30 French Movies to Put on Your Must-Watch List This September
Learning French with movies is always fun! Here are 30 must-watch French movies for September. Check out our list here.
On this page
Day 1: La Religieuse (The Nun)Day 2: Le silence de Lorna (Lorna’s Silence)Day 3: Désengagement (Disengagement)Day 4: Rue des Plaisirs (Love Street)Day 5: La Délicatesse (Delicacy)Day 6: Gainsbourg: A Heroic LifeDay 7: Lady ChatterleyDay 8: Le Chat du rabbin (The Rabbi’s Cat)Day 9: Moi, CésarDay 10: Arthur et la vengeance de MaltazardDay 11: CopacabanaDay 12: Quand j’étais chanteur (Singer)Day 13: Le Papillon (The Butterfly)Day 14: La Tourneuse de pages (The Page Turner)Day 15: À tout de suite (2004)Day 16: À ce soir (Nelly)Day 17: La Belle et la Bête / Beauty and the BeastDay 18: Rois et Reine (Kings and Queen)Day 19: Les Poupées RussesDay 20: Chinese Puzzle (Casse-tête chinois)Day 21: Cloclo (My Way) 2012Day 22: De vrais mensonges (Beautiful Lies)Day 23: Boarding GateDay 24: Le fils de l’épicier (The Grocer’s Son)Day 25: La Question humaine (Heartbeat Detector)Day 26: Jacquou le CroquantDay 27: L’Avocat de la terreur (Terror’s Advocate)Day 28: Les Boîtes (Boxes)Day 29: Le Fils de l’AutreDay 30: Le Petit Poucet (Tom Thumb)ConclusionBonjour! I hope you are still doing well despite all the heat and sweat from summer. September will soon usher in Autumn, rainy days, and the back-to-school routine.
Nevertheless, there is still room for a French movie or two each day right after work or school, right? So, here are some French movies to watch.
See also: How to Learn French with Movies in 7 Easy Steps
Day 1: La Religieuse (The Nun)
Directed by: Guillaume Nicloux
Written by: Guillaume Nicloux and Jérôme Beaujour; based on the novel by Denis Diderot.
Year: 2013
Who is supposed to pay for the sins of our parents? This is the main moral dilemma that the young Suzanne Simonin faces when she is forced to enter a convent after her parents reveal that she is a daughter from an extramarital affair.
An adaptation of Diderot’s novel, The Nun tells the story of a young daughter who is trying to resist the imposed religious values and dogmas, as well as the dehumanizing punishment of her rebellious attempt to free herself from being a complete nun. The film is quite controversial for its portrayal of the life inside a convent and the sacrifices of the voiceless daughters imprisoned in their predestined fates.
Day 2: Le silence de Lorna (Lorna’s Silence)
Directed and written by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Year: 2008
Sokol and Lorna dream of living in Belgium and opening a snack bar, but they need money and resident status before they can realize their dreams. In order for this to happen, Lorna has to agree to a sham marriage with Claudy, a junkie, under the guidance of a taxi driver and aspiring gang boss, Fabio. Eventually the two get married and Lorna receives her Belgian citizenship.
After their marriage, Fabio introduces them to Andrei, a Russian mafioso who will pay a hearty sum of money to them if Lorna will marry him. As part of the plan, Fabio intends to kill Claudy, but Lorna is against it. Will Lorna be able to remain silent as Fabio plots the death of Claudy?
This masterpiece of the Dardenne brothers is a somewhat feminist tale of survival in a silent but brutal world of murder, gangs, and money. The movie slowly reveals the emotional and psychological turmoil of a woman who is trapped in the middle of this type of world.
Day 3: Désengagement (Disengagement)
Directed by: Amos Gitai
Written by: Amos Gitai, Marie-José Sanselme
Year: 2007
Amos Gitai used Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as the main theme of his 2007 fictional film, Disengagement.
Disengagement is a political drama circling around the life of Ana, a woman who lives in France. At her father’s funeral in Avignon, she reconnects with Uli, her Israeli half-brother and a police officer. After learning where her long-lost daughter lives, she travels with him to the Gaza settlements to find her.
Disengagement focuses on family relationships, on the frenzy and confusion of the religious settlers inside the settlement areas in Gaza, and the cold-blooded policemen who treat these people inhumanely.
