786-1857) defended Spain during the Spanish War of Independence (1808-1814)
X Agustina de Aragón (1950) -- ditto
AFTER NAPOLEON
X Der Herzog von Reichstadt (1931) – story of King Napoleon II, who ruled less than a month in 1815 (aka Herzog von Reichstadt), son of Napoleon I and second wife, Marie Louise of Austria
X L'agonie des aigle (The Death Agony of the Eagles) (1933) -- Napoleon II of France
X Mazeppa (1993) – biography of French Romantic painter Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) who painted the controversial "Raft of the Medusa" (1819) (new for $29)
X The House of Rothschild (1934) -- biography of the Rothschild family of financiers whose fortune was laid during the latter stages of the Napoleonic Wars
Capetian Dyanasty, House of Borbon Restored (1815-1830):
Balzac: A Passionate Life (1999) -- the mother, the work and the loves of a founding father of realism in European literature
Louis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI, ruled 1815-1824
Charles X -- ruled 1824-1830
Louis-Philippe I of the July Monarchy (1830-1848) -- the last king to rule France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte of the Second Republic (1848-1852) -- became Emperor Napoleon III
Emperor Napoleon III (Louis Bonaparte), the Citizen King, (ruled late 1852 to 1870) -- Second Empire restored
X Suez (1938) -- Leon Ames plays Napoleon III, although Loretta Young as Eugenie is much more highlighted
Juarez (1939) -- Claude Rains portrays him as a weak man ready to betray Maximilian in Mexico
X The Song of Bernadette (1943) -- Jerome Cowan plays Napoleon III
X Maytime (1936) -- Guy Bates Post plays Louis Napoleon
X Spy of Napoleon (1936) -- Napoleon III that is
X La contessa di Castiglione (2006) – Italian courtesan & secret agent Virginia Oldoini, Countess di Castiglione (1837–1899); as mistress of Emperor Napoleon III she used her influence to soften his response to Italian unification
X La contessa di Castiglione (1954) –
Edward the Seventh (a.k.a. Edward the King) (1975) -- contains many references to Louie Bonaparte
Mexico under Juarez (president 1858-1872) Opposition to French Emperor Maximilian
Juarez (1939) -- Mexican leader against Napoleon III's man in Mexico
X Aquellos años (1973) -- Benito Juarez
Major Dundee (1965) -- Dundee hunts down an Apache warrior group raiding in Texas during the Civil War & runs into French troops in Mexico
X The Eagle and the Hawk (1950) -- in 1863 Texas Ranger and a Union spy cross into Mexico to investigate power struggle between French puppet Maximilian and Mexican Benito Juarez
Vera Cruz (1954) -- Americans try to steal the gold while escorting a countess to Vera Cruz and Emperor Maximilian; Juaristas also want the gold
Mexicanos, al grito de guerra (Mexicans, to the Cry of War) (1943) -- a soldier defends Mexico against the French while in love with the French ambassador's daughter
The Undefeated (1969) -- a group of Confederate soldiers from USA decide to establish a new life in Mexico under French Emperor Maximilian
X Guadalupe La Chinaca (1938) – a love story set during French Intervention in Michoacán
X La paloma (1937) -- Emperor Maximilian and the war for independence
CRIMEAN WAR -- Russia (under Nicholas I & Alexander II) vs. Turkey (Ottoman Empire), England and France (under Napoleon III)
Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) -- Crimea, 1854-1856
Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) -- love triangle in India solved by British involvement in the Crimean War
Charge of the Lancers (1954) -- affairs set against the Crimean War
Florence Nightingale (1986) -- the great nurse at work during the Crimean War fighting against prejudice to be of service to the soldiers
Lady with a Lamp (1951) -- nurse-crusader Florence Nightingale
X The White Angel (1936) -- Florence Nightingale ($45)
X Bronte (1983) -- Irish film
X Les Soeurs Bronte (Bronte Sisters) (1979) French film
X Devotion (1946) -- Bronte sisters
X The Brontes of Haworth (1973) -- TV mini-series about the Brontes
Third French Republic (1870-1940)
Untel père et fils (Heart of a Nation) (1943) -- the Froment family of Montmartre, France from the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 to Nazi occupation in World War II
Mademoiselle Fifi (1944) – conquering Germans throw their weight around in occupied France during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, while French nobles kiss their posteriors
X Die Marquise von O (Marquise of O) (1976) -- love story set against the Franco-Prussian War of 1870
La commune (Paris , 1871) (2000) -- story of the Paris Commune of 1871, which briefly ruled France; semi-documentary (so I have just a little summary of the film's start)
X 1871 (1990) – the rise and fall of the Paris Commune
