The 40 most popular 1970s french movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


The Novices
1970 · 1h 31m
country: France
Sister Agnès runs away from her convent in Brittany and seeks refuge in Paris with prostitute Mona Lisa. With absolutely no qualifications, the young novice has a hard job finding work, so Mona Lisa tries to teach her the ropes of the oldest profession of them all!


The Adolescent
1979 · 1h 30m
country: Germany
In the summer of 1939, 13-year-old Marie goes with her parents to visit her grandparents in a small town near Avignon. Marie discovers her femininity and falls for a young Jewish doctor, but he prefers Eva, Marie's mother.


Erotic Sex Games
1977 · 1h 25m
country: France
A nurse who married a wealthy industrialist, feels very attracted to the son of her husband with whom she will maintain a love relationship.


Carnal Excitation
1978 · 1h 27m
country: Canada
A couple prepares to welcome a friend and his new fiancée, but when an unexpected guest arrives ahead of them, a case of mistaken identity sets everything in motion. As assumptions blur and boundaries loosen, the household quickly slips into a web of flirtation, confusion, and shifting dynamics. When the real fiancée finally appears, nothing is quite as it seems.. and the evening takes a series of surprising turns.


The Story of O
1975 · 1h 37m
country: Canada
The beautiful O is taken by her boyfriend, Rene, to a bizarre retreat, where she is trained in bondage and sexual perversion...


Dear Inspector
1978 · 1h 45m
country: France
When Lise's car bumps Antoine's bike, they recognize each other from a brief fling 20 years before while at the Sorbonne. He's now a professor of Greek; she's loathe to tell him she's a police inspector. A call interrupts their first dinner date: a Deputy of the National Assembly has been murdered. She has a suspect, another Deputy, and must track him while deflecting Antoine's eye from her vocation. All roads in the inquiry lead to Christine Vallier, the dead Deputy's mistress, a beguiling 22-year-old whose mother ran the Assembly's snack bar. When more deputies die and Antoine learns Lise's identity, she must act quickly solve the crime and save her future.


The Tin Drum
1979 · 2h 42m
country: France
In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.


Emmanuelle 3
1977 · 1h 40m
country: France
Emmanuelle and her architect husband continue their amoral lifestyle in the Seychelles. But when a casual dilliance between her and a film director starts to turn serious her husband shows very traditional signs of jealousy.


Captive Women 4
1977 · 1h 30m
country: France
To improve the morale of the German officers, a train with beautiful girls is arranged to entertain them when on leave.


Emmanuelle
1974 · 1h 35m
country: France
An employee at the French Embassy in Bangkok invites his wife to join him – and enjoy the benefits of their open marriage.


The Twelve Tasks of Asterix
1976 · 1h 22m
country: France
Asterix and Obelix depart on an adventure to complete twelve impossible tasks to prove to Caesar that they are as strong as the Gods. You'll roar with laughter as they outwit, outrun, and generally outrage the very people who are trying to prove them "only human".


The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
1972 · 1h 41m
country: France
In Luis Buñuel’s deliciously satiric masterpiece, an upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined.


A Real Young Girl
1976 · 1h 34m
country: France
Reluctantly, a sulky adolescent returns to her parents' house for yet another boring summer vacation, dabbling in desire and the art of desirability, eventually mixing reality with vision, caged fantasies with the fierce female sexuality.


Immoral Tales
1974 · 2h 5m
country: France
Four erotic tales from various historical eras. The first, 'The Tide', is set in the present day, and concerns a student and his young female cousin stranded on the beach by the tide, secluded from prying eyes. 'Therese Philosophe' is set in the nineteenth century, and concerns a girl being locked in her bedroom, where she contemplates the erotic potential of the objects contained within it. 'Erzsebet Bathory' is a portrait of the sixteenth-century countess who allegedly bathed in the blood of virgins, while 'Lucrezia Borgia' concerns an incestuous fifteenth-century orgy involving Lucrezia, her brother, and her father the Pope.


