French movies about the second world war

List of the best French movies about the Second World War, selected by visitors to our site: Ernest & Celestine, Antigang, The Translators, Lolo, Beauty & the Beholder, Baarìa, The shadow of Mont st. Michel, A View of Love, Perfect Nanny, Adieu Monsieur Haffmann .

In the top there are new films of 2021, a plot description and trailers for films that have already been released.

Country
Markimdb: 7.8
Genrefantasy, comedy, drama, adventure, family, cartoon, crime
CountryFrance, Belgium, Luxembourg
Duration01:20

Celestine is a little mouse trying to avoid a dental career; Ernest is a big bear craving an artistic outlet. When Celestine meets Ernest, they overcome their natural enmity by forging a life of crime together.

Markimdb: 5.7
Genreaction, drama
CountryFrance, United Kingdom
Duration01:58

A french police unit that try to stop a group of criminals.

Markimdb: 6.5
Genrethriller, detective
CountryFrance, Belgium

Nine translators have been picked by a ruthless publisher and locked in a luxury bunker to translate the highly anticipated book of a famous author in record time. Although the translators are confined to prevent any kind of leak because of the high financial stakes, a crisis erupts when someone posts the first 10 pages of the novel online and blackmails the publisher to pay 5 million euros. A hunt for the culprit inside the bunker unfolds.

Markimdb: 5.6
Genrecomedy
CountryFrance
Duration02:15

On holiday in the south of France, chic Parisian sophisticate Violette meets life-loving IT geek Jean-René. Against all odds, there’s a real chemistry between them and at the end of the summer, Jean-René wastes no time in joining his beloved in Paris. But there’s trouble in paradise, and a third party swiftly appears to shatter the couple’s idyll: Lolo, Violette’s ultra-possessive 19-year-old son, who is determined to get rid of his mother’s lover, whatever it takes…

Markimdb: 5.3
Genrecomedy
CountryFrance

A narcissistic plastic surgeon, who prefers women of a certain high quality, meets an everyday woman who questions his morals, his methods and his meaning to life.

Markimdb: 6.9
Genrecomedy, drama
CountryItaly, France
Duration02:43

Giuseppe Tornatore traces three generations of a Sicilian family in in the Sicilian town of Bagheria (known as Baarìa in the local Sicilian dialect), from the 1930s to the 1980s, to tell the story of the loves, dreams and delusions of an unusual community.

Markimdb: 5.3
Genrethriller
CountryFrance

After the death of his mother, Elisa (Claire Borotra) is responsible for custody of her sister Audrey (Penelope Leveque), a troubled teen and something he hardly knows. Following the last will of her mother, both go to Mont Saint Michel, where the two grew up, to spread his ashes. The second night of stay, and after a flood, Audrey disappears while the mayor's daughter, which suggests a voluntary escape, but Elisa does not think so, so it will not stop until its trace sister.

Markimdb: 6.2
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, detective
CountryFrance
Duration01:35

Happily married with a daughter, Marc is a successful real estate agent in Aix-en-Provence. One day, he has an appointment with a woman to view a traditional country house. A few hours later, Marc finally puts a name to her face. It's Cathy, the girl he was in love with growing up in Oran, Algeria, in the last days of the French colonial regime. Marc hurries to her hotel. They spend the night together. Then she's gone again. And Marc's mother tells him Cathy never left Algeria. She was killed with her father in a bombing just before independence...

Markimdb: 6
Genredrama, crime
CountryFrance

When Myriam, the mother of two young children, decides, despite the reluctance of her husband to resume his activity in a law firm, the couple is looking for a nanny. After a severe casting, they engage Louise, who quickly conquers the affection of children and gradually occupies a central place in the home. Gradually the trap of mutual dependence will close, until the tragedy.

Markimdb: 7
Genredrama
CountryFrance, Belgium

After the Nazi occupation of Paris, a talented jeweller, Joseph Haffmann, arranges for his family to flee the city and offers one of his employee the chance to take over his store until the conflict subsides.

