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


De Gaulle: Liberté
2026 · 2h 39m · FR
Part two of a two-part biopic following French army officer Charles De Gaulle's life and political commitment between 1940 and 1945, and trace his development towards a political career.


The Pianist
2002 · 2h 30m · FR
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.


De Gaulle: Résistance
2026 · 2h 40m · FR
June, 1940. France collapses and signs the armistice. In the midst of the chaos, one man refuses to give up. Alone against the odds, this unknown general flees to London to save what remains of freedom.


Moulin
2026 · 2h 10m · FR
In June 1943, Jean Moulin, leader of the French Resistance, is arrested while attempting to reunite the forces of the "Armée Secrète." Interrogated by Klaus Barbie, the head of the Gestapo in Lyon, Moulin is drawn into a relentless confrontation.


The Tin Drum
1979 · 2h 42m · FR
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.


The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
1999 · 2h 38m · FR
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.


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.


Forbidden Games
1952 · 1h 27m · FR
Orphaned after a Nazi air raid, Paulette, a young Parisian girl, runs into Michel, an older peasant boy, and the two quickly become close. Together, they try to make sense of the chaotic and crumbling world around them, attempting to cope with death as they create a burial ground for Paulette's deceased pet dog. Eventually, however, Paulette's stay with Michel's family is threatened by the harsh realities of wartime.


Our War
2025 · 1h 18m · FR
Between February and April 2025, filmmakers Bernard-Henri Lévy and Marc Roussel filmed the Pokrovsk and Soumy fronts in eastern Ukraine, following the fighters of the Anne de Kyiv Brigade, armed by France. They filmed the daily lives of the inhabitants, bombarded by Russian forces terrorizing civilians on the eve of possible negotiations. They interview President Zelenskyy, who is reluctant to travel to Washington, and then watch the rebroadcast of the meeting with Ukrainian soldiers in a bunker. For the real heroes are the anonymous fighters and civilians who hold their heads high in the face of adversity and suffering, and who are filmed on a daily basis. The final part of Lévy’s “Ukrainian Quartet”, Our War is a diary, peppered with flashbacks in which the author recalls the high points of this war that began in 2014.


Their Finest
2017 · 1h 57m · FR
During the Blitz of World War II, a female screenwriter works on a film celebrating England's resilience as a way to buoy a weary populace's spirits. Her efforts to dramatise the true story of two sisters who undertook their own maritime mission to rescue wounded soldiers are met with mixed feelings by a dismissive all-male staff.


Opération Turquoise
2007 · FR
No overview available


The Man with the Iron Heart
2017 · 2h · BE
With the Third Reich at its peak in 1942, the Czech resistance in London plans the most ambitious military operation of WWII – Anthropoid. Two young recruits are sent to Prague to assassinate the most ruthless Nazi leader – Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Security Main Office, the Gestapo and the architect of the Final Solution.


The Blizzard
2019 · 11m · AD
Second World War. Marie wakes up wounded and disoriented in a Blizzard. In front, a mysterious forest separates her from her daughter.


Napoléon Bonaparte
1935 · 2h 20m
A re-edited version of Napoléon (1927), with added sound effects, post-dubbed dialogue, and new scenes with new cast members.


Napoleon
1955 · 3h 10m · FR
The film follows the life of Napoleon from his early life in Corsica to his death at Saint Helena. The film is notable for its use of location shooting for numerous scenes, especially at the French estates of Malmaison and Fontainebleau, the Palace of Versailles, and sites of Napoleonic battles including Austerlitz and Waterloo.


Suite Française
2015 · 1h 43m · BE
France, 1940. In the first days of occupation, beautiful Lucile Angellier is trapped in a stifled existence with her controlling mother-in-law as they both await news of her husband: a prisoner of war. Parisian refugees start to pour into their small town, soon followed by a regiment of German soldiers who take up residence in the villagers' own homes. Lucile initially tries to ignore Bruno von Falk, the handsome and refined German officer staying with them. But soon, a powerful love draws them together and leads them into the tragedy of war.


Oradour
2026 · FR
Five days before the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane, Philippe Gerbier, an officer in the Free French Forces, is parachuted in near the village. He is to lead a mission for the Resistance in preparation for the D-Day landings. There, he is reunited with Marie, his childhood sweetheart.


Captain Corelli's Mandolin
2001 · 2h 11m · FR
When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.


The Mayor's Dilemma
1939 · 1h 45m · FR
At the beginning of World War I in a village in the country of La Marne, two families are against the marriage of their children. The war changes the positions.


See You Up There
2017 · 1h 53m · CA
In November 1918, a few days before the Armistice, when Lieutenant Pradelle orders a senseless attack, he causes a useless disaster; but his outrageous act also binds the lives of two soldiers who have nothing more in common than the battlefield: Édouard saves Albert, although at a high cost. They become companions in misfortune who will attempt to survive in a changing world. Pradelle, in his own way, does the same.


