If the Shoe Fits (1990)
May 12, 2004Modernised Cinderella
A modernised retelling of the Cinderella story that is set in the Paris fashion world starring with Jennifer Grey as a lowly seamstress falling for self-important fashion designer Rob Lowe
Canal+
Prospero’s Books (1991)
Aug 3, 2000Shakespeare Adaptation
Peter Greenaway gets loose on Shakespeare's The Tempest, indulging his obsessions with lists and multimedia visuals while the costume department goes completely over-the-top
Dark at Noon (1992)
Jun 3, 2001Village of Miracles/Surrealism
Incomprehensible surrealism from director Raul Ruiz about a doctor sent to investigate a village where miracles occur with commonplace regularity
The Vagrant (1992)
Apr 1, 2021Yuppie Tormented by a Homeless Man
Directorial outing from makeup effects artist Chris Walas who created the Gremlins and Cronenberg's The Fly. This Bill Paxton as a Yuppie who buys a home and is driven paranoid as it keeps being invaded by a vagrant
Basic Instinct (1992)
Aug 14, 2000Psycho-Sexual Thriller
This slick eroticised thriller was a huge success and made the career of Sharon Stone. The absurd plot bears no resemblance to human motivation but Paul Verhoeven makes an undeniably provocative and entertaining package
Olivier, Olivier (1992)
Feb 7, 2003Child's Mysterious Disappearance
Agnieszka Holland drama about the sudden return of a boy who went missing several years earlier, although may well be an impostor. Contains minor fantasy elements
The Visitors (1993)
Aug 29, 1999Time-Travel Comedy
Hilarious French comedy where a filthy Mediaeval knight and his servant are transported into the present-day
Arizona Dream (1993)
Jan 26, 2017Occasionally Surreal Desert Happenings
This English-language debut from Emir Kusturica should have been a hit going by its cast that includes a young Johnny Depp romancing a 50+ Faye Dunaway, but is a plotless piece of improv of occasional surreal interludes
Falling Down (1993)
Nov 18, 1999Man's Shooting Rampage Against the Frustrations of Life
Though many people celebrated this as black comedy about Michael Douglas taking up arms on a shooting rampage against the petty frustrations of modern life, it is a film that is really a single redneck rant against the poor and minorities
Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)
Apr 5, 2013Cemetery Keeper vs the Undead/Gonzo Comedy
Cult Italian film with Rupert Everett as a cemetery keeper facing the resurrected dead. This has an hilariously off-the-wall mix of black, deadpan humour and artiness, plus Everett at his laconic best
La Machine (1994)
Sep 5, 2002Psychiatrist Swaps Bodies with a Serial Killer
French thriller where psychiatrist Gerard Depardieu tests a device that allows him to swap bodies with a serial killer - only for the killer to get free and steal his life
The City of Lost Children (1995)
Oct 19, 2002Mad Scientist/Clones/Gonzo Comedy
The almost indescribable second film from Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet of Delicatessen fame, a Dicekensian street urchin fantasy that takes place in a stunningly designed almost-familiar world filled with eccentric characters
Killer Tongue (1996)
Apr 14, 2001Possessed Tongue/Gonzo Monster Movie
A giddy madcap, frequently over-the-top and entirely ridiculous Spanish film in which Melinda Clarke's tongue is possessed by an alien whereupon the tongue starts killing people
Tykho Moon (1996)
May 14, 2025Lunar Colony Noir
Film from Enki Bilal, a celebrated comic-book creator in France, about the noirish goings-on and in-politics on a lunar colony
Perdita Durango (1997)
Feb 28, 2001Outlaw Lovers/Santeria Sorceror
Spinoff of characters featured in David Lynch's Wild at Heart and a greatly underrated film for Alex de la Iglesia. this pushes into even darker and more anarchic places than Lynch did, featuring outlaw lovers who are black sorcerers on a trail of murder and kidmap
Asterix and Obelix Vs. Cesar (1999)
Jul 8, 2025Comic-Book Character
The first of the live-action films based on the famous comic-books set during the Roman period, starring Gerard Depardieu who seems born to play the part of Obelix
The Ninth Gate (1999)
Mar 11, 2000Quest for Occult Tome
Roman Polanski makes a return to Rosemary's Baby territory in this work with Johnny Depp as a rare book collector on the trail of an occult tome. Polanski great a great sense of sinister forces surrounding Depp but the film reaches an unsatisfying ending
Babel (1999)
Oct 26, 1999Children's Film/Millennial Apocalypse
An inane French/Canadian-made children's film about three cute creatures that come to help a boy stop the resurrection of the Tower of Babel on the eve of the millennium
Criminal Lovers (1999)
Oct 27, 1999Modernised Hansel and Gretel
An early film from Francois Ozon, this offers a modernisation of Hansel and Gretel where the two are teenage lovers on the run before the story turns into a remarkable gay coming out parable
Deep in the Woods (2000)
Sep 22, 2000French Slasher Film
Stylish French slasher film about actors being stalked as they put on a performance of Little Red Riding Hood at a country estate. The fairytale is adeptly wound in and out as metaphor.
