The 40 most popular 1980s french movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Possession
1981 · 2h 4m · FR
A young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he finds out more and more strange behaviors and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.


The Name of the Rose
1986 · 2h 10m · FR
14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.


Exploits of a Young Don Juan
1986 · 1h 40m · FR
In 1914, sixteen year old Roger returned home from boarding school during vacation to find his puberty hit hard in a house filled with beautiful women. These women have previous engagements with other men who are away, and during this time, Roger impregnates them all, including his aunt and sister, then devises plans to cuckold the men.


Black List
1984 · 1h 23m
Three teenage Parisian punks are duped by a crime syndicate into committing a bank robbery that will distract the authorities while the seasoned crooks hijack an armored truck across town. Disaster ensues and two of the youngsters are killed, including the estranged daughter of widowed auto repair shop owner Jeanne Dufour. A grieving Jeanne ignores her own fear, as well as the law, and sets out to eliminate all of those responsible for her daughter’s death.


Knife Under the Throat
1986 · 1h 20m · FR
A woman posing in erotic magazines is stalked by a maniac who kills the people around her.


Beau Pere
1981 · 2h 3m · FR
Rémi is a man trapped in a deteriorating marriage. When his wife is unexpectedly killed in a car accident, Rémi is left with his stepdaughter, Marion, who chooses to stay with him rather than live with her birth father. After the initial shock passes, Rémi is caught off-guard when Marion begins expressing her attraction to him. Initially repulsed, Marion's mature beauty wears him down as he finally caves to her seductions.


The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
1989 · 2h 4m · FR
When churlish mobster Albert Spica acquires an upscale French restaurant in London, he dines there nightly, effectively scaring off the clientele with his bad manners. His wife, Georgina, is especially disgusted by him, and soon begins an affair with regular guest Michael. Despite their best efforts to keep it secret, Spica learns about their trysts, and he plots a terrible revenge.


Documenteur
1982 · 1h 5m · FR
After separating from the father of her son, a young French woman tries to find lodging and a fresh start in L.A. for herself and her son.


The Professional
1981 · 1h 48m · FR
Josselin Beaumont, a French secret agent, is tasked with assassinating Njala, the president for life of Malawi in Africa. A shift in French policy means that assassinating Njala is no longer an option. But instead of recalling their agent, high-ranking officials deliberately sacrifice Beaumont by handing him over to the Malawian authorities. Arrested, tried, and imprisoned, he nevertheless manages to escape. Back in Paris after a two-year absence, he informs his superiors through Colonel Martin that he will fulfill his contract during Njala’s upcoming official visit to Paris between the 12th and 15th of this month, and that he has a few scores to settle with the D.G.S.E. The question is, should Beaumont be stopped or not?


Asterix and the Big Fight
1989 · 1h 21m · FR
Due to an unfortunate accident involving Obelix throwing a menhir, Getafix the druid not only loses his memory, but goes completely mad. Now deprived of the wisdom of their beloved druid and the protection provided by his magic potion, the Armorican village falls prey to a proclaimed soothsayer who comes with ominous predictions and overweening ambitions. It's up to Asterix to keep his villager friends within reason and hopefully get Getafix to remember the magic potion's recipe before the impending Roman attack.


Signé Furax
1981 · 1h 30m · FR
The notorious and mysterious criminal Furax steals France's famous monuments, replacing them with replicas.


The Gypsy
1986 · 1h 35m · FR
Hubert Durieux is a banker in a small French town who is struggling to keep up with the demands of all the women in his life. Just when things couldn’t get any worse, his precious white Citroën is stolen under his eyes by a beautiful gypsy girl, Mona.


The Big Blue
1988 · 2h 48m · FR
Childhood friends Jacques and Enzo share a passion for the danger of free diving. Jacques, following in the footsteps of his father, who died at sea when Jacques was a boy, harbors a remarkable ability to adjust his heart rate and breathing patterns in the water, with his vital signs more closely resembling those of dolphins than men.
La Goula
La Goula
1986 · 34m · FR
In a hypermarket, a young overweight cashier named "La Goula" is the target of her colleagues' mockery.


Le Guépiot
1981 · 1h 30m
A girl is placed in a strict Catholic boarding school by her hateful mother after the divorce of her parents. There she is physically and psychologically tortured by the nuns because of her brutal use of language and anti-clerical upbringing. Her only moments of joy are the visits of her father.


The Chicks
1985 · 1h 27m · FR
Focuses primarily on three women and the (unseen) man who goes in and out of their lives. One member of this trio is a saleswoman with an open relationship that suddenly closes when she learns that her lover has been unfaithful. It seems that he has dallied with a book-dealer (her nemesis) who ultimately does not propose as much of a threat to the disillusioned saleswoman as a certain actress. Along with these three are several other females who interact with the main protagonists. Set up more in the manner of a stage play with changing scenes and acts.


The Rascals
1980 · 1h 35m · FR
Late spring 1942: France is under German occupation. But this doesn't much concern the boarders of a school lost in the French country. Bernard, a rather frivolous teenager, is in love for the first time; he's fond of Marie-Helene, an older and more mature girl. To approach her is not so easy...


Betty Blue
1986 · 2h · FR
A lackadaisical handyman and aspiring novelist tries to support his younger girlfriend as she slowly succumbs to madness.


