The 40 most popular 1990s french movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1991 · 2h 17m
country: France
Ten years after the events of the original, a reprogrammed T-800 is sent back in time to protect young John Connor from the shape-shifting T-1000. Together with his mother Sarah, he fights to stop Skynet from triggering a nuclear apocalypse.


Léon: The Professional
1994 · 1h 51m
country: France
Léon, the top hit man in New York, has earned a rep as an effective "cleaner". But when his next-door neighbors are wiped out by a loose-cannon DEA agent, he becomes the unwilling custodian of 12-year-old Mathilda. Before long, Mathilda's thoughts turn to revenge, and she considers following in Léon's footsteps.


The Fifth Element
1997 · 2h 6m
country: France
In 2257, a taxi driver is unintentionally given the task of saving a young girl who is part of the key that will ensure the survival of humanity.


The Lover
1992 · 1h 55m
country: France
A poor French teenage girl engages in an illicit affair with a wealthy Chinese heir in 1920s Saigon. For the first time in her young life she has control, and she wields it deftly over her besotted lover throughout a series of clandestine meetings and torrid encounters.


The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
1999 · 2h 38m
country: France
In 1429, a French teenager stood before her King with a message she claimed came from God; that she would defeat the world's greatest army and liberate her country from its political and religious turmoil. As she reclaims God's diminished kingdom, this courageous young woman has various amazing victories until her violent and untimely death.


La Haine
1995 · 1h 38m
country: France
After a chaotic night of rioting in a marginal suburb of Paris, three young friends, Vinz, Hubert and Saïd, wander around unoccupied waiting for news about the state of health of a mutual friend who has been seriously injured when confronting the police.


Taxi
1998 · 1h 26m
country: France
In Marseilles a skilled pizza delivery boy Daniel who drives a scooter finally has his dreams come true. He gets a taxi license. Caught by the police for a huge speed infraction, he will help Emilien, a loser inspector who can't drive, on the track of German bank robbers, so he doesn't lose his license and his dream job.


The Piano
1993 · 2h
country: Australia
When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited pre-teen daughter Flora to the wilderness of 19th-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.


Three Colors: Red
1994 · 1h 40m
country: France
Part-time model Valentine unexpectedly befriends a retired judge after she runs over his dog. At first, the grumpy man shows no concern about the dog, and Valentine decides to keep it. But the two form a bond when she returns to his house and catches him listening to his neighbors’ phone calls.


1492: Conquest of Paradise
1992 · 2h 34m
country: France
1492: Conquest of Paradise depicts Christopher Columbus’ discovery of The New World and his effect on the indigenous people.


Super Mario Bros.
1993 · 1h 45m
country: United Kingdom
Mario and Luigi, plumbers from Brooklyn, find themselves in an alternate universe where evolved dinosaurs live in hi-tech squalor. They're the only hope to save our universe from invasion by the dino dictator, Koopa.


eXistenZ
1999 · 1h 37m
country: Canada
A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.


The Visitors
1993 · 1h 47m
country: France
After a wizard's spell goes awry, 12th-century Gallic knight Godefroy de Papincourt, Count of Montmirail finds himself transported to 1993, along with his dimwitted servant, Jacquouille la Fripouille. Startled and perplexed by modern technology, the duo run amok, destroying cars and causing chaos until they meet Beatrice de Montmirail, an aristocratic descendant of the nobleman, who may be able to help them get back to 1123.


Asterix and Obelix Take On Caesar
1999 · 1h 49m
country: France
Set in 50 B.C., Asterix and Obelix are living in a small but well-protected village in Gaul, where a magic potion concocted by Druids turns the townsfolk into mighty soldiers. When Roman troops carve a path through Gaul to reach the English Channel, Caesar and his aide de camp Detritus discover the secret elixir and capture the Druid leader who knows its formula, and Asterix and Obelix are sent off to rescue them.


Bitter Moon
1992 · 2h 19m
country: France
A passenger on a cruise ship develops an irresistible infatuation with an eccentric paraplegic's wife.


Nikita
1990 · 1h 57m
country: France
A beautiful felon, sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a policeman, is given a second chance – as a secret political assassin controlled by the government.


Three Colors: White
1994 · 1h 32m
country: France
Polish immigrant Karol Karol finds himself out of a marriage, a job and a country when his French wife, Dominique, divorces him after six months due to his impotence. Forced to leave France after losing the business they jointly owned, Karol enlists fellow Polish expatriate Mikołaj to smuggle him back to their homeland.


The City of Lost Children
1995 · 1h 52m
country: France
A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.


Indochine
1992 · 2h 39m
country: France
In colonial Vietnam, dashing French naval captain Jean-Baptiste, wealthy plantation owner Éliane Devries, and her adopted Vietnamese daughter Camillevare form the three points of a cross-cultural romantic triangle. As the struggle against European imperialism sweeps Indochina, Jean-Baptiste and Camille have to choose sides and Éliane faces the emotionally difficult challenge of raising the child of her daughter and ex-lover.


Crying Freeman
1995 · 1h 42m
country: Canada
A lethal assassin for a secret Chinese organisation, who sheds tears of regret each time he kills, is seen swiftly and mercilessly executing three Yakuza gangsters by a beautiful artist. She is captivated by the grace of his kill and later falls in love with him. An intense power struggle for the leadership of the Yakuza Clans ensues as they seek vengeance for the death of their leader.


Live Flesh
1997 · 1h 43m
country: Spain
When Victor attempts to seduce Elena, all he gets for his trouble is a one-way, six-year ticket to prison, where he concentrates on strengthening his mind, his body... and his desire for vengeance on the man who put him there. After his release and still madly in love with her, Victor will stop at nothing to win her over even if means revenge, for Elena has married David, the cop who sent him to prison!


