The 40 most popular 1960s french movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


The Great Spy Chase
1964 · 1h 48m · FR
A cold-war spy parody. After the death of an armaments manufacturer, an international group of spies is drawn into a high-stakes battle of wits to obtain the valuable military patents which have been inherited by the lovely widow.


Mum's the Word
1960 · 1h 30m · FR
Martin is a nurse in a private clinic in Paris. The victim of a serious concussion, an unidentified casualty, arrives in the emergency room one night. He is operated on immediately. When he wakes up, half-unconscious, he tells Martin a confused story about stealing jewels from a maharajah visiting Marseille... before falling into total amnesia. Real and fake policemen interrogate Martin, gangsters kidnap him to get him to reveal precious information, but... the nurse keeps his mouth shut!


PlayTime
1967 · 1h 55m · FR
Clumsy Monsieur Hulot finds himself perplexed by the intimidating complexity of a gadget-filled Paris. He attempts to meet with a business contact but soon becomes lost. His roundabout journey parallels that of an American tourist, and as they weave through the inventive urban environment, they intermittently meet, developing an interest in one another. They eventually get together at a chaotic restaurant, along with several other quirky characters.


Ars
1960 · 18m · FR
With ghostly eyes looking through the winter landscapes of the plains and villages of Ain, where the sanctified priest the Curé of Ars once lived, Jacques Demy tried to understand this fighter for communal spirituality and his daily torments of mysticism.


Les Gorilles
1964 · 1h 28m
A confused pair of airport luggage carriers get involved in the disappearance of some suitcases.


Les baratineurs
1965 · 1h 20m · FR
A precious work of art from the Italian Renaissance is stolen and passes through many hands before ending up in the shed of the farmhouse of Mr. and Mrs. Dujardin, fishmongers, who are inaugurating their luxury fish shop that very day. But the antique dealers, the free-riders and the bargain-hunters are there. They are jealously careful not to pass on the fruit of their clever investigations to their rivals, for all of them, after a picturesque treasure hunt, know that the Dujardin family own the famous Duranti altarpiece. But where have they hidden it themselves?


Breathless
1960 · 1h 30m · FR
A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he attempts to persuade a girl to run away to Italy with him.


Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!
1966 · 2h 12m · FR
During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South. From there they will be able to escape to England. First, they must avoid German troops – and the consequences of their own blunders.


The Swimming Pool
1969 · 2h 3m · FR
Set in a magnificent villa near a sun-drenched St. Tropez, lovers Jean-Paul and Marianne are spending a happy, lazy summer holiday. Their only concern is to gratify their mutual passion - until the day when Marianne invites her former lover and his beautiful teenage daughter to spend a few days with them. From the first moment, a certain uneasiness and tension begin to develop between the four, which soon escalates in a dangerous love-game.


Sheep
1960 · 1h 20m · FR
Fernand, a simple employee at the Prefecture of Police, must serve as a "sheep" to extract confessions from a leader of organized crime, who has recently been in prison. But he managed to escape by taking Fernand hostage.


Happiness
1965 · 1h 20m · FR
Though married to the good-natured, beautiful Thérèse, young husband and father François finds himself falling unquestioningly into an affair with an attractive postal worker.


L'etreinte
1969 · 1h 43m · BE
L’Étreinte (1969) is a sharp, provocative Franco-Belgian psychological drama that masterfully subverts power dynamics through an erotic lens. Heavily inspired by The Story of O, the film tracks Gisèle, an innocent runaway who becomes a housemaid—and subsequent sex slave—to Michel, a wealthy playboy. What begins as a classic tale of bourgeois exploitation takes a radical turn when a visiting friend awakens Gisèle to her own alienation. In a striking third-act shift, the film flips the master-servant dynamic, leaving the oppressor completely subjugated by his former victim..


Le Dindon
1969 · FR
No overview available


Lola
1961 · 1h 29m · FR
A bored young man meets with his former girlfriend, now a cabaret dancer and single mother, and soon finds himself falling back in love with her.


Vivre Sa Vie
1962 · 1h 24m · FR
Twelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.


The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
1964 · 1h 33m · FR
This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.


Barbarella
1968 · 1h 38m · FR
In the far future, a highly sexual woman is tasked with finding and stopping the evil Durand-Durand. Along the way she encounters various unusual people.


Cléo from 5 to 7
1962 · 1h 30m · FR
Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.
House of Sin
House of Sin
1961 · 1h 32m · FR
In this mystery, a nouveau-riche Frenchman returns to his Parisian home after finding a fortune in Africa. He is looking for a wife and begins advertising in the newspaper. Instead he finds himself victimized by con-artists.


Le Samouraï
1967 · 1h 45m · FR
After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.


Le Trou
1960 · 2h 12m · FR
Four prison inmates have been hatching a plan to literally dig out of jail when another prisoner, Claude Gaspard, is moved into their cell. They take a risk and share their plan with the newcomer. Over the course of three days, the prisoners and friends break through the concrete floor using a bed post and begin to make their way through the sewer system – yet their escape is anything but assured.


Eyes Without a Face
1960 · 1h 24m · FR
Dr. Génessier is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, the once beautiful Christiane, who outsiders believe is dead. Dr. Génessier, along with accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise, kidnaps young women and brings them to the Génessier mansion. After rendering his victims unconscious, Dr. Génessier removes their faces and attempts to graft them on to Christiane's.