Markimdb: 7.3
Genrecomedy, drama, military
CountryFrance, Italy

Two unlikely companions must smuggle four suitcases filled with contraband pork across Nazi-occupied Paris.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genrecomedy, drama
CountryFrance, Belgium

Lea and her husband Marc have known Francis and his wife Karine for a very long time. Over the years, each one of them has been assigned a specific role. The balance and dynamic of the group is blown up when Lea decides to write a novel, which turns into an immediate bestseller…

Markimdb: 6.5
Genremelodrama
CountryFrance
Duration01:51

The Côte d’Azur. 1915. In his twilight years, Pierre-Auguste Renoir is tormented by the loss of his wife, the pains of arthritic old age and the terrible news that his son Jean has been wounded in action. But when a young girl miraculously enters his world, the old painter is filled with a new, wholly unexpected energy. Blazing with life, radiantly beautiful, Andrée will become his last model, and the wellspring of a remarkable rejuvenation. Back at the family home to convalesce, Jean too falls under the spell of the new, redheaded star in the Renoir firmament. In their Mediterranean Eden - and in the face of his father's fierce opposition - he falls in love with this wild, untameable spirit... and as he does so, within weak-willed, battle-shaken Jean, a filmmaker begins to grow.

Markimdb: 7.2
Genrefantastic, thriller, comedy, drama, adventure, family, cartoon, detective
CountryFrance, Canada, Belgium

France asleep in the nineteenth century, governed by steam and Napoleon VI, where scientists vanish mysteriously, a girl, Avril, goes in search of her missing scientist parents.

Markimdb: 7.1
Genremelodrama, drama, history
CountryUnited Kingdom, France, USA
Duration01:38

A gripping family drama and entrepreneurial fable, set in a post-war Paris fashion house. It exposes the grit behind the glamour of a rising business, spearheaded by two clashing brothers.

Markimdb: 5.7
Genreaction, comedy, crime
CountryFrance, Belgium

An attorney stumbles upon a suitcase filled with cocaine.

Markimdb: 5
Genremelodrama, drama, biography
CountryFrance, Belgium
Duration02:26

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), man of the people, autodidact and revolutionary sculptor - the most brilliant of his era. At 42, Rodin meets Camille Claudel, a young woman desperate to become his assistant. He quickly acknowledges her as his most able pupil, and treats her as an equal in matters of creation.

Markimdb: 6.3
Genrethriller
CountryFrance, Belgium
Duration01:35

Étienne Meunier (Benoît Magimel) is a young executive who has everything going for him. His career is skyrocketing and he is about to become #1 at work, he is married to a picture-perfect wife, has a dream home and money. To top it off, he's charming, healthy and everyone likes him and seems to consider him "a great guy". But beneath the surface, not everything is perfect. Meunier feels some pressure at work, knowing others eye his future position and he and his wife have been unable to have children so far. One day, Meunier bumps into a childhood friend, Patrick Chambon (François-Xavier Demaison) and the two resume their friendship, despite Chambon having struggled as a petty criminal.

Markimdb: 6.2
Genredrama, biography
CountryItaly, France
Duration02:28

The story of two renowned actors of Fascist cinema, Luisa Ferida and Osvaldo Valenti, who were supporters of the regime until the very end. Accused of collaborationism and torture, they were summarily executed by Partisans during the Liberation.

Markimdb: 7.1
Genredrama, cartoon
CountryFrance, Canada, Belgium

On the last day of summer, Louise, an old woman realizes that the last train has departed without her. She finds herself alone in a small seaside resort town, abandoned by everyone. The weather quickly turns for the worse followed by the seasonal tides. Fragile and coquettish, not nearly as well-prepared as a would-be Robinson Crusoe, Louise isn’t likely to make it through the winter. Yet, Louise takes her abandonment as a challenge. She’s going to survive, confronting the elements as well as her memories, which have found the perfect occasion to join in the adventure…

Markimdb: 6.2
Genrethriller, drama
CountryCanada, France, United Kingdom
Duration01:55

The film is set in France in the 1990s, the French were defeated by the Germans early in World War II, an armistice was signed in 1940 which effectively split France into a German occupied part in the North and a semi-independent part in the south which became known as Vichy France. In reality the Vichy government was a puppet regime controlled by the Germans. Part of the agreement was that the Vichy Government would assist with the 'cleansing' of Jews from France. The Vichy government formed a police force called the Milice, who worked with the Germans...

