Thriller

Thriller

The French have excelled in thrilling the spectator, recreating Hitchcockian tension like no other nation, through a variety of genres encompassing war, noir, psychological and police/crime thrillers. Cinémoi showcases the finest examples from Gallic masters of suspense, including the towering likes of Claude Chabrol, Henri-Georges Clouzot and Jacques Audiard.

Police Python 357 1976 (125 mins)

Director: Alain Corneau

Simone Signoret and Yves Montand star in Alain Corneau’s thriller about a tough but honest cop who...

Fred 1997 (81 mins)

Director: Pierre Jolivet

Vincent Lindon stars as Fred, an unemployed man who lives in the industrial suburbs of Paris. When...

Rapt 2009 (125 mins)

Director: Lucas Belvaux

Yvan Attal stars as a rich industrialist, kidnapped by a group who demand 50 million Euros for...

Irréversible 2002 (93 mins)

Director: Gaspar Noé

Gaspar Noé’s audacious film is a revenge story told backwards, where we slowly discover the horrific event...

Le Petit lieutenant 2005 (110 mins)

Director: Xavier Beauvois

Bored of dealing with petty crimes, recent police graduate Antoine is brought into the homicide unit due...

Crime Scenes 1999 (97 mins)

Scènes de Crime
Director: Frédéric Schoendoerffer

While investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl, Charles Berling’s and André Dussollier’s forensic cops uncover signs...

A L'Aventure 2008 (102 mins)

Director: Jean-Claude Brisseau

Sandrine, at a crossroads and languishing in life, embarks on a series of sexual encounters and experimentations...

Dobermann 1997 (99 mins)

Director: Jan Kounen

Vincent Cassel is Dobermann, the leader of a brutal gang of robbers being hunted by a policeman,...

The Exterminating Angels 2006 (101 mins)

Les Anges exterminateurs
Director: Jean-Claude Brisseau

A filmmaker holds erotic auditions for his study of female pleasure in another raunchy tale, based on...

Inside Ring 2009 (95 mins)

Le Premier cercle
Director: Laurent Tuel

The young heir of a powerful mafia clan attempts to leave the family business, but not without...

Immortal 2004 (99 mins)

Director: Enki Bilal

Set in New York in 2095, Enki Bilial's original and thought provoking Scince fiction epic features Charlotte...

Arsène Lupin 1994 (125 mins)

The Adventures of Arsène Lupin
Director: Jean-Paul Salomé

Based on the French literary equivalent of Sherlock Holmes, this fast-paced period romp sees the daring jewel...

Secret Agents 2004 (105 mins)

Director: Frédéric Schoendoerffer

On a mission in Casablanca, a crack team of secret agents find themselves framed and fighting for...

Verso 2009 (100 mins)

Director: Xavier Ruiz

When his ex-partner is released from prison and becomes a mafia henchman, cop Laurent Lucas (Harry He’s...

High Lane 2009 (82 mins)

Vertiges
Director: Abel Ferry

Five young mountain climbers, on the trail of adventure, take a risky detour along a prohibited route,...

MR 73 2008 (120 mins)

Director: Olivier Marchal

A seemingly washed-out cop is offered one final chance of redemption in Olivier Marchal’s closing chapter of...

The Second Wind 2007 (150 mins)

Le Deuxième souffle
Director: Alain Corneau

An all-star cast light up the late Alain Corneau’s pulsating thriller about Daniel Auteuil’s escaped gangster looking...

The Army of Crime 2009 (139 mins)

L’Armée du crime
Director: Robert Guédiguian

An Armenian poet leads a group of immigrants in guerrilla attacks against Nazi occupiers in Robert Guédiguian’s...

Rivals 2008 (103 mins)

Les Liens du sang
Director: Jacques Maillot

Jacques Maillot’s stylish, retro rip-ride through the dirty and irresistible underworld of dirty cops and erratic criminals...

In the Electric Mist 2009 (117 mins)

the director's cut
Director: Bertrand Tavernier

Veteran actor Tommy Lee Jones meets France’s most revered auteur, Bertrand Tavernier, in this superior psychological thriller...

Le Corps de mon ennemi 1976 (118 mins)

Body of My Enemy
Director: Henri Verneuil

Nightclub owner Jean-Paul Belmondo is the wrong man accused of the murder of a prostitute and football...