La Grande Bouffe
1973 · 2h 10m
country: France
Four friends gather at a villa with the intention of eating themselves to death.


Bilitis
1977 · 1h 35m
country: France
A coming of age story centering on the exploits of a teenage girl during summer vacation.


The Wing or the Thigh?
1976 · 1h 44m
country: France
Charles Duchemin, a well-known gourmet and publisher of a famous restaurant guide, is waging a war against fast food entrepreneur Tri- catel to save the French art of cooking. After having agreed to appear on a talk show to show his skills in naming food and wine by taste, he is confronted with two disasters: his son wants to become a clown rather than a restaurant tester and he, the famous Charles Duchemin, has lost his taste!


Red Sun
1971 · 1h 54m
country: France
In 1870, Japanese ambassador Sakaguchi and his entourage travel by train to Washington to deliver a valuable sword to the President of the United States, a gift from the Emperor of Japan. On board the same train are two robbers, Link and Gauche, ready to make their move…


Laure
1976 · 1h 35m
country: France
At an institute in Manila, researchers and eco-tourists trade stories about the Mara tribe, who live on a remote island and have an annual festival of rebirth in which some of the tribe forget who they are and begin again. Laure is the daughter of the institute's director; she's a free spirit who has captured the fancy of Nicola, a European photographer. After a courtship in which the voyeuristic Nick indulges Laure's exhibitionism and sexual freedom, they set off for Mara land with Gualtier, an anthropologist, and his philosophical lover, Myrte. As they approach the Mara on the night of rebirth, who of the group will actually join the tribe to begin life anew?


Going Places
1974 · 1h 57m
country: France
Two whimsical, aimless thugs harass and assault women, steal, murder, and alternately charm, fight, or sprint their way out of trouble. They take whatever the bourgeoisie holds dear, whether it’s cars, peace of mind, or daughters. Marie-Ange, a jaded, passive hairdresser, joins them as lover, cook, and mother confessor. She’s on her own search for seemingly unattainable sexual pleasure.


Le Cercle Rouge
1970 · 2h 20m
country: France
When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped murderer Vogel. Along with former policeman and current alcoholic Jansen, they plot an intricate jewel heist. All the while, quirky Police Commissioner Mattei, who was the one to lose custody of Vogel, is determined to find him.


That Obscure Object of Desire
1977 · 1h 43m
country: France
After dumping a bucket of water on a beautiful young woman from the window of a train car, wealthy Frenchman Mathieu, regales his fellow passengers with the story of the dysfunctional relationship between himself and the young woman in question, a fiery 19-year-old flamenco dancer named Conchita. What follows is a tale of cruelty, depravity and lies -- the very building blocks of love.


Melancoly Baby
1979 · 1h 36m
country: France
Olga is married to Laurent, who is devoted to his career and often leaves Olga at home alone when he travels away for work. Whilst she is rich and wants for nothing, she is terribly bored with life. When Laurent is working away she meets up with his colleague Pierre and through him meets Claude, who is unemployed and fed up of his situation. Can Olga and Claude help each other to get their lives back on track?


Emmanuelle: The Joys of a Woman
1975 · 1h 31m
country: France
Emmanuelle returns to her husband in Hong Kong and proceeds to have several extramarital affairs -- with his knowledge, of course. Her husband's lover and American guest are both very puzzled by their openness.


Murmur of the Heart
1971 · 1h 58m
country: France
This loosely plotted coming-of-age tale follows the life of 15-year-old Laurent Chevalier as he stumbles his way over the burgeoning swell of adolescence in 1950s France. After having his first sexual experience with a prostitute and dodging the lips of a priest, Chevalier contracts a case of scarlet fever. When the fever leaves him with a heart murmur, Chevalier is placed in a sanatorium, along with his over-attentive and adulterous mother.


The Tenant
1976 · 2h 6m
country: France
A quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.