Baise-Moi (2000)
Jul 7, 2001Two Girls on a Killing Spree
Splendidly nasty French film that feels like Thelma and Louise by way of Natural Born Killers where two women pick up guns and go on a shooting spree against men who are abusive jerks. Directed by two women and cast with porn actresses, this holds little back
The Weight of Water (2000)
Apr 26, 2001Historical Murder Mystery
One of Kathryn Bigelow's less successful films, an adaptation of an Anita Shreve historical murder mystery that tells a story in two different time periods
With a Friend Like Harry (2000)
May 31, 2001Sinister Houseguest
French psycho-thriller where Sergi Lopez gives an unnervingly charming performance as a psychopathic schoolfriend who inserts himself into Laurent Lucas's life
Bruiser (2000)
Dec 31, 2004Man's Face Becomes a Blank Mask
Uneven George Romero film from his less satisfying latter period in which Jason Flemyng wakes up with a blank white mask on his face and finds it allows him to unleash vengeance against those who wronged him
There’s Only One Jimmy Grimble (2000)
Jan 11, 2009Magic Soccer Boots
Film about a pair of magical soccer boots, so centred in its local sports culture that it is unlikely to have much appeal outside of its Manchester setting
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Feb 2, 2001Depression-Era Version of The Odyssey
The Coen Brothers hilariously adapt The Odyssey into the Depression Era with George Clooney leading a trio of escaped convicts as he tries to return to his wife
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Oct 21, 2001Hollywood Noir/Surrealism
David Lynch work of Hollywood noir in which novice actress Naomi Watts (in the role that made her name) is drawn into a surreal idenity blurring mystery. As always with Lynch, this baffling, weird and mesmerising
Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)
Jan 13, 200218th Century Beast Hunt
From regular genre director Christophe Gans, this is a head-scratching mix of French historical drama, monster movie and imported Wu Xia action moves
Trouble Every Day (2001)
Jun 13, 2023Sex and Cannibalism
Acclaimed director Claire Denis makes a quite out there film in which people are obsessively driven to devour others during the act of sex
Vidocq (2001)
May 4, 2008Dark Historical Fantasy
A film based on the real-life figure of Francois Vidocq, who became the world's first detective, which the film uses as the stepping off point to create an exquisite dark fantasy
In My Skin (2002)
Jul 3, 2003Self-Mutilation Obsession
Fascinatingly perverse film directed and written by its star French actress Marina de Van who plays a woman who becomes obsessed with mutilating her own skin
Malefique (2002)
Apr 14, 2020Jailed Prisoners Find an Occult Tome
Effective and unusual French film in which four prisoners in a jail cell discover an occult tome in the walls and start reading its spells thinking it can offer a means of escape
Irreversible (2002)
Jun 28, 2003Revenge and Rape
A highly controversial Gaspar Noe film that is all told in reverse chronological order, depicting the rape of Monica Bellucci and violent revenge by her husband Vincent Cassel
My Little Eye (2002)
Jul 17, 2003Snuff Reality TV Show
One of the best of several horror films that came out immediately following the advent of the reality tv show in the early 2000s. Director Marc Evans creates a sense of clammy claustrophobia.
Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002)
Jan 16, 2023Comic-Book Character
The second of the live-action Asterix films starring Gerard Depardieu, this is a visual delight that gets the comic-book’s nonsensical visuals down perfectly
Long Time Dead (2002)
Sep 5, 2002Malevolent Djinn
This is a modest British horror film about a group of students that accidentally summon a djinn during a seance that proceeds to possess one of the group and kill all the others present
Johnny English (2003)
May 5, 2003Incompetent Spy Comedy
Spy movie parody with Rowan Atkinson as an inept agent who is constantly tripping over his own feet. It is Austin Powers reconceived as a Mr Bean film but offering little that is funny.
Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse (2003)
Dec 15, 2005Biblical End Times Serial Killer Thriller
Luc Besson scripted sequel to the serial killer thriller The Crimson Rivers. However, in director Olivier Dahan's hands, this emerges as a empty-headed series of shock images and random action scenes
Dead End (2003)
Sep 25, 2014Haunted Backroads Journey
This starts out seeming like a Backroads Brutality film with an innocent family being attacked after taking a side road detour, only to end in increasingly stranger supernatural territory
Saint Ange (2004)
Jun 22, 2006French Ghost Story
The first film from Pascal Laugier who has emerged as a leading French horror director since, a ghost story set at a girl's boarding school, Laugier does produce some eerie jumps but the script is a frustrating tangle of narrative loose ends
Banlieue 13 (2004)
Jan 1, 2009French Future Action/Walled-Off Neighbourhood
Luc Besson written/produced film that is a French rehash of Escape from New York but director Pierre Morel gives it a series of exhilarating action and parkour sequences
The Ordeal (2004)
Jul 24, 2005Backwoods Brutality
A Belgian-made venture into Backwoods Brutality territory that keeps heading into stranger and more disturbing places until it almost seems to be taking place on another planet altogether
They Came Back (2004)
Apr 19, 2009The Dead Return to Life
A French zombie film that is about as far removed from a zombie film as it possible to get – the dead inexplicably return to life not to eat the flesh of the living but calm and detached where society’s problem is how to let them return to their previous lives
Lemming (2005)
Mar 20, 2009Surreal Identity Exchange
A surreal very Lynchian French film in which a deranged Charlotte Rampling shoots herself and then afterwards appears to possess Laurent Lucas's wife Charlotte Gainsbourg
The Ax (2005)
Aug 5, 2005Unemployed Man Eliminates Rival Job Applicants
Costa-Gavras, a director known for highly political films, makes a dark comedy about an unemployed man who sets out to eliminate his rival job applicants
Nanny McPhee (2005)
Jan 7, 2006Magical Nanny
Emma Thompson written and starring adaptation of a series of children's books comes across as a lesser copy of Mary Poppins. A film that feels like it should have been more than it ends up being.