Canicule 1984 (101 mins)

Dog Day
Director: Yves Boisset
On the run from the police, American gangster Jimmy Cobb hides out in a secluded farm with...

Landru 1963 (115 mins)

Director: Claude Chabrol

WW1 - Henri-Désiré Landru discovers a way of feeding his struggling family: seducing lonely, rich women. Claude...

Assassins 1997 (127 mins)

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

Mathieu Kassovitz directs Michel Serrault as an aging assassin desperate to impart his fatalistic wisdom to Max,...

Docteur Petiot 1990 (100 mins)

Director:

Michel Serrault gives a chilling performance in the title role as a Doctor during WWII, luring Jewish...

On ne meurt que deux fois 1985 (95 mins)

Director: Jacques Deray

Jacques Deray (La Piscine) directs Michel Serrault and Charlotte Rampling in a stylish noir thriller about a...

Swimming Pool 2003 (93 mins)

Director: François Ozon

Charlotte Rampling is a writer attempting to complete her latest novel in the south of France, until...

Army of Shadows 1969 (138 mins)

L'Armée des ombres
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville

Jean-Pierre Melville’s depiction of the bleak life endured by a group of French resistance fighters and their...

Le Silence 2004 (100 mins)

Director: Orso Miret

When Olivier (Mathieu Demy) witnesses a murder committed by one of his friends, he must keep his...

Belphégor: Phantom of the Louvre 2001 (97 mins)

Belphégor, le fantôme du Louvre
Director: Jean-Paul Salomé

Sophie Marceau and Michel Serrault star in Jean-Paul Salomé’s adaptation of Arthur Bernède’s renowned tale of a...

Le Cercle Rouge 1970 (140 mins)

The Red Circle
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville

Jean-Pierre Melville’s penultimate film is widely regarded as a masterpiece of crime cinema, with Alain Delon and...

Un Flic 1972 (98 mins)

Dirty Money
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville

In his final feature, Jean- Pierre Melville reunites with Alain Delon, in the story of a wary...

Place Vendome 1998 (108 mins)

Director: Nicole Garcia

Catherine Deneuve, Jacques Dutronc and Emmanuelle Seigner lead a powerhouse cast in Nicole Garcia’s atmospheric noir about...

Gangsters 2002 (90 mins)

Director: Olivier Marchal

Olivier Marchal (36) directs Anne Parillaud (Nikita) in an action-packed heist thriller. Richard Anconina co-stars. (2002)

...

Body Snatch 2003 (101 mins)

Corps à corps
Director: Francois Hanss

Emmanuelle Seigner (La vie en rose) stars in an unnerving thriller about a couple who meet in...

Un honnête commerçant 2002 (84 mins)

Director: Philippe Blasband

As a famiy is found murdered, the police investigate the suspect Hubert Verkamen, whose business deals are...

See How They Fall 1994 (100 mins)

Regarde les hommes tomber
Director: Jacques Audiard

Jacques Audiard’s prized debut is a taut thriller about a man seeking vengeance for the murder of...

The Night is Young 1986 (116 mins)

Mauvais Sang
Director: Leos Carax

A mysterious virus threatens all the lovers of Paris. Leos Carax’s visually stunning, darkly evocative second feature,...

Mon Idole 2002 (110 mins)

Director: Guillaume Canet

Guillaume Canet directs and stars in this darkly comic thriller about the TV world’s high-flyers and the...

The Key 2007 (115 mins)

La Clef
Director: Guillaume Nicloux

Guillaume Nicloux's taut thriller sees Guillaume Canet paying the price for the shady dealings of his late...

Neither For Nor Against 2003 (111 mins)

Ni Pour, Ni Contre
Director: Cédric Klapisch

Through her latest report, a camerawoman finds herself embroiled in the criminal underworld and takes an unexpected...

Dante 01 2008 (88 mins)

Director: Marc Caro

Marc Caro’s (of Delicatessen fame) first solo feature is a dystopian sci-fi adventure set on a prison...

Laissez-passer 2002 (170 mins)

Safe Conduct
Director: Bertrand Tavernier

Bertrand Tavernier’s powerful wartime thriller examines the conflict between Collaborators and Resistants working in the French film...