Markimdb: 6.2
Genredrama, documentary, biography, history
CountryFrance, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Greece
Duration02:38

Jorge de Sena was forced to leave his country. First he moved to Brazil, and later to the USA. He never returned to Portugal. During his 20-year-long exile, he kept an epistolary correspondence with Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. These letters are a testimony of the profound friendship between the two poets, letters of longing and of desire to “fill years of distance with hours of conversation”. Through excerpts and verses, a dialog is established, revealing their divergent opinions but mostly their strong bond, and their efforts to preserve it until their last breaths.

Markimdb: 7
Genrecomedy, drama, military
CountryFrance

In 1942, in an occupied Paris, the apolitical grocer Edmond Batignole lives with his wife and daughter in a small apartment in the building of his grocery. When his future son-in-law and collaborator of the German Pierre-Jean Lamour calls the Nazis to arrest the Jewish Bernstein family, they move to the confiscated apartment. Some days later, the young Simon Bernstein escapes from the Germans and comes to his former home. When Batignole finds him, he feels sorry for the boy and lodges him, hiding Simon from Pierre-Jean and also from his wife. Later, two cousins of Simon meet him in the cellar of the grocery. When Pierre-Jean finds the children, Batignole decides to travel with the children to Switzerland.

Markimdb: 5.3
Genrecomedy
CountryFrance, Belgium, USA

French filmmaker Eric Lartigau directs the anarchic buddy comedy Bullit and Riper, originally released as Mais qui a tue Pamela Rose? French comedic television stars Kad Merad and Olivier Barroux are both the protagonists and the screenwriters. As a parody of Hollywood cop films, the story is set somewhere in the American Midwest as fabricated by the French. After losing his regular partner, FBI agent Richard Bullit (Merad) gets assigned to the book-learned cop Riper (Barroux) to investigate the death of a stripper. American movie stereotypes abound, such as shock jock Phil Canon (Gérard Darmon) and sheriff Steve Marley (Jean-Paul Rouve).

Markimdb: 5.4
Genrecomedy
CountryFrance, Belgium

A psychiatric hospital patient pretends to be crazy. In charge of caring for this patient, a caregiver will begin to doubt the mental state of his "protégé".

Markimdb: 6.1
Genrethriller, drama
CountryFrance

Fifteen-year-old Céline knows more about life than is appropriate for her age. She wanders the streets, surviving, with the help of her boyfriend Romain, thanks to her defiance and ruthless practicality. She secretly sleeps in the garden house of a luxury villa, where one evening she is discovered by the owner, Judge Henri van Eyck. Despite his wife Nathalie's reticence, he takes the girl in and Céline gradually gains their goodwill and affection. The fragile balance of their mutual trust, however, comes in serious jeopardy when the web of lies the girl has told her protectors begins to unravel, revealing her real motives.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genrecomedy, melodrama
CountryFrance
Duration01:30

Yassine asks his best friend Fred to marry him in order to avoid deportation...

Markimdb: 6.6
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama, biography
CountryFrance
Duration02:02

During the making of one of his films, French film director Jean-Luc Godard falls in love with 17-year old actress Anne Wiazemsky and later gets married.

Markimdb: 7.3
Genrecomedy, drama
CountryFrance, Belgium
Duration01:49

Vincent, a wealthy real estate agent, is invited to dinner by his sister Elizabeth and her husband Peter, both professors in Paris. Claude, a childhood friend and trombonist in a symphony orchestra, is also present. Vincent brings news from the prenatal examination of his and his wife Anna's unborn son. The name chosen by the soon-to-be parents strongly offends the others for many reasons. The dispute between the guests quickly escalates and before long the resurgence of old grudges and hidden secrets is unavoidable ...

