The 40 most popular 2000s french movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


The Pianist
2002 · 2h 30m
country: France
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.


The Da Vinci Code
2006 · 2h 29m
country: United States
A murder in Paris’ Louvre Museum and cryptic clues in some of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery. For 2,000 years a secret society closely guards information that — should it come to light — could rock the very foundations of Christianity.


Amélie
2001 · 2h 2m
country: France
At a tiny Parisian café, the adorable yet painfully shy Amélie accidentally discovers a gift for helping others. Soon Amelie is spending her days as a matchmaker, guardian angel, and all-around do-gooder. But when she bumps into a handsome stranger, will she find the courage to become the star of her very own love story?


Taken
2008 · 1h 34m
country: France
Bryan Mills, a former government operative, is trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter Kim. After reluctantly agreeing with his ex-wife to let Kim go to Paris on vacation with a friend, his worst nightmare comes true. While on the phone with his daughter shortly after she arrives in Paris, she and her friend are abducted by a gang of human traffickers. Working against the clock, Bryan relies on his extensive training and skills to track down the ruthless gang that abducted her and launch a one-man war to rescue his daughter.


The Transporter
2002 · 1h 32m
country: United States
Former Special Forces officer Frank Martin will deliver anything to anyone for the right price, and his no-questions-asked policy puts him in high demand. But when he realizes his latest cargo is alive, it sets in motion a dangerous chain of events. The bound and gagged Lai is being smuggled to France by a shady American businessman, and Frank works to save her as his own illegal activities are uncovered by a French detective.


Elizabeth: The Golden Age
2007 · 1h 54m
country: France
When Queen Elizabeth's reign is threatened by ruthless familial betrayal and Spain's invading army, she and her shrewd adviser must act to safeguard the lives of her people.


The Piano Teacher
2001 · 2h 11m
country: France
Erika Kohut, a sexually repressed piano teacher living with her domineering mother, meets a young man who starts romantically pursuing her.


Transporter 2
2005 · 1h 28m
country: France
Professional driver, and former Special Forces officer, Frank Martin is living in Miami, where he is temporarily filling in for a friend as the chauffeur for a government narcotics control policy director and his family. The young boy in the family is targeted for kidnapping, and Frank immediately becomes involved in protecting the child and exposing the kidnappers.


Transporter 3
2008 · 1h 44m
country: France
Frank Martin puts the driving gloves on to deliver Valentina, the kidnapped daughter of a Ukrainian government official, from Marseilles to Odessa on the Black Sea. En route, he has to contend with thugs who want to intercept Valentina's safe delivery and not let his personal feelings get in the way of his dangerous objective.


Ninja Assassin
2009 · 1h 39m
country: United States
Ninja Assassin follows Raizo, one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as a child, he was transformed into a trained killer by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. But haunted by the merciless execution of his friend by the Clan, Raizo breaks free from them and vanishes. Now he waits, preparing to exact his revenge.


Arthur and the Invisibles
2006 · 1h 34m
country: France
Ten-year-old Arthur, in a bid to save his grandfather's house from being demolished, goes looking for some much-fabled hidden treasure in the land of the Minimoys, tiny people living in harmony with nature.


Irreversible
2002 · 1h 37m
country: France
A woman’s lover and her ex-boyfriend take justice into their own hands after she becomes the victim of a rapist. Because some acts can’t be undone. Because man is an animal. Because the desire for vengeance is a natural impulse. Because most crimes remain unpunished.


Unleashed
2005 · 1h 43m
country: China
Raised as a slave, Danny is used to fighting for his survival. In fact, his "master," Bart, thinks of him as a pet and goes as far as leashing him with a collar so they can make money in fight clubs, where Danny is the main contender. When Bart's crew is in a car accident, Danny escapes and meets a blind, kindhearted piano tuner who takes him in and uses music to free the fighter's long-buried heart.


Smokin' Aces
2006 · 1h 49m
country: France
When a Las Vegas performer-turned-snitch named Buddy Israel decides to turn state's evidence and testify against the mob, it seems that a whole lot of people would like to make sure he's no longer breathing.


Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra
2002 · 1h 48m
country: France
History's favorite Gauls assist Queen Cleopatra when she wagers that the Egyptian people can build a palace for Julius Caesar in just three months.


Baise-moi
2000 · 1h 17m
country: France
Nadine and Manu are two mad women, as tidy as can be, almost perfectionists. They have several things in common: extreme sex, drugs, beer and the trigger. They find the solution to their problems with guns and beware to those who dare to get in their way!


The Chorus
2004 · 1h 37m
country: France
In 1940s France, a new teacher at a school for disruptive boys gives hope and inspiration.


Land of the Dead
2005 · 1h 33m
country: Canada
The living dead have taken over the world, and the remaining humans live in a walled city to protect themselves as they cope with the situation.


All the Invisible Children
2006 · 2h 4m
country: France
Seven short films - each one focused on the plight of a different child protagonist.


Assault on Precinct 13
2005 · 1h 49m
country: United States
On New Year's Eve, inside a police station that's about to be closed for good, officer Jake Roenick must cobble together a force made up cops and criminals to save themselves from a mob looking to kill mobster Marion Bishop.


Intimacy
2001 · 2h
country: France
Failed musician Jay abandoned his family and now earns a living as head bartender in a trendy London pub. Every Wednesday afternoon, a woman comes to his house for graphic, almost wordless, sex. One day, Jay follows her and learns about her. This eventually disrupts their relationship.