Harry He's Here to Help 2000 (117 mins)

Harry un ami qui vous veut du bien
Director: Dominik Moll

Domink Moll’s cult psychological thriller about a man’s chance encounter with a childhood friend, which will make...

I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed 2005 (102 mins)

J'ai vu tuer Ben Barka
Director: Serge Le Péron

Serge Le Péron’s film examines one of the key figures of the anti-colonial movement in this political...

Roberto Succo 2001 (124 mins)

Director: Cédric Kahn

Cédric Kahn’s critically acclaimed film based on the true story of the eponymous Italian serial killer, who...

Cavale 2003 (110 mins)

On The Run
Director: Lucas Belvaux

Dialogue is kept to a minimum In Part One of this gripping trilogy.  After...

Cortex 2008 (105 mins)

Director: Nicolas Boukhrief

When his suspicions  that a criminal is on the loose in his nursing home fall on deaf...

The Vanishing Point 2007 (80 mins)

Ce que mes yeux ont vu
Director: Laurent de Bartillat

A young student sets out to solve the mystery of a series of paintings by a 19th...

Rendez-Vous 1985 (82 mins)

Director: André Téchiné

Nina, a wannabe actress from the provinces, must brave the violent underworld of Paris in her quest...

The Right Of The Weakest 2006 (116 mins)

La Raison Du Plus Faible
Director: Lucas Belvaux

Accalimed director Lucas Belvaux injects measured doses of social commentary and comedy in his innovative take on...

36 2004 (110 mins)

36 Quai des Orfèvres
Director: Olivier Marchal

Olivier Marchal’s heavy-weight police drama pits Gérard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil against each other as senior officers...

Vidocq 2001 (100 mins)

Director: Pitof

A lavish science fiction fantasy set in 19th century Paris, with Gérard Depardieu as famed detective Vidocq...

Nightshift 2001 (95 mins)

Trois huit
Director: Philippe Le Guay

The contented life of family man Pierre is turned upside down once he starts a night shift...

Le Lieu du crime 1986 (88 mins)

The Scene of the Crime
Director: André Téchiné

In a small village in the south west of France, Thomas (Nicolas Giraudi), a fourteen year old...

The Colour of Lies 1999 (109 mins)

Au coeur du mensonge
Director: Claude Chabrol

In a sleepy town on the coast of Brittany, a young girl leaves her art teacher’s house...

See the Sea 1997 (52 mins)

Regarde La Mer
Director: François Ozon

Sasha (Sasha Hails), a young English woman, goes on holiday with baby daughter in tow to her...

Poulet au vinaigre 1985 (105 mins)

Director: Claude Chabrol

Claude Chabrol’s classic hard-boiled police thriller gives birth to the infamous inspector Lavardin, a cop who will...

Inspecteur Lavardin 1986 (97 mins)

Director: Claude Chabrol

Following the success of Poulet au vinaigre, director Claude Chabrol and actor Jean Poiret bring back the...

Out of Life 1991 (97 mins)

Hors la vie
Director: Maroun Bagdadi

Maroun Bagdadi’s 1991 film bears witness to the seemingly interminable Lebanese war through the eyes of a...

Merci pour le chocolat 2000 (97 mins)

Director: Claude Chabol

Jeanne Pollet (Anna Mouglalis), a young piano student, discovers there’s a faint possibility that she was switched...

Rien ne va plus 1997 (102 mins)

Director: Claude Chabrol

Betty (Isabelle Huppert), a woman in her thirties, and Victor (Michel Serrault), a sexagenarian, form an unlikely...

Masques 1987 (97 mins)

Director: Claude Chabrol

Philippe Noiret scintillates as a popular game show host, who, beneath an amiable mask, appears to be...

Weekend à Zuydcoote 1964 (119 mins)

Weekend at Dunkirk
Director: Henri Verneuil

Set in June 1940, Henri Verneuil’s Second World War film depicts the struggle of British and French...

Plein Soleil 1959 (115 mins)

Director: René Clément

Alain Delon stars in his debut leading role as Tom Ripley, a young American who is paid...

A Double tour 1959 (94 mins)

Director: Claude Chabrol

His third feature in as many years, the prolific and exciting upstart Claude Chabrol followed his acclaimed...

Capitaine Conan 1996 (129 mins)

Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier won the Best Director César for this powerful and unusual wartime drama exploring the psychological...

