11. Three Colors: Blue ( Trois couleurs: Bleu )
Year of Release: 1993
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Actors: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Régent, Florence Pernel, Charlotte Véry
Plot: The first in Krzysztof Kieslowski trilogy, Blue deals with the French concept of "Liberty" as a female composer deals with the grief of losing her husband and daughter in a car accident by withdrawing from the world, but finds the world is not going to withdraw from her.
12. Breathless ( À Bout de souffle )
Year of Release: 1961
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Crime/Drama
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger, Jean-Pierre Melville
Plot: Traditional cinematic form is cast aside to brilliant effect in his inaugural entry of the French New Wave, an homage to the gangster and crime films of 1930s/40s Hollywood.
13. Mommy
Year of Release: 2014
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Xavier Dolan
Actors: Anne Dorval, Antoine-Olivier Pilon, Suzanne Clément, Alexandre Goyette
Plot: A single mom's drama about raising her son, who's behavior deteriorates into violence, due to a mild mental illness.
14. Past, The ( passé, Le )
Year of Release: 2013
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Drama/Mystery
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Actors: Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim, Ali Mosaffa, Pauline Burlet
Plot: An Iranian man abandons his French wife and two children in order to return home. He doesn't realize the consequences of his actions until his wife starts a new relationship... and requests a divorce.
15. Au revoir les enfants
Year of Release: 1987
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Louis Malle
Actors: Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejtö, Francine Racette, Stanislas Carré de Malberg
Plot: A boarding school in Nazi-occupied France seems to be immune to the horrors of WWII - but a new student, who becomes rivals, then friends, with the top student hides a secret that will challenge this peace.
16. Hate ( haine, La )
Year of Release: 1995
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Crime/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Actors: Vincent Cassel, Saïd Taghmaoui, Hubert Koundé, Abdel Ahmed Ghili
Plot: Follows the lives of three men in 24-hour span in the French suburban "ghetto": Vinz, a Jew, Saïd, an Arab, and Hubert, a black boxer - a night of riots leaves Vinz's friend, Abdel in the hospital following a beating by police officers. Vinz finds a gun and vows to kill a cop if Abdel dies from his injuries.
17. Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The ( Scaphandre et le papillon, Le )
Year of Release: 2007
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Biography/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Julian Schnabel
Actors: Max von Sydow, Marie-Josée Croze, Mathieu Amalric, Jean-Pierre Cassel
Plot: The Biography an editor who is paralyzed in virtually 100% of the body.
18. Persepolis
Year of Release: 2007
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Animation/Biography
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Vincent Paronnaud
Actors: Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian
Plot: An animation story told of an young Iranian girl growing up just after the Islamic Revolution.
19. Z
Year of Release: 1969
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Costa-Gavras
Actors: Yves Montand, Irene Papas, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacques Perrin
Plot: Costa-Gavras chronicles the overthrow of the democratic government in Greece. When a liberal politician is murdered in an attack during a peace demonstration, the right wing established figures in the military and the police try and hide not only their parts in it, but try to cover up the murder as well. The magistrate must act as a detective in order to go through the cover up. While historically accurate, it is told as a combination mystery and thriller
20. Prophet, A ( prophète, Un )
Year of Release: 2010
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Crime/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Jacques Audiard
Actors: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif, Hichem Yacoubi
Plot: A young Muslim man, incarcerated for attacking police officers, unwillingly becomes part of a dangerous game of racial and prison politics.