Markimdb: 7.1
Genredrama, military, music
CountryFrance, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria
Duration02:22

One of the most spectacular and renowned conductors of the 1930s, Wilhelm Furtwangler's reputation rivaled that of Toscanini's. After the war, he was investigated as part of the Allies' de-Nazification programme. In the bombed-out Berlin of the immediate post-war period, the Allies slowly bring law and order to bear on an occupied Germany. An American major is given the Furtwangler file, and is told to find everything he can and to prosecute the man ruthlessly. Tough and hard-nosed, Major Steve Arnold sets out to investigate a world of which he knows nothing.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama
CountryFrance

Eleanor, thirties, has just lost her father. He bequeathed his house in Brittany in the Cotes d'Armor. She is a photographer, has had some success but business no longer work as before. It is imperative to sell the house. She goes there with Samuel, her former companion which she left some time ago, because she does not feel to go alone and she has not returned since the death of her father. But she is playing with fire - because she knows that their relationship did not exactly appeased, even if it was for some adventures and Samuel lives with Laura. Claire Andrieux, the real estate agent, was busy organizing visits during the two days Samuel and Eleanor will stay in the house. It's a funny weekend that these three are about to spend.A surprising weekend full of surprises, emotions, tensions, memories and shouting matches in melancholy and absurd moments that leave the couple necessarily changed.

Markimdb: 6.2
Genremelodrama, drama
CountryFrance, Germany
Duration01:40

Marco returns to Paris after his brother-in-law's suicide, where he targets the man his sister believes caused the tragedy - though he is ill-prepared for her secrets as they quickly muddy the waters.

Markimdb: 7.1
Genrecomedy
CountryFrance
Duration01:42

Paris, in the early 1960s. Jean-Louis Joubert is a serious but uptight stockbroker, married to Suzanne, a starchy class-conscious woman and father of two arrogant teenage boys, currently in a boarding school. The affluent man lives a steady yet boring life. At least until, due to fortuitous circumstances, Maria, the charming new maid at the service of Jean-Louis' family, makes him discover the servants' quarter on the sixth floor of the luxury building he owns and lives in. There live a crowd of lively Spanish maids who will help Jean-Louis to open to a new civilization and a new approach of life. In their company - and more precisely in the company of beautiful Maria - Jean-Louis will gradually become another man, a better man.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genremelodrama, drama, crime
CountryFrance
Duration01:36

Vassili is an aged prostitute with killer instincts. He finds an unconscious young man in the Forest of Boulogne and takes him home. Now lovers and accomplices, the two men become a couple in prostitution and steal from their clients. And yet, menaces of retaliation leave the couple with no choice but to escape from Paris. The runaway begins...

Markimdb: 6.3
Genreaction, fantasy, adventure, detective
CountryFrance, USA
Duration01:47

    An adventure set in the early part of the 20th century, focused on a popular novelist and her dealings with would-be suitors, the cops, monsters, and other distractions.

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genredrama, military, biography
    CountryFrance

    A love story or a tale of the resistance, this poignant movie tells both the haunting story of a French resistance cell in Lyon but also the love of Lucie Aubrac for her husband...

    Markimdb: 7.3
    Genrecomedy, drama
    CountryFrance

    An Iranian family survives the shah and the ayatollah and moves to France. This story follows the family through it all. Despite the politics, revolution, prison, beatings, assassinations and suicides this is a comedy.

    Markimdb: 6.2
    Genrecomedy, family, cartoon
    CountryFrance, Luxembourg
    Duration01:29

    Plant loving Hilda, has created a museum where she preserves endangered and rare plants from all over the world. Meanwhile Attilem, a new genetically modified cereal, is launched on the market. Growing with little water and fertilizer while generating high crop field Attilem looks like an ideal solution to eradicate starvation and provide an alternative to diminishing oil reserves. But nothing is at it seems...

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genreaction, thriller, crime
    CountryFrance, Luxembourg, Belgium
    Duration01:43

    Vincent is a crooked cop whose drug heist goes wrong when he is stabbed and the criminals he is robbing discover his identity. Vincent escapes with a huge bag of cocaine, but discovers his loot belongs to a powerful mob boss who kidnaps Vincent's son. Vincent has until the end of the night to return the stash and save his son.

    Markimdb: 6.5
    Genredrama, music, biography, history
    CountryFrance, Belgium, Czech Republic
    Duration02:05

    Nothing in her background destined Loïe Fuller from the American Midwest to become a Belle Epoque icon, even less a dancer at the Paris Opera. Even at the risk of destroying her back and burning her eyes with the stage lights, she will never falter in the quest to perfect her dance. But her encounter with Isadora Duncan, a prodigious young dancer hungry for fame and glory, will precipitate the fall of this icon at the beginning of the twentieth century.

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