The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob
1973 · 1h 40m
country: France
In this riot of frantic disguises and mistaken identities, Victor Pivert, a blustering, bigoted French factory owner, finds himself taken hostage by Slimane, an Arab rebel leader. The two dress up as rabbis as they try to elude not only assasins from Slimane's country, but also the police, who think Pivert is a murderer. Pivert ends up posing as Rabbi Jacob, a beloved figure who's returned to France for his first visit after 30 years in the United States. Adding to the confusion are Pivert's dentist-wife, who thinks her husband is leaving her for another woman, their daughter, who's about to get married, and a Parisian neighborhood filled with people eager to celebrate the return of Rabbi Jacob.


The Beast
1975 · 1h 38m
country: France
The head of a failing French family thinks that fate has smiled down on him when the daughter of a wealthy man agrees to be married to his son. The daughter and her aunt then travel out to the French countryside to meet with the family, unaware that a mysterious 'beast' is stalking the vicinity.


Donkey Skin
1970 · 1h 30m
country: France
A fairy godmother helps a princess disguise herself so she won't have to marry her father.


The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
1976 · 1h 31m
country: Canada
13-year-old Rynn Jacobs lives in a New England beach town. Whenever the landlady inquires after Rynn's father, she claims that he's not available. But when the landlady's son, Frank, won't leave Rynn alone, she teams up with a neighbor Mario to maintain the dark family secret that she's been keeping to herself.


Tess
1979 · 2h 52m
country: France
A strong-willed peasant girl is sent by her father to the estate of some local aristocrats to capitalize on a rumour that their families are from the same line. This fateful visit commences an epic narrative of sex, class, betrayal, and revenge.


Sunflower
1970 · 1h 49m
country: Italy
After World War II, a woman refuses to believe her husband, missing on the Russian front, is dead. Flashbacks reveal their brief courtship and marriage. Years later, she travels to Russia with his photo, determined to find him. What will she discover?


In contextus
1976 · 28m
country: France
Around three boys accomplices to playful and shy grace, Stéphane Marti inaugurates his cinematographic writing.


The Gendarme and the Creatures from Outer Space
1979 · 1h 36m
country: France
The bungling inspector Cruchot finds himself trying to save the residents of St. Tropez from some oil-drinking humanoid aliens. The only way to tell the aliens from the real people, besides their constant thirst for oil-products, is that they sound like empty garbage cans when you touch them. Chaos is ahead.


Bed and Board
1970 · 1h 37m
country: France
Parisian everyman Antoine Doinel has married his sweetheart Christine Darbon, and the newlyweds have set up a cozy domestic life of selling flowers and giving violin lessons while Antoine fitfully works on his long-gestating novel. As Christine becomes pregnant with the couple's first child, Antoine finds himself enraptured with a young Japanese beauty. The complications change the course of their relationship forever.


The Canterbury Tales
1972 · 1h 51m
country: France
Glimpses of Chaucer penning his famous work are sprinkled through this re-enactment of several of his stories.


Day for Night
1973 · 1h 56m
country: France
A committed filmmaker struggles to complete his latest project while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.


The Phantom of Liberty
1974 · 1h 44m
country: France
This Surrealist film, with a title referencing the Communist Manifesto, strings together short incidents based on the life of director Luis Buñuel. Presented as chance encounters, these loosely related, intersecting situations, all without a consistent protagonist, reach from the 19th century to the 1970s. Touching briefly on subjects such as execution, pedophilia, incest, and sex, the film features an array of characters, including a sick father and incompetent police officers.


La Cage aux Folles
1978 · 1h 32m
country: France
Two gay men living in St. Tropez have their lives turned upside down when the son of one of the men announces he is getting married. They try to conceal their lifestyle and their ownership of the drag club downstairs when the fiancée and her parents come for dinner.


Treasure Island
1972 · 1h 34m
country: France
Young Jim Hawkins finds himself serving with pirate captain Long John Silver in search of a buccaneer's treasure, in this short adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale.
The 1970s are widely considered American cinema's strongest decade, when the studio system's collapse handed a generation of young directors unusual freedom. It ended with Jaws and Star Wars inventing the modern blockbuster.
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.