Pauvre Eros
1983 · 1h 30m
A man decides to use the classifieds to replace his mistress who left him.


Quest for Fire
1981 · 1h 40m · CA
In the prehistoric world, a Cro-Magnon tribe depends on an ever-burning source of fire, which eventually extinguishes. Lacking the knowledge to start a new fire, the tribe sends three warriors on a quest for more. With the tribe's future at stake, the warriors make their way across a treacherous landscape full of hostile tribes and monstrous beasts. On their journey, they encounter Ika, a woman who has the knowledge they seek.


La Travestie
1988 · 1h 47m · FR
Nicole is a female attorney who is frustrated with the male-dominated world of provincial law. She embezzles money from a law firm and travels to Paris where she disguises herself as a man in hopes it will make a difference in her life and career. Nicole has two lesbian affairs and becomes a pimp for one of the women. She also has an affair with a man who indicates that he doesn't want a serious relationship. Nicole's loneliness leads her to the affairs as she continues the downward spiral into schizophrenia in this depressing psychological drama.


Le Guignolo
1980 · 1h 48m · FR
After the failure of his recent criminal exploits, international con artist Alexandre Dupré sets off for Venice to try to dupe some Japanese business men into buying a fake copy of a stolen Caneletto. On the aeroplane, a stranger asks him to look after his briefcase until after they have landed. Alexandre agrees, but the stranger is shot dead soon after and Alexandre himself becomes the target of enemy agents who are keen to recover the briefcase...


Elsa, Elsa
1985 · 1h 13m · FR
When he was eight years old, Ferdinand was chosen to play a supporting role along a famous actress. Today, a producer is asking him to write and direct a film about his childhood memories...


Manège
1986 · 11m · FR
Max, a 40 years old gay, chases in railway stations. He takes his "prey" to the Parisian park, the Bois de Boulogne."Manège" will be the genesis for Nolot's later feature film "La chatte à deux têtes" (2002).


Dur, dur
1981 · 1h 22m
No overview available


Letters Home
1986 · 1h 44m · FR
A filmed adaptation of Rose Leiman Goldemberg’s play, based on Sylvia Plath’s intense correspondence with her mother Aurelia, from the time the poet was in university until her suicide. Delphine Seyrig and her niece Coralie Seyrig recite Sylvia and Aurelia’s letters to the audience directly.


Gandahar
1987 · 1h 23m · FR
On the planet Gandahar where peace reigns and poverty is unknown, this utopian lifestyle is upset by reports of people at the outlying frontiers being turned to stone. Sylvain is sent to investigate this mysterious threat.


Deadly Circuit
1983 · 2h · FR
A P.I. is obsessed with a cute woman, who seduces and kills rich men around W. Europe.


36 Fillette
1988 · 1h 28m · FR
A 14-year-old pursues romance with a man while vacationing with her family in Switzerland.


Inspector Lavardin
1986 · 1h 40m · FR
Inspector Lavardin is called to a provincial village to investigate a murder – only to find that one of his ex-lovers is the victim’s widow.
La Relève
La Relève
1986 · 8m
No overview available


White Wedding
1989 · 1h 32m · FR
A philosophy professor has an illicit affair with one of his students, a bright yet troubled girl who lives alone.


English Education
1983 · 1h 28m · FR
After losing both her parents, young Sylvie is enrolled in a strict boarding school of Victorian English education. The school readily and willingly resorts to a very strict regime of correction and corporal punishment to discipline its female pupils and the young girls compensate for the rigors of their education by devoting themselves to all kinds of kinky schoolgirl sexual encounters.


Pirates
1986 · 2h 4m · FR
The adventures of pirate Captain Red and his first mate Frog.


Unfinished Diary
1982 · 48m · CA
In this heartwarming docudrama, Chilean immigrant Marilú Mallet strives to make a film about her experience of deep isolation. Her English-speaking husband, a prominent film director, criticizes her subjective approach to filmmaking; her young son, raised in Quebec, speaks only French. Interviews with Isabel Allende and other Chilean exiles reveal a deep bond in this powerful and resonant film about language and genre, exile and immigration.


Pétrole ! Pétrole !
1981 · 1h 25m · FR
Le PDG d'une importante société pétrolière voit ses manoeuvres illicites déjouées par un jeune concurrent dont la femme n'est autre que la fille de son fournisseur arabe.


T'inquiète pas, ça se soigne
1980 · 1h 37m
Junior doctors do their first internship in a big hospital in Paris. A mandarin position is to take.


Cargo
1981 · 1h 34m · FR
An Italian lumberjack named Giovanni falls in love with a girl named Louise. What starts off as a whirlwind romance devolves Louise becoming a prisoner of passion.


The Bear
1988 · 1h 37m · FR
An orphan bear cub hooks up with an adult male as they try to dodge human hunters.


Charlie Bravo
1980 · 1h 34m · FR
After a nurse is captured in Vietnam and held prisoner in a small jungle village, a group of soldiers is tasked with rescuing her.
The 1980s codified the blockbuster — high concept, wide release, heavy merchandising — while home video quietly built a second life for films that flopped in theaters. Practical effects hit their peak just before CGI arrived.
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.