Clean Slate 1981 (128 mins)

Coup de torchon
Director: Bertrand Tavernier

Bertrand Tavernier’s wonderfully dark tale about a disrespected constable who reaches breaking point. Set in colonial Africa,...

Le Poulpe 1998 (100 mins)

Director: Guillaume Nicloux

Jean-Pierre Darroussin excels as the ‘Le Pouple’, a humourous hero who sets out to investigate the desecration...

A Self-Made Hero 1996 (107 mins)

Un héros très discret
Director: Jacques Audiard

Mathieu Kassovitz stars in Jacques Audiard’s award-winning World War 2 drama with shades of dark humour about...

Les Voleurs 1996 (117 mins)

Director: André Techiné
André Téchiné’s intelligent thriller stars Catherine Deneuve, Daniel Auteuil and Laurence Côte as a lecturer, cop and...

L.627 1992 (145 mins)

Director: Bertrand Tavernier

Inspector Lucien Marguet (Didier Bezace) is transferred to another department following a failed police raid. Bored with...

Le Cousin 1997 (112 mins)

Director: Alain Corneau

They say police officers are only as good as their informants. However, following a scandal, the judge...

Vivement Dimanche

Vivement Dimanche! 1983 (110 mins)

Confidentially Yours
Director: François Truffaut

Truffaut’s last film, sadly he died of cancer a year later, confidently boasts the director’s mastery of...

My Son 2007 (90 mins)

Mon fils à moi
Director: Martial Fougeron

Martial Fougeron’s first feature is a powerful family drama with a disarming effect.

...

Burnt Out 2006 (90 mins)

Sauf le respect que je vous dois
Director: Fabienne Godot

A former psycho-sociologist, Fabienne Godot delivers a film that is part psychological drama, part thriller.

...

La Haine 1994 (95 mins)

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

Responsible for causing a scandal on its domestic release, this bruising portrait of disaffected youth confirmed its...

The Flower of Evil 2002 (104 mins)

La Fleur du mal
Director: Claude Chabrol

Chabrol has such a natural affinity to stories of murder and intrigue set among the provincial bourgeois...

Lift to the Scaffold 1957 (88 mins)

Ascenseur pour l’échafaud
Director: Louis Malle

Louis Malle’s debut must rank as one of the greatest in cinema and thoroughly deserved its prestigious...

In His Hands 2004 (90 mins)

Entre ses mains
Director: Anne Fontaine

In His Hands is an unnerving thriller with a nod to Hitchcock’s Suspicion.

...

Mon Colonel 2006 (111 mins)

Director: Laurent Herbiet

A "Reformed Colonel" is found dead in Paris, a couple of decades after Algeria's War.

...

Lady Jane 2008 (105 mins)

Director: Robert Guédiguian

Francois, Rene and Muriel used to rob banks in the 1980s.

...

Shoot the Pianist 1960 (92 mins)

Tirez sur le Pianiste
Director: François Truffaut

Combines the style of American film noir with all the mood twists, visual jokes and camera techniques...

Counter Investigation 2007 (85 mins)

Contre Enquête
Director: Franck Mancuso

A cop investigates whether the man convicted of murdering his daughter is really guilty.

...

Le Petit Voleur 1999 (65 mins)

Director: Erick Zonca

A young man from the countryside of Marseille comes to the city, hoping to find a job....

La Squale 2000 (100 mins)

Director: Fabrice Genestal

Released in 2000, Fabrice Genestal’s film explores the systematic violence embedded within France’s deprived suburban ghettos. Inspired...

Heartbeat Detector 2007 (143 mins)

La Question Humaine
Director: Nicolas Klotz

Simon Kessler, is assigned the task of assessing whether the company’s CEO is unfit to do his...

The Gamblers 2004 (85 mins)

Les Mauvais Joueurs
Director: Frédéric Balekdjian

His father’s family store is riddled with debts, the scams he carries out with his brother Toros,...

Ma 6-T va crack-er 1996 (105 mins)

Director: Jean-François Richet

Jean- François Richet’s explosive film about life in the downtrodden suburbs of Paris carries a pertinent message...

La Cérémonie 1995 (107 mins)

A Judgement in Stone
Director: Claude Chabrol

Claude Chabrol’s masterful thriller depicts the tension between a wealthy housewife and her domestic servant. Starring Sandrine...