Subscription

French Cinema

From the New Wave to poetic realism and cinéma vérité, French cinema takes many forms and offers endless delights.

Our subscription collection serves up the perfect primer, featuring undisputed masterpieces and provocative classics.

Read more Close

Special offer: Save £15

Subscribe annually today using voucher code SUMMER50

Enjoy a year of streaming for just £50 (usually £65). Includes a 14-day free trial for new customers.

Subscribe to watch

Swimming Pool Swimming Pool

Drama 2003 102 mins Director: François Ozon

A crime novelist seeks peace but gets a dangerous muse in this twisted bilingual thriller from François Ozon.

Subscribe to watch

Chocolat Chocolat

Drama 1988 100 mins Director: Claire Denis

Claire Denis' fully formed debut offers a child’s-eye-view of racial and sexual tension that bubbles with unspoken desires.

Subscribe to watch

La Piscine La Piscine

Drama 1969 123 mins Director: Jacques Deray

A ménage à trois stirs passion and jealousy beside a secluded pool in this sultry, French cult-thriller.

Subscribe to watch

Celine and Julie Go Boating Celine and Julie Go Boating

Drama 1974 194 mins Director: Jacques Rivette

Jacques Rivette’s biggest commercial hit is an exhilarating combination of theatricality, paranoia and ‘la vie parisienne’, around an entrancing examination of making and watching films.

Subscribe to watch

The Balconettes The Balconettes

Comedy 2024 104 mins Director: Noémie Merlant

Co-written with Céline Sciamma, Noémie Merlant’s bold film follows three friends as they dispose of the body of an abuser they’ve accidentally killed.

Subscribe to watch

Student Services Student Services

Drama 2010 103 mins Director: Emmanuelle Bercot

A cash-strapped student becomes an escort exposing the stark realities of economic exploitation in this uncompromising gritty French drama.

Subscribe to watch

Pickpocket Pickpocket

Drama 1959 76 mins Director: Robert Bresson

Bresson’s hugely influential study of a petty thief in late 50s Paris is one of his most widely acclaimed films.

Subscribe to watch

The Origin of Evil The Origin of Evil

Thriller 2022 123 mins Director: Sébastien Marnier

Laure Calamy stars in this involving thriller by Sébastien Marnier, playing an outsider tangled in a web of upper-class family malice.

Subscribe to watch

Betty Blue Betty Blue

Drama 1986 185 mins Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix

Jean-Jacques Beineix’s story of a volatile, highly sexual relationship was one of the most successful French films of the 1980s.

Subscribe to watch

Jeune & jolie Jeune & jolie

Drama 2013 93 mins Director: François Ozon

Francois Ozon’s sly and seductive account of teenage girl’s dalliance with high-class prostitution.

Subscribe to watch

Pacifiction Pacifiction

Drama 2022 165 mins Director: Albert Serra

Albert Serra’s hypnotic Palme d'Or-nominated drama about the greed and hypocrisy of colonial power in Tahiti.

Subscribe to watch

Eat the Night Eat the Night

Thriller 2024 107 mins Director: Caroline Poggi and Johnathan Vinel

Siblings find passion and peril online and in the real world, in this visually electric French drama.

Subscribe to watch

Personal Shopper Personal Shopper

Drama 2016 106 mins Director: Olivier Assayas

Kristen Stewart plays a celebrity's personal shopper, who keeps receiving strange text messages from an unknown source.

Subscribe to watch

Romance Romance

Drama 1999 98 mins Director: Catherine Breillat

Shockingly explicit, Catherine Breillat’s critically acclaimed Romance is one of the most controversial films of modern cinema.

Subscribe to watch

Pauline at the Beach Pauline at the Beach

Comedy 1982 95 mins Director: Eric Rohmer

Eric Rohmer's final collaboration with the great cinematographer Néstor Almendros follows a holidaying teenager as she begins to navigate the adult world.

Subscribe to watch

Sex Is Comedy Sex Is Comedy

Comedy 2002 95 mins Director: Catherine Breillat

A director struggles to film a difficult sex scene with two actors who hate each other, in Catherine Breillat's exploration of intimacy coordination.

Subscribe to watch

Àma Gloria Àma Gloria

Drama 2023 84 mins Director: Marie Amachoukeli

Six-year-old Cléo spends a final summer with her beloved nanny Gloria, in this profoundly moving story of chosen family, duty and innocence lost.

Subscribe to watch

La Haine La Haine

Drama 1995 98 mins Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

Mathieu Kassovitz’s landmark mid-90s drama throws a cinematic Molotov cocktail at structural racism, police brutality and media manipulation.

Subscribe to watch

The Passion of Joan of Arc The Passion of Joan of Arc

Biopic 1928 80 mins Silent Director: Carl Th. Dreyer

An incontestable masterpiece of silent cinema, Carl Dreyer's moving biopic features one of the most powerful performances ever captured on film.

Subscribe to watch

Red Island Red Island

Drama 2023 117 mins Director: Robin Campillo

Writer-director Robin Campillo offers an exploration of memory and politics, in this boldly conceived story of boyhood in 1970s Madagascar.

Subscribe to watch

The New Girlfriend The New Girlfriend

Melodrama 2014 108 mins Director: François Ozon

Ruth Rendell provides the source novel for this delicious tale of deception and identity, from the master of mischievous melodrama, François Ozon.

Subscribe to watch

The 400 Blows The 400 Blows

Drama 1959 100 mins Director: François Truffaut

François Truffaut’s French New Wave landmark is one of the greatest movies about adolescence.