District B13
2004 · 1h 24m
country: France
Set in the ghettos of Paris in 2010, an undercover cop and ex-thug try to infiltrate a gang in order to defuse a neutron bomb.


Brotherhood of the Wolf
2001 · 2h 31m
country: France
In 18th century France, the Chevalier de Fronsac and his Native American friend Mani are sent by the King to the Gevaudan province to investigate the killings of hundreds by a mysterious beast.


Sex and Lucía
2001 · 2h 8m
country: Spain
Lucía is a young waitress in Madrid who seeks refuge on a quiet, secluded Mediterranean island after the loss of her longtime boyfriend. Amidst the fresh air, dazzling sun, and glistening deep blue water, Lucía begins to piece together the dark corners of her past relationship.


Femme Fatale
2002 · 1h 54m
country: Switzerland
A $10-million diamond rip-off, a stolen identity, a new life married to a diplomat. Laure Ash has risked big, won big. But then a tabloid shutterbug snaps her picture in Paris, and suddenly, enemies from Laure's secret past know who and where she is. And they all want their share of the diamond heist. Or her life. Or both.


Ruby & Quentin
2003 · 1h 25m
country: France
After hiding his loot and getting thrown in jail, brooding outlaw Ruby befriends Quentin, a dim-witted and garrulous giant. After Quentin botches a solo escape attempt, they make a break together. Unable to shake the clumsy Quentin, Ruby is forced to take him along as he pursues his former partners in crime to avenge the death of the woman he loved and get to the money.


Desert Flower
2009 · 2h 7m
country: Austria
The autobiography of a Somalian nomad who was sold in marriage at 13, fled from Africa a while later to become finally an American supermodel and is now at the age of 38, the UN spokeswoman against female genital mutilation.


The Orphanage
2007 · 1h 45m
country: Spain
A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage, intent on reopening it. Before long, her son starts to communicate with a new invisible friend.


Taxi 2
2000 · 1h 22m
country: France
A cabdriver and a cop race to Paris to rescue a love interest and the Japanese minister of defense from kidnappers.


District 13: Ultimatum
2009 · 1h 41m
country: France
Damien and Leito return to District 13 on a mission to bring peace to the troubled sector that is controlled by five different gang bosses, before the city’s secret services take drastic measures to solve the problem.


Babylon A.D.
2008 · 1h 41m
country: France
A veteran-turned-mercenary is hired to take a young woman with a secret from post-apocalyptic Eastern Europe to New York City.


High Tension
2003 · 1h 31m
country: France
Best friends Marie and Alexia decide to spend a quiet weekend at Alexia's parents' secluded farmhouse. But on the night of their arrival, the girls' idyllic getaway turns into an endless night of horror.


Asterix and the Vikings
2006 · 1h 18m
country: Denmark
Asterix and Obelix have been given a tough mission: Transform the chief's lazy nephew Justforkix into a warrior. When the Vikings abduct him and bring him back to their homeland, Asterix and Obelix must travel to Norway to rescue Justforkix.


Asterix at the Olympic Games
2008 · 1h 56m
country: France
Astérix and Obélix have to win the Olympic Games in order to help their friend Alafolix marry Princess Irina. Brutus uses every trick in the book to have his own team win the game, and get rid of his father Julius Caesar in the process.


La Vie en Rose
2007 · 2h 20m
country: Czech Republic
From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York's most famous concert halls, Edith Piaf's life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in her grandmother's brothel, Piaf was discovered in 1935 by nightclub owner Louis Leplee, who persuaded her to sing despite her extreme nervousness. Piaf became one of France's immortal icons, her voice one of the indelible signatures of the 20th century.


Coco Before Chanel
2009 · 1h 50m
country: Belgium
Several years after leaving the orphanage, to which her father never returned for her, Gabrielle Chanel finds herself working in a provincial bar. She's both a seamstress for the performers and a singer, earning the nickname Coco from the song she sings nightly with her sister. A liaison with Baron Balsan gives her an entree into French society and a chance to develop her gift for designing.


Wasabi
2001 · 1h 34m
country: France
Hubert is a French policeman with very sharp methods. After being forced to take 2 months off by his boss, who doesn't share his view on working methods, he goes back to Japan, where he used to work 19 years ago, to settle the probate of his girlfriend who left him shortly after marriage without a trace.


CQ
2001 · 1h 28m
country: United States
A young filmmaker in 1960s Paris juggles directing a cheesy sci-fi debacle, directing his own personal art film, coping with his crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, and a new-found infatuation with the sci-fi film's starlet.


Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard
2009 · 1h 33m
country: France
Arthur answers a distress call from Princess Selenia, who is menaced by the nefarious Maltazard.


Nada más
2001 · 1h 30m
country: Cuba
Carla, a young postal worker in Havana, spends her days postmarking thousands of letters and dreaming of the day when she can be reunited with her parents, who moved to Miami when she was fifteen. To fulfill her longing for intimacy, she opens random letters and rewrites them into lyrical prose, believing she is helping her fellow Cubans understand one another better. Beautifully filmed in black and white accented by brilliant colours, Nada+ has a stunning visual composition. With its delightful mix of visual humour, theatrical characters, satire and a lighthearted love story, it has a distinctly Cuban flair.
The 2000s ran on digital transition: DV cameras democratized production while CGI reached the point of photorealism. It's also when the fantasy epic and the modern superhero film established their commercial dominance.
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.