Day 4: Rue des Plaisirs (Love Street)
Directed by: Patrice Leconte
Written by: Serge Frydman
Year: 2002
Marion is a girl with a big dream. She wants to become a famous singer but she has to work in a brothel. Petit Louis is the son of a prostitute who grew up inside a brothel with a family of prostitutes and eventually became the handyman of the house. He falls in love with the new girl, Marion, but like in Cyrano de Bergerac, his talents and skills are not enough to solve his lack of macho charisma that Marion is looking for.
He tries to be her knight in shining armor, but as expected she finds a perfect mate in the image of Dimitri Josco, a smuggler, black-marketer and a thief who is constantly on the run from the government and a crime syndicate. When the government shuts down the brothel, Marion, Petit Louis and Dimitri find themselves in a twisted life of chance, fame and romance.
Day 5: La Délicatesse (Delicacy)
Directed by: David Foenkinos, Stéphane Foenkinos
Written by: David Foenkinos
Year: 2011
You think you already have all the happiness in this world, then one day, everything is gone. It is like the end of the world for you, and your only resort is your work and nothing else. You start to bury yourself in work and put aside even your own health. This is the life of Nathalie after she finds herself widowed after meeting her soul mate.
One day, she meets Markus, an average looking office guy but a nice person. At first, Markus as well as the people around them cannot believe the extra attention that Nathalie is giving to him, but Nathalie is sincere about it. Can Nathalie and Markus win over their own self-doubts and the judgmental perspectives of the people around them? Foenkinos’ Delicacy is another romantic dish for a heartwarming night after a long day of work.
Day 6: Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
Directed and written by: Joann Sfar
Year: 2010
“Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life” is a biopic interpretation of the life of the 1960s pop star Serge Gainsbourg by the excellent comic artist Joann Sfar. The film follows the life of the singer from his childhood years in Nazi-occupied France, through his early years as a painter and jazz musician, to his life as a popular singer-songwriter, and as a notorious bon vivant and a lover of some of the world’s gorgeous women like Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin. His artistic relationship with Juliette Gréco also features in the film.
The film is an ironic representation of its title: “ Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life”, and the narcissistic and womanizing life of our star, Gainsbourg.
Day 7: Lady Chatterley
Directed by: Pascale Ferran
Written by: Pascale Ferran and Roger Bohbot
Year: 2006
Based on the scandalous novel by D. H. Lawrence, the second version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Ferran’s film is an erotic tale of a married woman who finds herself in an affair with another man. Constance Chatterley is married to Sir Clifford Chatterley who has been paralyzed from the waist down due to an injury he suffered fighting in World War I.
Even if Constance loves her husband, she is still young in her mid-twenties, and her youth leads her into the temptations of adultery when she sees Parkin half-dressed while washing himself. Parkin is the estate’s gamekeeper. Constance and Parkin, attracted to each other, become lovers, and Constance finally desires the simple life with Parkin, but they have to acknowledge that their actions are wrong and their love is a sin in the eyes of everybody.
So if you are looking for French affair movies, this one can be on your list!
Day 8: Le Chat du rabbin (The Rabbi’s Cat)
Directed by: Joann Sfar; Antoine Delesvaux
Written by: Sandrina Jardel and Joann Sfar
Year: 2011
Another movie by Joann Sfar, The Rabbi’s Cat is a film about God, Tradition, Faith, Journey, Religion and Philosophy. It is a film both for kids and adults, as Director Sfar created a fully animated film with a very meaningful story about a talking cat.
The talking cat is owned by The Rabbi and his daughter, Zlabya. The cat is very funny to watch while it sardonically discusses different points of view about faith and life with his owner and future colleagues as he embarks on a search for the truth.
Day 9: Moi, César
Directed by: Richard Berry
Written by: Richard Berry; Éric Assous
Year: 2003
A story of a young boy living an ordinary life in Paris who seeks to add more colors and adventures to his life, Moi, César talks about childhood fantasies and stories of friendship. It is a great movie for families, because of its touch of childhood.
César is the main character of the story, who craves more excitement than what he already experiences. In order to find more fun, he and his two friends, Morgan and Sarah, set off on an adventure to find Morgan’s father. Each one of them tells his/ her parents that s/he will stay at the other’s house, and they sneak out to begin their search. On the downside, the story has some disadvantages for children, because the film gives parents an idea of what their children’s night out might really be like.
Day 10: Arthur et la vengeance de Maltazard
Directed by: Luc Besson
Written by: Luc Besson
Year: 2009
Another movie for the kids! Arthur et la Vengeance de Maltazard is an animation about sparkling fairies, omens, and monsters, which make for a great family movie time at the weekend. On one hand, if you are a geek or a techie person, the film will disappoint you because of its lack of sophistication with its graphics. On the other, if you are just looking for child-friendly entertainment, Arthur is a good choice.