X Champ d'honneur (Field of Honor) (1987) – Franco-Prussian War; a fellow sells his high draft lottery number and takes the place of the son of a rich man
Total Eclipse (1995) -- French poets struggle with relationships, 1871
X Camille Claudel (1989) -- in 1883 France, sculptor Auguste Rodin meets sculptress Camille Claudel and they begin a relationship
Lust for Life (1956) -- 1885-1891, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh (friend of painter Paul Gauguin)
Vincent and Theo (1990) -- the two Van Gogh brothers
Moulin Rouge (1952) -- painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Félix Faure (1895-1899):
The Life of Emile Zola (1937) -- involved in the anti-Semitic Dreyfus Affair
X I Accuse! (1958) -- Zola and the Dreyfus Affair
Prisoner of Honor (1991) -- anti-Semitic Dreyfus affair, 1894
X L'affaire Dreyfus (Dreyfus Affair) (1995) – French film of the Dreyfus Affair
X L'affaire Dreyfus (Dreyfus Affair) (1965) – French film of the Dreyfus Affair
X Dreyfus (The Dreyfus Case) (1930) -- German film about the Dreyfus affair
X Affäre Dreyfus (Dreyfus Affair) (1959) – German film
X Affäre Dreyfus (Dreyfus Affair) (1968) – German film
French Art Scene: birth of modern art
Impressionists (2006) -- story of Monet and the creation of Impressionism which began in 1860s among Paris-based artists
Modigliani -- Amadeo, the painter
X Montparnasse 19 (Modigliani of Montparnasse) (1993) – life of the painter Amadeo Modigliani
Surviving Picasso (1996) -- Spanish painter Pablo Picasso
Camille Claudel (1989) -- in 1883 France, sculptor Auguste Rodin meets sculptress Camille Claudel and they begin a relationship
Time Regained (1999) -- life of French writer and critic Marcel Proust, most famous for his In Search of Lost Time began in 1909
Waiting for the Moon (1987) -- a few months in the life of Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein
Total Eclipse (1995) -- French poets struggle with relationships, 1871
Labor Troubles:
X La Révolte des enfants (The Children's Rebellion) (1992) -- drama set in France around the abuse of child labor ($32)
X Germinal (1993) -- French film about a perilous workers' strike in the French mines
IMPERIALISM
Outpost in Morocco (1949) -- Foreign Legion and the fight for independence
Legionnaire (1999) -- the Foreign Legion's battles against Algerian berbers
Chocolat (1989) -- colonial racism in Cameroon
Black and White in Color (1976) -- French and German colonialists learn WWI has been on for seven months
The Lover (1992) -- a relationship between a young French teen-ager and wealthy Chinese heir in French Indochina causes problems
Indochine (1992) -- political upheaval in French Indochina in the 1930s to the defeat of the French in 1954
WORLD WAR I
Western Front 1916 onwards:
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) -- horrifying effect of trench warfare and its impact on a small cohort of young German soldiers
All Quiet on the Western Front (1979) -- ditto
X Le Conscrit (The Conscript) (1974) -- Belgium film that illustrates the appalling condition under which soldiers were forced to serve
Paths of Glory (1957) -- French generals hide their own incompetence by declaring their own soldiers cowards, 1916
Mata Hari (1932) -- Greta Garbo as the spy Mata Hari executed in 1917
X Mata Hari (1972) -- the spy Mata Hari
X Mata Hari, agent H21 (1964) -- with Jeane Moreau (currently unavailable)
The Road to Glory (1936) -- trench life as seen by a French regiment; as time goes on Lt. Denet gets in a triangle love relationship with Monique and his captain
Untel père et fils (Heart of a Nation) (1943) -- the Froment family of Montmartre, France from the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 to Nazi occupation in World War II
Capitaine Conan (Captain Conan) (1996) -- during the last days of the WWI, French Capitaine Conan is an excellent warrior, but finds he is unsuited for peacetime duty in Bucharest
X Legends of the Fall (1994) -- very good WWI trench combat scenes
Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement) (2004) -- a French woman has to become a detective in her search for her fiancé who is missing in action, not dead
Time Regained (1999) -- life of French writer and critic Marcel Proust, most famous for his In Search of Lost Time begun in 1909
WORLD WAR II
Invasion of France, May 10, 1940
X Stukas (1941) -- German pro-war film, dive bomber squadron, the Battle of France, May-June 1940
Dunkirk (1958) -- escape of the trapped British forces in France, June 1940
X Weekend at Dunkirk (1965) -- seen from the French perspective
Mrs. Miniver (1942) -- Dunkirk & the effects of the war on an English family
In Which We Serve (1942) -- based on experiences of Lord Louis Mountbatten
Attack on the Iron Coast (1968) -- British raid on large ship dock at St. Nazaire, France, March 28, 1942
