Do you love movies? Do you want to watch French movies to help you learn … French? You’re in the right place. In this article, our language experts and linguists have picked out their 9 favourite French movies to help you learn French. These are just some of the great French language-learning resources available on this site.
Kirikou et la Sorcière
Kirikou et la Sorciere also goes by its English translation “Kirikou and the Sorceress”. It is an animated adventure movie, and the talented Michel Ocelot is the director. The movie’s target audience might be children, but this is a timeless and enhancing tale for the ages. The action takes place in a sun-drenched West Africa and centres around a newborn baby – Kirkou. Kirkou grows up and has to save his village from a villainous witch.
With stunning visuals and crisp dialogue, it’s a movie that will extend your vocabulary. You will learn words and phrases related to culture, nature, family, emotions and feelings. The movie is suitable for both beginners and intermediate learners alike.
Amelie
Amelie is possibly one of the most famous French movies of all time. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, it pulled in over $170,000,000 at the box office and helped to launch Audrey Tautou’s career.
Audrey Tautou plays Amelie, a young French woman with a very active imagination. However, she also has crippling insecurities. She decides to help people (without them knowing) in order to boost her own self-esteem. By doing this, she brings joy and happiness to their lives.
Set in Paris, the movie has a very serene, almost fairytale quality to its cinematography and script. It’s utterly beautiful, captivating and heartwarming.
Les Intouchables
Like Amelie, Les Intouchables is another French movie that’s widely revered around the world. Directed by Eric Toledano and Oliver Nakache, it follows a young man as he becomes the caretaker of a disabled aristocrat.
The touching central story advances alongside street-smart dialogue. This contrasts with the high-brow French spoken by the aristocrat. As such, there’s a lot for language learners to learn here, and it’s a film well worth dipping into.
La Grande Vadrouille
La Grande Vadrouille is super popular with French audiences, but less well-known outside of France. It’s a period comedy directed by Gerard Our. It tells the story of a British bomber crew that crash landed in second world war-France. Rather than turn them in, a merry band of French civilians actually help them escape.
It sounds more like a thriller, but we can assure you that this is comedy gold! The movie pokes fun at French stereotypes. It’s ideal for beginners, intermediate language learners – and anyone else with a sense of humour.
Persepolis
Persepolis isn’t actually set in France (for the most part, anyway) but it’s still a great movie for French language learners to watch.
It’s an animated movie for adults. It tells the story of a young woman growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Based on a graphic novel, the whole animation is monochrome but it’s an absolute delight. There’s lots of drama but there are also dollops of comedy here and there, too.
It’s great for intermediate language learners because there’s some great dialogue in here. Even better, it’s all spoken at a steady pace. There’s also lots of voiceover, too.
La Belle Verte
This wacky French sci-fi comedy is a real treat. Directed by Coline Serreau, it’s aimed at families and the director herself even stars in it as the main character. She plays a 150-year-old alien who arrives in Paris after her masters decide that us humans could really do with a bit of peace, self-realisation and harmony.
Ha!
The is a great film for language learners. As well as being great entertainment, it contains characters who speak slowly. They explain concepts about the environment and nature. It gets philosophical as they contemplate the importance of nature in our lives. A must-see on our list of top French movies to help you learn French.
Tanguy
Etienne Chatiliez directed this infamous French black comedy that centres around a man who has never left the family home. His mother, though, who promised him he could live with his parents forever, eventually does everything in her power to get him to move out!
It’s hilarious stuff and French learners at both B2 and B1 level will get a lot out of it. You’ll learn something about the language – and we’re sure you’ll laugh a lot, too!
Le diner de cons
Francis Veber’s Le diner de cons is based on a French theatre play. It tells the story of friends who decide to compete with one another to see who can bring the dumbest person to their dinner party.
For one hapless friend, the wager backfires something terribly when his guest screws his life up!
It’s a comedy with a heart that should be super easy to follow for intermediate and even advanced language learners. However, those currently at B2 level should reap the most benefits from it. Despite the fact that it’s not too complicated, it is one of the trickiest movies on this list.
Asterix et Obelix, mission Cleopatre
Ah, you can’t have a French movie list without including an Asterix and Obelix movie!
Adapted from the beloved French comics, Asterix et Obelix, mission Cleopatre finds our heroes Asterix and Obelix travelling to Egypt to help build a palace for the beautiful (if snappy) Cleopatra. It’s a comedy full of belly laughs and puns, which is the prime reason it’s on this list. There’s a lot you can pick up, and it’s definitely worth watching a few times so that you don’t miss anything (the dialogue is quite fast).
If you know some top French movies to help you learn French, why not let us know in the comments!