The Apartment
1996 · 1h 56m
country: France
Max is a former playboy who has decided to settle down by marrying his current love, Muriel. However, when Max catches a glimpse of the great lost love of his life, he becomes obsessed with rekindling their relationship.


La Cérémonie
1995 · 1h 52m
country: France
Sophie, a quiet and shy maid working for an upper-class French family, finds a friend in the energetic and uncompromising postmaster Jeanne, who encourages her to stand up against her bourgeois employers.


Black Cat, White Cat
1998 · 2h 7m
country: France
A small-time hustler makes a deal with a notorious gangster to whom he owes money: marry his teenage son to the latter's daughter. However, the young lovers are not as agreeable.


Three Colors: Blue
1993 · 1h 38m
country: France
The wife of a famous composer survives a car accident that kills her husband and daughter. Now alone, she shakes off her old identity and explores her newfound freedom but finds that she is unbreakably bound to other humans, including her husband’s mistress, whose existence she never suspected.


Man Bites Dog
1992 · 1h 36m
country: Belgium
The activities of rampaging, indiscriminate serial killer Ben are recorded by a willingly complicit documentary team, who eventually become his accomplices and active participants. Ben provides casual commentary on the nature of his work and arbitrary musings on topics of interest to him, such as music or the conditions of low-income housing, and even goes so far as to introduce the documentary crew to his family. But their reckless indulgences soon get the better of them.


La Belle Noiseuse
1991 · 3h 58m
country: France
The former famous painter Frenhofer lives quietly with his wife on a countryside residence in the French Provence. When the young artist Nicolas visits him with his girlfriend Marianne, Frenhofer decides to start again the work on a painting he long ago stopped: La Belle Noiseuse. And he wants Marianne as model.


The Scent of Green Papaya
1993 · 1h 44m
country: France
1950s Saigon through the eyes of Mui, a Vietnamese servant girl. At 10 years-old, Mui leaves her village to work for an affluent, troubled family. As she comes of age, Mui finds work in the household of a pianist she has admired since childhood, and finds their relationship growing in complexity.


In All Innocence
1998 · 1h 38m
country: France
High-profile lawyer Michel takes on the defence of a young and pretty small-time thief, Cécile, after the botched hold-up of a jewellery shop. As predicted by his elegant art-dealer and sculptress wife Viviane, Michel goes well beyond his brief, jeopardising his career and ruining his marriage of 18 years.


The Lovers on the Bridge
1991 · 2h 6m
country: France
Set against Paris' oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf, while it was closed for repairs, this film is a love story between two young vagrants: Alex, a would be circus performer addicted to alcohol and sedatives and Michele, a painter driven to a life on the streets because of a failed relationship and an affliction which is slowly turning her blind.


Total Eclipse
1995 · 1h 51m
country: France
Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.


Delicatessen
1991 · 1h 39m
country: France
In a post-apocalyptic world, the residents of an apartment above the butcher shop receive an occasional delicacy of meat, something that is in low supply. A young man new in town falls in love with the butcher's daughter, which causes conflicts in her family, who need the young man for other business-related purposes.


Arizona Dream
1993 · 2h 22m
country: France
Rebellious young Axel Blackmar gets caught up into the family car business when his cousin, Paul, coaxes him to come to Arizona to attend the wedding of their Uncle Leo. As Axel makes the decision to try selling Cadillacs with his family, he meets an eccentric woman named Elaine and her equally quirky stepdaughter, Grace. Their lives become inextricably intertwined through romance, dreams – and death.


Europa Europa
1990 · 1h 52m
country: France
A Jewish boy separated from his family in the early days of WWII poses as a German orphan and is taken into the heart of the Nazi world as a 'war hero' and eventually becomes a Hitler Youth.


La Belle Verte
1996 · 1h 39m
country: France
As part of an intergalactic coalition, a well-meaning space alien volunteers to bring a message of self-actualization and harmony with nature to the one planet rejected by all her peers as incorrigible: Earth.


Queen Margot
1994 · 2h 18m
country: France
Paris, Kingdom of France, August 18, 1572. To avoid the outbreak of a religious war, the Catholic princess Marguerite de Valois, sister of the feeble King Charles IX, marries the Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre.


Bambola
1996 · 1h 35m
country: France
Her name is Mina, but she is called Bambola (doll). Upon the death of her mother, she and her homosexual brother, Flavio, open a pizzeria. A man named Ugo loans Bambola the money, but is then killed in a fight with another one of her boyfriends, Settimio. While visiting Settimio in jail, she meets a sadistic man named Furio, and they begin a relationship.


Madame Bovary
1991 · 2h 23m
country: France
In 19th-century France, doctor's wife Emma Bovary seeks to escape her dull provincial life through various extramarital affairs and extravagant spending, leading to tragic consequences.


Grève party
1998 · 1h 26m
country: Unknown
While France is on strike, Jean, a Parisian bookseller, opens his shop. A former trade unionist, he has in fact decided not to take part in the movement. However, a phone call from his friend René awakens his enthusiasm.


Le Déménagement
1997 · 1h 30m
country: France
Qui n'a pas connu le stress d'un déménagement ? Surtout quand on est un jeune écrivain comme Alain, sur le point de quitter une bonne maison d'édition pour écrire un sitcom pour la télévision, que sa femme est sur le point d'accoucher et de surcroît quand les déménageurs sont des Roumains qui travaillent au noir et qu'ils n'ont pas vraiment le sens de la ponctualité...
The 1990s were the independent film decade, when Sundance and Miramax pushed low-budget American filmmaking into the mainstream. It's also when Hong Kong action, Japanese animation, and Iranian art cinema found large Western audiences.
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.