Lacombe Lucien (1974) -- in occupied France, a young Frenchman is conflicted over his work for the German police and his Jewish girlfriend
French Occupation and Resistance:
X Section spéciale (Special Section) (1975) -- Nazi-collaborative Vichy government in southern France under Marshall Pétain (currently unavailable)
Le Silence de la Mer (The Silence of the Sea) (1947) -- an old man and his beautiful niece have to house a Nazi officer during the German Occupation
X Les Otages (The Mayor's Dilemma) -- a German officer in a Nazi-occupied tiny French village is killed; five villager are ordered to be shot if the murderer or murderers don't come forward
Laissez-passer (Safe Conduct) (2002) -- the effects of the German occupation on French cinema
Le septieme jour de Saint-Malo (The Seventh Day in Saint Malo) (1960) -- French film faithfully reconstructs the hardships the town of Saint Malo suffered in August 1944, shortly before the arrival of the Allies
Paris brûle-t-il? (Is Paris Burning?) (1966) -- freedom fighters of Paris and the Paris liberation of 1944
Untel père et fils (Heart of a Nation) (1943) -- the Froment family of Montmartre, France from the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 to Nazi occupation in World War II
L' Armée des ombres (Army of Shadows) (1969) -- the many travails of the French Resistance
X Wish Me Luck -- 6 DVDs; British training of civilians to work with the French Resistance; follows a British woman through her training and her experiences in France
X Jean Moulin (2002) -- French Resistance, 1943 -- ($90)
X Jean Moulin, une affaire française (2003) -- French Resistance
La Bataille du Rail (The Battle of the Rails) (1946) -- railway workers form part of the French Resistance sabotaging the Nazi occupation
X Assignment in Brittany (1943) -- efforts of the Free French
To Have and Have Not (1944) -- skipper becomes reluctantly involved with the French Resistance in Martinique (with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall)
The Train (1964) -- French Resistance tries to destroy a train carrying French treasures to Germany
Monsignor Renard (2000) -- TV series about German occupation of France
Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (A Man Escaped) (1956) -- a French Resistance man is captured and thinks only of escaping from the Nazis
X Un homme de trop (Shock Troops) (1967) -- French Resistance
X Guy Môquet, un amour fusillé (2008) – 1941 France, German occupation
X La vie sera belle (2007) – French Resistance
X Le Sang des Autres (The Blood of Others) -- a female resistance fighter develops confused loyalties when she succumbs to the charms of a German businessman
X The Silent Invasion -- Nazi occupation of the small town of Mereux, France in 1940 leads to the formation of a resistance group
X L' armee du crime (The Army of Crime) -- story of one of the most notorious and feared sects of the French Resistance
X Le Sauveur (The Savior) -- an Englishman is found in the woods by a French girl and he tells her he has come to organize resistance to the Nazis; but is he what he says he is?
X Un condamne a mort s'est echappe ou Le vent souffle ou il veut (A Man Escaped) -- director Robert Breeson was a French Resistance fighter sent to prison in Lyons, where 7,000 of the 10,000 prisoners there died; he puts a lot on film of what went on there
X Refractaire (The Undercover War) -- in Nazi-occupied Luxembourg 21 year old Francois will have to fight for the Nazis or go into hiding in the countryside iron mines
La Mome (La Vie en Rose) (2007) -- very rough life of Edith Piaf, one of the world's greatest singers
VIETNAM WAR
317th Platoon (1965) -- the French in Indochina
Lost Command (1966) -- from French Indochina to French-Algerian guerilla warfare in North Africa
Post-War France
Le Nouveau Monde (New World; The New World) (1995) -- French resentment of the "American occupation"
Un monde presque paisible (Almost Peaceful) (2002) -- in post-war France, Jewish Parisians try to build a new life after the Holocaust
La Haine (1995) -- social and racial tension in the outskirts of French cities leads to some nasty riots
X Liberty Belle (1983) -- a student, Paris, 1959-1960, gets involved with a group opposing the French Algerian war
X La Chinoise (1967) -- leftist French youth on the eve of the May 1968 student riots
X Le grand Charles (2006) – Charles De Gaulle's career, 1939-1959 (no English options)
X Adieu De Gaulle adieu (2009) -- De Gaulle disapproves of the student uprisings of May 1968
La faute à Fidel! (Blame It on Fidel!) (2006) – a married couple in Paris 1970-1971 become radicalized which deeply affects their nine year old child
X Le Promeneur du champ de Mars (The Last Mitterrand) (2005) -- ambivalent portrait of President Francois Mitterrand
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