Arthur receives a distress call, which he believes is from Princess Sélénia, through a grain of rice delivered by a spider. Princess Sélénia is the princess of the Minimoys. Arthur enters their world in a miniaturized size to rescue the village, but by the time he reaches the other world, Maltazard is striking in his real world.
Day 11: Copacabana
Directed and written by: Marc Fitoussi
Year: 2010
What is the essence of motherhood? How could a mother be considered a dutiful mother? Does she have to let go of her own happiness and look reserved and respected in the eyes of society just to be honored?
Copacabana shows a bold, unconventional and cheerful Babou played by the legendary Isabelle Huppert. She is a mother and a free-spirited woman. She thinks her liberated personality is cool in the eyes of the people, until she reaches a realization. Her daughter is ashamed of her and refuses to invite her to her wedding. This hurts Babou greatly and she wants to retrieve the love and respect of her daughter, so she works hard to prove her real worth.
Day 12: Quand j’étais chanteur (Singer)
Directed and written by: Xavier Giannoli
Year: 2006
Alain Moreau is a small-time ballad singer in one of the few remaining dance-bands in Clermont-Ferrand. Meanwhile, his advancing years and the changing of the music trends of the time make the size of his audience slowly decrease, and they fear that his days under the spotlight are already numbered. One day, he meets Marion, an attractive but much younger woman. He falls in love with her, but she seems distant and troubled. Will Alain’s ballad gradually open Marion’s heart?
Quand j’étais chanteur is an unusual love story, and goes beyond the typical sweet and cheesy young romance.
Day 13: Le Papillon (The Butterfly)
Directed and written by: Philippe Muyl
Year: 2002
The Butterfly is the story of an eight-year-old Elsa and her growing fondness for butterflies after she and her mom move to an apartment next to an old entomologist. Julien is an old man who is not fond of children, but a very passionate butterfly collector. Since Elsa is often left alone in the house, she starts to visit Julien every day. The two develop a friendship over time, but when Julien sets out to look for a rare type of butterfly, he finds Elsa hiding inside his car.
Left with no other option, he allows Elsa to tag along, but her mom, unaware of their location, worries that she has been kidnapped, so she reports her absence to the police station. Will Julien and Elsa’s growing friendship end here?
Day 14: La Tourneuse de pages (The Page Turner)
Directed and written by: Denis Dercourt
Year: 2006
The Page Turner is our musical entry for this month. Mélanie Prouvost aspires to be a pianist, so she tries her luck at entering a Musical Conservatory to hone her skills. Prior to officially entering the conservatory, she has to audition first in front of a famous pianist Ariane Fouchécourt, but Ariane signs an autograph during her recital, thus distracting Mélanie and her performance.
After some years, Mélanie and Ariane meet again, but in a completely reversed scenario. Ariane is now worried about her skills and talent to perform well. She is now different from the old confident Ariane, and Mélanie will now be her aide as her personal Page Turner.
Day 15: À tout de suite (2004)
Directed by: Benoît Jacquot
Written by: Benoît Jacquot; based on the memoir by Élisabeth Fanger
Year: 2004
For day 15, a crime film is on the go. À tout de suite by Benoît Jacquot is about a young bourgeois woman who falls in love with a bank robber and follows him on the run after a robbery goes wrong. Lili is a free-spirited Bohemian art student before she joins the roller coaster life of big-time robbers running across Spain, Morocco and Greece. As Lili explores the life of running and hiding, she will bewitch everybody with her incredible journey of self-discovery.
À tout de suite is an erotically charged thriller shot in gorgeous black-and-white photography that makes the film look like a documentary, thus more realistic.
Day 16: À ce soir (Nelly)
Directed by: Laure Duthilleul
Written by: Laure Duthilleul, Jean-Pol Fargeau, Pierre-Erwan Guillaume
Year: 2004
Nelly is a movie for people looking for a light drama film to spend the rest of the night. It is about the four days of grieving of Nelly after the death of her husband. Her husband is the town’s doctor and she is a nurse. With her children and relatives who travel just to console them during some of the darkest days of their lives, Nelly tries her best to be strong in front of her family.
Day 17: La Belle et la Bête / Beauty and the Beast
Directed and written by: Jean Cocteau
Year: 1946
Jean Cocteau adapted one of the famous children’s stories, “Beauty and the Beast”. Similar to the story in the book, the movie revolves around the unexpected love of Beauty (Belle) and Beast. La Belle et la Bête stars Josette Day as Beauty and Jean Marais as Beast.