Sarah's Key
2010 · 1h 51m · FR
On the night of 16 July 1942, ten year old Sarah and her parents are being arrested and transported to the Velodrome d'Hiver in Paris where thousands of other jews are being sent to get deported. Sarah however managed to lock her little brother in a closet just before the police entered their apartment. Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond, an American journalist in Paris, gets the assignment to write an article about this raid, a black page in the history of France. She starts digging archives and through Sarah's file discovers a well kept secret about her own in-laws.


Casabianca
1951 · 1h 9m · FR
In November of 1942, the French submarine, the "Casabianca,", escapes from German-held Toulon, and, upon joining the Free French forces at Algiers, is sent on a secret mission to Corsica to take two secret-service agents to make contact with the underground there. The agents contact the Marquis resistance forces, and learn they are ready to revolt but lack the needed arms and ammunition. The submarine is sent back to Corscia with the necessary weapons for the resistance-fighters, and also returns with trained troops to assist the resistance forces in attacking the Germans.


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.


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.


Chouans !
1988 · 2h 25m · FR
Directed by Philippe de Broca, the film recounts a bloody episode of the French Revolution. 1793, the Terror . In Vendée and in Bretagne, the chouans are revolting against the young Republic and fight for the monarchy restauration. The civil war divides also the family of the Count Savinien de Kerfadec, a liberal and generous noble and a flying machines inventor.


Paradise Now
2005 · 1h 30m · FR
Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv


Le Pantalon
1997 · 1h 30m · FR
Lucien is a young soldier in the French army during the First World War. Recently married and with a young daughter, his only aim is to get through the war unscathed and get back to his wife and daughter. But this world is turned upside down by a pair of trousers.


Lafayette
1962 · 2h 38m · FR
The story of Lafayette, the 19 year old pacifist who takes the side of the Colonials during the American war of Independence.


Promise at Dawn
2017 · 2h 10m · BE
From his childhood in Poland to his adolescence in Nice to his years as a student in Paris and his tough training as a pilot during World War II, this tragi-comedy tells the romantic story of Romain Gary, one of the most famous French novelists and sole writer to have won the Goncourt Prize for French literature two times.


13 Days, 13 Nights
2025 · 1h 51m · FR
Kabul, August 15, 2021. US troops are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan, while the Taliban are marching on the capital to seize power. Amid the chaos, Commander Mohamed Bida and his men are in charge of security at the French embassy, the last Western mission to remain open. Trapped along with 500 people, left to their own devices, the team must reach the airport at all costs. A perilous mission with no guarantee of success to flee the hell of Kabul and rescue what remains of humanity.


Joyeux Noel
2005 · 1h 56m · BE
France, 1914, during World War I. On Christmas Eve, an extraordinary event takes place in the bloody no man's land that the French and the Scots dispute with the Germans…


A Very Long Engagement
2004 · 2h 13m · FR
Young Frenchwoman Mathilde searches for the truth about her missing fiancé, lost during World War I, and learns many unexpected things along the way. The love of her life is gone. But she refuses to believe he's gone forever — and she needs to know for sure.


The Night of the Generals
1967 · 2h 28m · FR
A German intelligence officer investigates a prostitute's killing in Warsaw during World War II. He lands on three major Nazi generals as suspects, two of whom are also involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.


Special Forces
2011 · 1h 49m · FR
Afghanistan. War correspondent Elsa Casanova is taken hostage by the Taliban. Faced with her imminent execution, a Special Forces unit is dispatched to free her. In some of the world’s most breathtaking yet hostile landscapes, a relentless pursuit begins between her kidnappers who have no intention of letting their prey escape them and a group of soldiers who risk their lives in pursuit of their single aim – to bring her home alive. This strong, independent woman and these men of duty are thrown together and forced to confront situations of great danger that inextricably bind them – emotionally, violently and intimately.


Macbeth
2015 · 1h 53m · FR
Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.


Wooden Crosses
1932 · 1h 50m · FR
The young and patriotic student Demachy joins the French army in 1914 to defend his country. But he and his comrades soon experience the terrifying, endless trench war in Champagne, where more and more wooden crosses have to be erected for this cannon fodder.


Sunflower
1970 · 1h 49m · IT
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?


Grand Illusion
1937 · 1h 54m · FR
A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.


Nomad: The Warrior
2005 · 1h 52m · FR
The Nomad is a historical epic set in 18th-century Kazakhstan. The film is a fictionalised account of the youth and coming-of-age of Ablai Khan, as he grows and fights to defend the fortress at Hazrat-e Turkestan from Dzungar invaders.


The Old Gun
1975 · 1h 43m · FR
In Montauban in 1944, Julien Dandieu is a surgeon in the local hospital. Frightened by the German army entering Montauban, he asks his friend Francois to drive his wife and his daughter in the back country village where Julien has an old castle. One week later, Julien decides to meet them for the week end, but the Germans are already occupying the village.
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.
War films range from combat spectacle to anti-war argument, and often try to be both at once. The genre is a reliable index of how a country understands its own history.