Roger Vadim brazenly raised the bar for unashamed hot nymphette action with his landmark 1956 debut, starring his then wife Brigitte Bardot as a horny St Tropez orphan who drives sophisticated men to violent destruction by rubbing her own breasts, lifting up her skirt and dancing with black men. The Betty Blue of its day.
From the mid-'30s, the film-makers' film-maker at his peak. Le Crime De Monsieur Lange is a hymn to the rebellious working class. La Bête Humaine (based on Zola's novel) is a prototype noir, with train driver Jean Gabin seduced by murderous Simone Simon. WWI classic La Grande Illusion casts Gabin as a POW bent on escaping a German camp run by Erich von Stroheim. It was banned by Goebbels, who labelled it "cinematographic enemy No 1".
Great, gritty, noir-ish French thriller from '82, a controversial sensation in its homeland. Writer/director Bob Swain (an American who'd lived in Paris for 20 years) casts Richard Berry as the undercover cop who uses informers to bust pimps. He presses prostitute Nathalie Baye to betray the alpha gangster. The climactic action recalls The French Connection.