Angel-A (2005)
Mar 17, 2009Eccentric Angel
Luc Besson makes a charming and funny film where a suicidal loser is aided by a tall and statuesque Rie Rasmussen who claims to be an angel sent to help him sort his life out
13 Tzameti (2005)
Jul 24, 2006Russian Roulette Gambling
Starkly effective Georgian-made film about a young man in need of money being drawn into an underground gambling ring that bets on games of Russian Roulette
Them (2006)
Aug 17, 2007Mysterious Home Assault
French horror film that generates a reasonable level of tension as a couple are attacked in their home by mysterious strangers
Sheitan (2006)
Jan 11, 2009French Backwoods Brutality
French Backwoods Brutality film heads in some admirably weird and gross directions but falls apart at the end
Arthur and the Invisibles (2006)
Feb 11, 2007Miniature Magical World
Lightweight Luc Besson directed children's fantasy with a young boy shrunken down to miniature size to engage in a series of CGI animated adventures among a race of fairy-like people. Several sequels followed
Azur and Asmar (2006)
Jul 1, 2024Animation/Arabian Fairytale
Next to Hayao Miyazaki, Michel Ocelot is the greatest animators of all time but one of the least widely recognised. Here he conducts a beautifully made Arabian fairytale
The Science of Sleep (2006)
Jul 24, 2006Dreams and Wacky Surrealism
A Michel Gondry film that blurs the line between dream and reality with hilariously offbeat regard. Gondry indulges his eccentricities to the maximum with quite sublime results
Inland Empire (2006)
Aug 17, 2007Surrealism
David Lynch's last theatrical films and probably the most divided of Lynch's films. Another delve into cryptic surrealism that arrives at no clear plot destinations or clues about what is going on
Hellphone (2007)
Apr 4, 2024Demonic Cellphone
A French film about a teenager who buys a demonic cellphone and is able to use it to enact comeuppances against the people in his life. A 976-Evil for the cellular era
Inside (2007)
Mar 18, 2017Brutal Home Invasion/Pregnant Woman Pursued
The most difficult to watch of the films to come out of French Extremism about a pregnant woman pursued by a mystery woman determined to tear the baby from her womb
Anna M. (2007)
Mar 8, 2008Female Stalker
A standout French-made stalker film that leaves Fatal Attraction in its dust. Isabelle Carré giving a frightening performance as a woman who becomes obsessed with a doctor
Frontier(s) (2007)
Sep 24, 2008Backwoods Brutality
Xavier Gens delivers a French copy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. This is largely by the numbers excepting for a gore level raised to what must be a maximum for the genre
Martyrs (2008)
Jun 19, 2010Imprisonment and Torture
Pascal Laugier makes one of the most horrific films to emerge from France in the 00s. Scenes of grim torture sit alongside a plot that twists like a pretzel and messes with almost everything we take for granted
Babylon A.D. (2008)
Oct 9, 2008Cyberpunk Future
This was critically dismissed - even its director spoke out against it - nevertheless it proves a flawed but not entirely uninteresting French Cyberpunk film as mercenary Vin Diesel is hired to protect miracle girl Melane Thierry
Me Two (2008)
Mar 7, 2009French Bodyswap Comedy
Lightweight French bodyswap comedy where aging rocker Alain Chabat and mousy bureaucrat Daniel Auteuil end up sharing the same body
Vinyan (2008)
Apr 16, 2011Haunted Journey Into the Southeast Asian Jungle
The second film from Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz is an intensely haunted albeit enigmatic journey into Southeast Asian jungles in search of a missing child
Asterix at the Olympic Games (2008)
Mar 7, 2009Comic-Book Character
The third of the live-action Asterix films starring Gerard Depardieu as Obelix. This faithfully replicates the look and visuals of the original comic-books as the two head off to the Olympics
Dante 01 (2008)
Jan 12, 2012Insane Asylum on a Space Station
Finally, the answer to what happened to Marc Caro after parting ways with Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Caro directs what would appear to be a darkly lit and confusing variation on The Green Mile set on a space station
Afterwards (2008)
Jan 21, 2013Messenger of Death
Beautifully filmed work featuring John Malkovich as an enigmatic Messenger of Death. A coolly sophisticated and mysterious film that plays out like an arthouse version of Final Destination by way of the Jeff Bridges Fearless
Amer (2009)
Jul 12, 2011Giallo Homage