Last Year at Marienbad
1961 · 1h 35m · FR
At a weekend gathering, a man tells a woman that they had spent time there together a year prior. But, the woman has no recollection whatsoever and is convinced that he is simply fabricating the encounter. The more he speaks about their activities the previous year however, the more compelling he becomes. The question remains however – did they meet previously or not?


Mayerling
1968 · 2h 20m · FR
Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria clashes with his father, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, over implementing progressive policies for their country. Rudolf soon feels he is a man born at the wrong time in a country that doesn't realize the need for social reform. The Prince of Wales, later to become Britain's King Edward VII, provides comic relief. Rudolf finds refuge from a loveless marriage with Princess Stéphanie by taking a mistress, Baroness Maria Vetsera. Their untimely demise at Mayerling, the imperial family's hunting lodge, is cloaked in mystery.


Judex
1963 · 1h 44m · FR
Georges Franju's Judex is an arch, playful tribute to the serials of the influential silent filmmaker Louis Feuillade. Franju shuffles through the plot of Feuillade's lengthy serial of the same name, about an adventurer named Judex whose revenge against the corrupt banker Favraux unleashes a complicated series of schemes.


The Young Girls of Rochefort
1967 · 2h 6m · FR
In the seaside town of Rochefort, twin sisters Delphine and Solange dream of love and artistic fulfillment beyond their quiet lives. As sailors, artists, musicians, and chance visitors pass through town during a weekend fair, a web of near-misses and romantic longing brings ideal partners tantalizingly close—without their realizing it.


The Tattoo
1968 · 1h 30m · FR
An art dealer wants to buy a Modigliani, which is tattooed on the back of an old soldier.


Asterix and Cleopatra
1968 · 1h 12m · FR
Popular animated hero Asterix and his faithful sidekick Obelix travel to ancient Egypt to help Cleopatra build a new summer home. Cleopatra and Julius Caesar have made a bet, with Caesar wagering the project cannot be completed in a few weeks time. With the help of a magic potion, Asterix comes to the rescue of the Queen of the Nile as Caesar and an angry architect plot against them.


The Gendarme Gets Married
1968 · 1h 30m · FR
The Saint-Tropez police launch a major offensive against dangerous drivers. Marechal Cruchot (Louis de Funès) relishes the assignment, which he pursues with a manic zeal. Cruchot is after an offending driver, who turns out to be Josépha (Claude Gensac), the widow of a highly regarded police colonel. When they meet, Cruchot falls instantly in love....


The Magician
1960 · 1h 41m · FR
In a Munich circus, Pierre, who has come to attend the funeral of his father, a famous illusionist, finds love in the arms of the beautiful Hildegarde. But he discovers that Hildegarde has a twin sister, Greta.


The American
1969 · 1h 30m · FR
A man returns to Rouen, after fifteen years in the United States, and feels like a stranger among old friends.


Pierrot le Fou
1965 · 1h 50m · FR
Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.


Belle de Jour
1967 · 1h 41m · FR
Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.


Ho !
1968 · 1h 43m · FR
Race driver who has lost his membership card becomes the chauffeur of a gangsters pack


Is Paris Burning?
1966 · 2h 53m · FR
Near the end of World War II, General Dietrich von Choltitz receives orders to burn down Paris if it becomes clear the Allies are going to invade, or if he's unable to maintain control of the city. After much contemplation, Choltitz ignores orders, enraging the Germans and giving hope to various resistance factions that the city will be liberated. Choltitz, alongside Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling, helps a leader organise his forces.


Army of Shadows
1969 · 2h 25m · FR
Betrayed by an informant, Philippe Gerbier finds himself trapped in a torturous Nazi prison camp. Though Gerbier escapes to rejoin the Resistance in occupied Marseilles, France, and exacts his revenge on the informant, he must continue a quiet, seemingly endless battle against the Nazis in an atmosphere of tension, paranoia and distrust.


La Séparation
1968
No overview available


Le deuxième coup de feu
1969 · FR
No overview available


Auguste
1961 · 1h 30m
Auguste is about an eponymous bank clerk who finds fame and fortune. Auguste happens to be in the right place at the right time to save young starlet Francine from killing herself -- or more accurately, pretending to kill herself. His supposed heroism hits the news, and before Auguste knows what is happening, a Machiavellian publicist is using him for his own ends. The bank clerk is no fool and soon thinks of a way to come out on top.


Hibernatus
1969 · 1h 22m · FR
Hubert de Tartas' life becomes a complete muddle when his wife's grandfather is unearthed after having spent 65 years in frozen hibernation in the polar circle. After being de-frosted, the Hibernating Man believes it is still the beginning of the century. Nothing is spared to keep that illusion alive. At the end of his rope, Hubert blurts out the truth and takes the man from Edwardian times on a crazy spree through an ultramodern Twentieth Century.
The 1960s broke the old rules everywhere at once — the French New Wave, the collapse of the Hollywood Production Code, and new waves across Europe and Japan reshaping what a film could show and say.
French cinema invented much of what we consider film language, then reinvented it again with the Nouvelle Vague of the late 1950s. It remains Europe's most prolific film industry, with a strong tradition of state support for auteur work.