When Beauty’s father picks a flower in Beast’s garden, he is told that he must die. Beauty will not allow this to happen, and so the brave daughter returns to Beast’s castle in her father’s place. The Beast falls in love and asks her to marry him. She refuses his love since she is courted by the handsome Avenant, who is also played by Jean Marais. Eventually, Beauty falls for the strange Beast, but will the Beast’s curse ever be lifted?
The film shows a story of love, passion, commitment, and trust.
Day 18: Rois et Reine (Kings and Queen)
Directed by: Arnaud Desplechin
Written by: Roger Bohbot and Arnaud Desplechin
Year: 2004
Rois et Reine is a promising film about the poetry of life; the rich, melodramatic, and sometimes comedic situations that intertwine our lives with each other. Rois et Reine revolves around the lives of former couple Nora Cotterelle and Ismaël Vuillard. Nora is supposed to marry for the third time, but her son has an uneasy relationship with her fiancé so she seeks the help of her second husband, Ismaël. Moreover, Nora is also troubled with her father’s sickness. With her unusual proposition, she hopes that Ismaël will take the bait and help her solve her problems. Rois et Reine is a wonderful story of the complexities of life and our attempts to solve them which only bury us deeper in this complexity.
Day 19: Les Poupées Russes
Directed and written by: Cédric Klapisch
Year: 2005
You might have read about L’Auberge Espagnole in one of the previous movie articles on this site. It is the first chapter of Klapisch’s Spanish Apartment trilogy.
For the second chapter, Les Poupées Russes continues to tell the story of Xavier in his thirties. He is no longer a student, but is not yet a stable and fulfilled adult. With no stable income and unable to fulfill his dream of becoming a novelist yet, he also lives a happy-go-lucky life filled with one-night stands and flings. He cannot keep the right women and lets them slip through his hands all the time. Will he ever set his life in the right direction?
Day 20: Chinese Puzzle (Casse-tête chinois)
Directed and written by: Cédric Klapisch
Year: 2013
After watching the second chapter of the Spanish Apartment trilogy, you may now continue to the third chapter: Chinese Puzzle or Casse-tête chinois. Chinese Puzzle is about the now 40-year-old and separated Xavier. Xavier now has two kids without whom he cannot live. However, his wife is bound to move to New York with his two children.
So, Xavier who cannot bear to live far away from his children sets off to New York. This time, his goal is not just to move closer to his children, but to salvage his family.
Day 21: Cloclo (My Way) 2012
Directed by: Florent-Emilio Siri
Written by: Julien Rappeneau
Year: 2012
Cloclo is a biopic of the French popstar and songwriter Claude François. He might not be as famous as Frank Sinatra, but he co-wrote the French song Comme d’habitude, which became My Way with English lyrics by Paul Anka. The film traces the life of François from his childhood days in Egypt, his rise to stardom, and his untimely death in the late 1970s.
The title of the film Cloclo is based on François’s nickname, while the international name of the film is adapted from the title of the song popularized by Frank Sinatra: “My Way”.
Day 22: De vrais mensonges (Beautiful Lies)
Directed by: Pierre Salvadori
Written by: Benoît Graffin and Pierre Salvadori
Year: 2010
The story of a mother, a daughter and a secret admirer, working their way to find and give love. Beautiful Lies revolves around the story of Emilie, the daughter, who acts as cupid for her secret admirer and her mother. Since Emilie’s mother, Maddy is depressed because of her last bad marriage, Emilie thought of an idea about how to make her happy again.
Emilie receives a letter from a secret admirer, but she is not interested in love, so a great idea pops into her mind. She will send a copy of the letter to her mom. Consequently, she is not aware that her secret admirer is her handyman who has way way more knowledge than her. Maddy on one hand is determined to find the real author of the letters and eventually find love. But how could a lie, even if it is a white lie, create love and happiness?
Day 23: Boarding Gate
Directed and written by: Olivier Assayas
Year: 2007
Boarding Gate will give you an adrenaline rush with its thrill-packed plots and characters. It shows how power plays out in the lives of its characters and how treacherous the underworld is.
Sandra is artistically played by Asia Argento as a former prostitute who wants to open a nightclub business. She is entangled with Miles who is a pimp and a businessman. Separated but brought back together, Sandra and Miles indulge in a steamy relationship that makes the audience go wild with feelings of passion.