Subscribe to watch

The Green Ray The Green Ray

Drama 1986 99 mins Director: Eric Rohmer

Eric Rohmer's masterpiece about a woman chasing romance and adventure during a long, hot summer.

Subscribe to watch

Bande à part Bande à part

Crime 1964 95 mins Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Godard's playful tribute to the Hollywood pulp crime movies of the 1940s, executed with typically Gallic cool.

Subscribe to watch

The Gleaners & I The Gleaners & I

Documentary 2000 79 mins Director: Agnès Varda

Agnès Varda’s award-winning study of those living on the margins of French society at the turn of the millennium.

Subscribe to watch

The Wages of Fear The Wages of Fear

Crime 1953 153 mins Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot

Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic, nail-biting suspense thriller won both The Golden Bear and the Palme d'Or in 1953.

Subscribe to watch

The Woman Next Door The Woman Next Door

Drama 1981 105 mins Director: François Truffaut

Happily married Bernard (Gérard Depardieu) has his life is thrown into turmoil when Mathilde (Fanny Ardant) - an old flame - moves into the house opposite.

Subscribe to watch

Shoah (Second Era) Shoah (Second Era)

Documentary 1985 293 mins Director: Claude Lanzmann

Claude Lanzmann's monumental chronicle of the Holocaust has been acclaimed by many as the greatest documentary ever made.

Subscribe to watch

Love on the Run Love on the Run

Drama 1978 94 mins Director: François Truffaut

Separated from Christine and uncertain about his latest relationship, Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud) has finally written a novel inspired by his own experiences in this final chapter of François Truffaut’s series.

Subscribe to watch

Shoah (First Era) Shoah (First Era)

Documentary 1985 274 mins Director: Claude Lanzmann

Claude Lanzmann's monumental chronicle of the Holocaust has been acclaimed by many as the greatest documentary ever made.

Subscribe to watch

Eyes without a Face Eyes without a Face

Horror 1959 90 mins Director: Georges Franju

Georges Franju’s gorgeous, poetic horror film about a surgeon’s dark obsession with restoring his daughter’s disfigured face.

Subscribe to watch

The Aviator's Wife The Aviator's Wife

Drama 1980 106 mins Director: Eric Rohmer

A bittersweet fable about a young man's jealous pursuits; the first film in Eric Rohmer's six-film series, Comedies and Proverbs.

Subscribe to watch

The Last Metro The Last Metro

Romance 1979 132 mins Director: François Truffaut

Catherine Deneuve shines as the director and lead actor of a Parisian theatre struggling to survive under the Nazi occupation in Truffaut's wartime drama.

Subscribe to watch

La Peau Douce La Peau Douce

Drama 1964 118 mins Director: François Truffaut

Truffaut’s Palme d'Or-nominated account of an ill-starred adulterous affair boasts Hitchcockian precision and pitch-perfect performances.

Subscribe to watch

Bed and Board Bed and Board

Drama 1970 97 mins Director: François Truffaut

In this typically ambivalent comedy from Truffaut, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) becomes a father... But is he mature enough for parenthood?

Subscribe to watch

Orphée Orphée

Drama 1950 96 mins Director: Jean Cocteau

Magical retelling of the Orpheus myth by poet, playwright, artist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau.

Subscribe to watch

La Belle et la Bête La Belle et la Bête

Fantasy 1946 95 mins Director: Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau’s ravishingly restored 1946 film is a cinematic classic. “Five stars. [This] magical exploration of the fairytale is a compelling and bizarre masterpiece” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Subscribe to watch

Stolen Kisses Stolen Kisses

Comedy 1968 91 mins Director: François Truffaut

Naively idealistic and largely inept both in his dealings with women and in any job, Antoine clumsily courts Christine while working for a private detective agency.

Currently unavailable

Haute Tension Haute Tension

Horror 2003 93 mins Director: Alexandre Aja

Alexandre Aja defined a new breed of horror by bringing the American slasher format into French cinema.

Subscribe to watch

Jules et Jim Jules et Jim

Drama 1962 106 mins Director: François Truffaut

François Truffaut’s hugely popular classic depicts one of cinema’s most captivating love triangles

Subscribe to watch

Les Enfants Terribles Les Enfants Terribles

Drama 1949 106 mins Director: Jean-Pierre Melville

Jean-Pierre Melville’s film of Jean Cocteau's controversial novel about a teenage brother and sister and their intense, closeted relationship.

Subscribe to watch

L'Argent L'Argent

Crime 1983 84 mins Director: Robert Bresson

Bresson’s superb final film and Cannes winner is a Tolstoy adaptation relating how a prank with a forged bank note leads to tragedy.

Subscribe to watch

Lips of Blood Lips of Blood

Horror 1975 87 mins Director: Jean Rollin

Jean Rollin’s hauntingly poetic horror about a man trying to solve the riddle of a tormenting childhood memory.

Subscribe to watch

The Valley (Obscured by Clouds) The Valley (Obscured by Clouds)

Drama 1972 105 mins Director: Barbet Schroeder

Different worlds collide when a chic young diplomat's wife meets an intriguing adventurer and his hippy friends in Barbet Schroeder's striking second feature.

Subscribe to watch

Maitresse Maitresse

Drama 1976 113 mins Director: Barbet Schroeder

Gerard Depardieu plays the young innocent who falls for the mysterious maitresse Ariane (Bulle Ogier), a leather clad dominatrix, in Barbet Schroeder’s controversial film.

Subscribe to watch

More More

Drama 1969 116 mins Director: Barbet Schroeder

The first feature by Barbet Schroeder (Maîtresse, The Valley), More created a sensation when it was released in 1969, quickly becoming a cult classic and famed for its Pink Floyd soundtrack.