An exquisitely directed homage to giallo cinema - a fascinating work that has been stripped of almost all dialogue that takes place on a purely visual level of sensation and body movement
Don’t Look Back (2009)
Dec 9, 2013Identity Exchange
French actress-director Marina de Van makes a film about a woman who finds her identity being occluded by someone else's life. de Van creates a superbly paranoid sense of dis-ease that compares favourably to Polanski's The Tenant
Enter the Void (2009)
Dec 13, 2010Soul's Journey Into the Afterlife
Gaspar Noe's hallucinatory Day-Glo vision of a soul's departure into the afterlife all shot in first-person perspective. This could be a 2001: A Space Odyssey for the trance culture generation
Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard (2009)
May 5, 2011Miniature Magical World
This was the second of Luc Besson's Minimoys films, partly animated children's films set in a world of miniature creatures. Here the charms of the first film seem thinly stretched
Banlieue 13: Ultimatum (2009)
Aug 24, 2011French Future Action/Walled-Off Neighbourhood
Sequel to the French action hit. The plot shuffles the same basic elements around but it is the action we have come for, which is slow to start but soon kicks into exhilarating high gear
Mr. Nobody (2009)
Jul 3, 2010Alternate Life Pathways
Jaco Van Dormael film that reaches for epic ideas in a story about multiple life pathways and a babble of ideas taken from physics but fails to assemble them in a way that makes much sense
The Secret of Kells (2009)
Mar 23, 2015Animation/Celtic History and Mythology
Beautifully made animated film that won surprise recognition at the Academy Awards. More a festival film than necessarily a box-office one
The Horde (2009)
Nov 21, 2014French Zombie Film
This could be The Raid reconceived as a zombie film (and a few borrowings from Assault on Precinct 13). This never reinvents the basics, just delivers a ferociously entertaining, bared to the bone zombie survival film
And Soon the Darkness (2010)
Jan 29, 2011Stalked Tourists Psycho-Thriller
Another pointless 1970s remake, in this case of the little-known British psycho-thriller about two tourists stalked in the French countryside (now transplanted to Argentina) with ho-hum results
Territories (2010)
May 21, 2012Rogue Border Guards Torture Tourists
An appealingly politicised variant on the Backwoods Brutality film in which two rogue US border guards decide to set up their own home Guantanamo Bay … not Torture Porn but an effectively brutal study on the effect of torture
Arthur and the Two Worlds War (2010)
May 14, 2014Miniature Magical World
Luc Besson has made some phenomenal action films but I just can't seem to get into his trilogy of children's films. This was the third. A silly effort written down to a very juvenile level and padded with inane humour
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010)
May 8, 2012Girl Writer's Fantastical Adventures
Luc Besson adapts a French comic-book – sort of a female version of Tintin – with uneven but generally amiable regard. The result is somewhere between an Indiana Jones adventure and the quirkness of an Amelie
Julia’s Eyes (2010)
Feb 24, 2016Blind Woman Stalked by a Killer
Produced by Guillermo Del Toro, this Spanish film is an extremely good work about a blind woman stalked by a killer, featuring a script of sharp twists and grippingly suspenseful directorial set-pieces
Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang (2010)
Sep 16, 2010Magical Nanny
I never much cared for Nanny McPhee. This is a sequel that replicates the original in fairly much the same amount mix of plot elements, slapstick sequences and nonsensical absurdism
The Last Exorcism (2010)
Aug 29, 2010Exorcism Found Footage Film
An exorcism film made Found Footage-style with Patrick Fabian as a conman exorcist. This is constantly confounding everything one expects of the genre with considerable cleverness
Rubber (2010)
Oct 4, 2010Killer Car Tire/Meta-Fictional Monster Movie Parody
The best killer car tire film ever – a monster movie spoof wound in so many layers of meta-fiction that it is positively side-splitting. The smartest and funniest monster movie in ages
Outside Satan (2011)
Dec 31, 2011Ambiguous Miraculous Visitor
In the vein of Pasolini's Teorema, French director Bruno Dumont makes a film about an ambiguous visitor who may be capable of miracles. Slow, very opaque but eventually rewarding
Johnny English Reborn (2011)
Nov 3, 2011Incompetent Spy Comedy
Rowan Atkinson is a very funny man but try as I might I cannot get into these Johnny English films - they seem at best lame Austin Powers castoffs with gags designed for the single digit age range