Day 24: Le fils de l’épicier (The Grocer’s Son)
Directed by: Éric Guirado
Written by: Florence Vignon, Éric Guirado
Year: 2007
Are you now in the stage of your life when you are starting to reflect on the things you have done so far? You are thinking of your accomplishments and your status in life, and then you realize that you haven’t done anything valuable yet, or accomplished as much as you were hoping to five or ten years ago.
Antoine Sforza is a thirty-year-old man who left his village ten years ago to start a new life in the big city. Ten years later, he has to return to his village, when his father is hospitalized after a heart attack, to run his father’s mobile grocery van.
Day 25: La Question humaine (Heartbeat Detector)
Directed by: Nicolas Klotz
Written by: Élisabeth Perceval; based on the novel by François Emmanuel
Year: 2007
La Question Humaine is not a film for people who are just looking for mere entertainment. It might, in fact, bore some people because some of its messages are difficult to grasp. However, La Question Humaine is one provocative film that will make you reflect on yourself, your parents, your past, the corporate world around us, and its connection to our cruel history.
The film stars Mathieu Amalric as Simon Kessler, the company psychologist in human resources. He is given a task to investigate Mathias Jüst, the CEO of the company. Along the way, Kessler discovers that Jüst’s father headed a Nazi extermination group during World War II. La Question Humaine tries to compare present-day corporate management and the Holocaust. From the company’s internal silent war to the Holocaust, the film compares and contrasts the corporate notion of downsizing and Nazi authority.
Day 26: Jacquou le Croquant
Directed by: Laurent Boutonnat
Written by: Laurent Boutonnat and Franck Moisnard
Year: 2007
Jacquou le Croquant is a period drama about a revolt against the Count of Nansac. The revolt is headed by Jacquou, a young peasant whose father is accused of killing servants of the cruel and arrogant nobleman. The film is based on the novel by Eugène Le Roy set in Dordogne during the Bourbon Restoration making it partly historical and fictional: good for family bonding.
Classy and vintage in terms of cinematography. Your mind will surely single out this movie immediately.
Day 27: L’Avocat de la terreur (Terror’s Advocate)
Directed and written by: Barbet Schroeder
Year: 2007
Jacques Vergès was one of the famous figures during the Algerian war because of his confusing moral principles. He was a lawyer who wouldn’t choose a party list to stick with; he defended clients from opposing political camps, including anti-colonialist activists and Nazi war criminals. As an anti-colonialist, he defended the cause of his future wife, Djamila Bouhired, who was accused of planting bombs in cafes. He disappeared for almost eight years and when he emerged again, he started to defend notorious terrorists and Nazi war criminals.
Jacques is an intriguing personality like his mixing of law with politics and power plays. The film exposes his hidden connections and the reasons that pushed him to become a fearsome “devil’s advocate”.
Day 28: Les Boîtes (Boxes)
Directed and written by: Jane Birkin
Year: 2007
The main purpose of boxes is to store things, yet sometimes, they upgrade to a more meaningful value for us. For us, they seem like nothing but a box, but for some people they secure memories and dreams. For instance, Anna, a woman in her fifties who has been through three marriages, keeps boxes for the sake of keeping memories from her past relationships. Consequently, by keeping these boxes, Anna is also keeping herself imprisoned by the memories of the past.
Day 29: Le Fils de l’Autre
Directed by: Lorraine Lévy
Written by: Nathalie Saugeon, Lorraine Lévy and Noam Fitoussi
Year: 2012
Lorraine Lévy takes her humanitarian efforts to a new level. She uses film to relate to us a moral dilemma which makes us reflect on our own perceptions about people in different religions or worse, in an enemy’s camp. Her 2012 movie, Le Fils de l’Autre revolves around two families whose sons were accidentally switched when the hospital they were born in was bombed. The story highlights the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by featuring Israeli and Palestinian families looking for ways to support the two sons as they confront their new identities. The problem here is whether xenophobia will continue to exist while they try to connect with their real identities.
Day 30: Le Petit Poucet (Tom Thumb)
Directed and written by: Olivier Dahan
Year: 2001
Tom Thumb is a revival of a classic French fairy tale “Le Petit Poucet” by Charles Perrault. This film follows the life of a boy who has been treated badly by his parents and bullied by his brothers. In a time of war, they are left in an enchanted forest where they have to survive encounters with dangerous predators lurking around the dark corners.
Conclusion
Watching movies is a great way to relax and learn at the same time. These thirty French movies I compiled for the month of September are good tools to improve your skills in the French language, while learning new things about French culture and discovering new insights about life, love, friendship and family in general.
P.S: As always sharing is caring 🙂