The Incident (2011)
Mar 20, 2018Trapped in an Asylum for the Criminally Insane During a Powercut
From an early script by S. Craig Zahler, this is an incredibly brutal and harrowing work about a group of cooks trapped inside an asylum for the criminally insane during a power cut
Attack the Block (2011)
Sep 9, 2011Alien Invasion on a British Housing Estate
A refreshingly original film that transplants an alien invasion story to a modern British housing estate where a group of young hoodlums become the first line of defence against the invaders
The Woman in the Fifth (2011)
Jul 12, 2012Mysterious Femme Fatale
European arthouse film that feels like it should have been a horror film. This starts well but when it veers into genre territory, its big twist has been done by too many genre films of recent and holds nothing interesting in its treatment
Low Life (2011)
Dec 31, 2011French Immigration Nightmare/Cursed Documents
Long-winded French film largely about criticising the country's problematic immigration and asylum seeking system. This also has a B plot about a series of cursed documents
Intruders (2011)
Jul 1, 2012Childhood Boogeyman
High hopes for this third film from Juan Carlos Fresnadillo emerge as no more than Boogeyman with shallow artistic pretensions and is a disappointingly middle of the road work
Melancholia (2011)
Nov 20, 2011Depression and the End of the World
Lars von Trier’s exploration of his depression continues in this nihilistic end of the world film. It is bleak and relentless but the characters are opaque in their motivations. Somehow I prefer von Trier back in agent provocateur mode
Juan of the Dead (2011)
Nov 3, 2012Cuban Zombie Film
The world's first Cuban zombie film. Imagine a Latin American version of Shaun of the Dead, conducted with some cleverness, oddball wit and an undeniable satiric undertow
The Fairy (2011)
Oct 18, 2011Woman Claims to Be a Fairy Comedy
Entirely charming film about a woman who claims to be a fairy. In the best tradition of Jacques Tati, this consists of a series of deliriously nonsensical sight gags that become an utter delight
A Monster in Paris (2011)
Jun 16, 2012Animation/Genteel Singing Monster
A charming French-made animated film about a genteel singing monster. Nothing profound but this is beautifully animated and sweetly appealing in all the right places
Extraterrestrial (2011)
Jul 1, 2013Alien Invasion/Comedy of Errors
This, the second film from Nacho Vigalondo, is a head-scratcher, Though it is ostensibly an alien invasion film, Vigalondo instead creates a comedy of errors
Cockneys vs Zombies (2012)
Jan 13, 2013Zombie Comedy
Beyond the title, this is a straightforward take on the modern zombie comedy. It is undeniably trying to be another Shaun of the Dead, at which it proves consistently amusing and likeable
Kirikou and the Men and Women (2012)
Jan 5, 2017Animation/African Folk Tales
The third of Michel Ocelot's Kirikou films, delightful tales about the ingenuity and plain-speaking wisdom of a young boy winning out over adult pomposity and foolishness. Animated with a simplicity that is magical
Maniac (2012)
Aug 22, 2013Psycho Film
Controversial remake of the 1980 psycho film. The remake's unique take is that everything is shot in first-person from the point-of-view of the killer.
The Tall Man (2012)
Nov 25, 2012Child Abducting Boogeymen/Conceptual Reversal Twister
Pascal Laugier returns with this fascinating effort about a small town subject to child abductions by a possible boogieman. A film that is as blatantly manipulative as it is ingenious in its way-out twists and turns where everything we assume is going on at the outset is eventually turned completely on its head
Lockout (2012)
May 5, 2012Future Orbiting Prison/Action
Luc Besson written action-prison film that blatantly borrows from Escape From New York. An entertaining comic-book of a movie, even if its depth exists no further than Guy Pearce tossing off flip one-liners
Ernest and Celestine (2012)
Oct 17, 2012Animation/Talking Animals
Entirely charming French animated film from the directors of A Town Called Panic. This is a children's film that comes with a beautiful simplicity, a duo of winning characters and some side-splitting visual gags
Wrong (2012)
Mar 16, 2014Gonzo Surrealism
Quentin Dupieux's follow-up to the hilariously culty Rubber, an absurdist film about a man setting out to find his missing dog. You keep expecting something as mind-bendingly hilarious as Rubber but this is more of a mild amusement in the David Lynch-ian deadpan surrealist vein