Musicals are one of the most fun types of movies. The songs are often very catchy and stay in your head for hours after the film is over. There are some great American musicals like Singing in the Rain, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, etc. but there are also some great French musicals. From the 1930s to the 2000s, we’ve made a list of 10 of the must-see French musicals you must watch if you’re a fan of this genre.
We are certain you’ll be humming some of the songs from these movies for the rest of the week! And it’s a good thing, since singing French lyrics can help you better learn French! Indeed, we published some articles about French music hits you can dance and sing along.
French Musicals to Watch
À nous la liberté (1931)
If you’re into vintage French musicals, this one is for you. À nous la liberté is considered to be René Clair’s best work. It was very well-received but there was some controversy when Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times came out in 1936 since there were some similarities in some of the scenes. This comedic film tells the story of an escaped convict, Louis, who makes a life for himself and becomes a wealthy businessman who owns a factory. His old jail friend Émile reunites with Louis which doesn’t make Louis too happy. This feel-good movie will make you laugh and is a great depiction of the modern industrial society of the 1930s.
Lola (1961)
This drama-romance film was part of the French New Wave cinema. This was the first film Jacques Demy directed. The film is set in Nantes, France, after WWII where the protagonist, a young man named Roland Cassard, accidentally meets a woman named Lola he used to know before the war. She is now a cabaret dancer with a seven-year-old son and no husband since he abandoned her. Roland falls for her but he’s not the only one looking to capture her heart. An American sailor named Frankie also falls for her but she doesn’t give him any attention.
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1964)
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg is not like a typical musical where there are some dialogue and some musical numbers: the whole movie is sung! It was critically acclaimed and received many awards include a Palme d’Or at Cannes and a Globe de Cristal. It’s one of the most famous French musicals.
This was Catherine Deneuve’s first big role that propelled her to stardom, and Jacques Demy (the director) saw Deneuve as his muse. The story chronicles the romance between a shopgirl and a mechanic. The movie is set during the Algerian war so the mechanic is enlisted in the war and must leave. She gets pregnant with him and marries an older man and tries to move on from her first real love.
Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967)
This is another Jacques Demy-Catherine Deneuve musical. This movie also stars Deneuve’s sister, Françoise Dorléac and American star Gene Kelly (Singing in the Rain). It was nominated for an Oscar for Music (score of a musical picture-original or adaptation) in 1969. This film tells the story of twin sisters (Delphine and Solange) who both want to find romance and leave their small-town. Both girls love to sing and dance and when a crew of carnival workers stop in their town, they ask the two ladies to sing during the carnival. Solange falls in love with a musician and Delphine ditches her man to find a better one.
Peau d’âne (1970)
Again, here is a Jacques Demy & Catherine Deneuve musical. The film was inspired by the 17th-century French fairy tale with the same name written by Charles Perrault. It was not as well-received as their other collaborations but it is still a must-see of French cinema and French musicals. If you don’t already know the story of this fairytale, then here it is: this young princess is forced to marry her father when he becomes widowed. His wife told him he could only marry a woman that is more beautiful than her so his daughter is the only choice. The princess runs away from her castle, desperate to escape this fate, and disguises herself as a donkey with the help of a magical fairy, and falls in love with a prince along the way.
Une chambre en ville (1982)
Une chambre en ville is another film directed by Jacques Demy, but this time it does not star Catherine Deneuve but Dominique Sanda and Danielle Darrieux. Demy’s film was inspired by the workers’ strike in Nantes in 1955. Like in Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, every line is sung. The film was nominated for nine César awards (the French equivalent of the Oscars) including Best Film and Best Music. The film is about a shipyard worker named François Guilbaud who has an affair with a young woman who’s unhappily married. They plan to run away together but alas, this is a dramatic love story, not a simple happy one.
On connait la chanson (1997)
This is not the most typical musical or a Jacques Demy kind of musical but we still thought we’d add it to the list. It did win some César awards for Best Film, Best original screenplay, Best actor, and many more. This film tells the story of half a dozen Parisians who are all intertwined in some way. Instead of singing an original score, the characters lip-sync some classic French hits like Jane Birkin’s Quoi, Édith Piaf’s J’m’en fous pas mal, and Dalida and Alain Delon’s Paroles, paroles. The story mainly revolves around a Parisian couple (Odile and Claude), their relationship woes, and their relationship towards the other characters.
Les Choristes (2004)
Les Choristes is a drama film and an adaptation of the 1945 film A Cage of Nightingales. A very successful orchestra conductor named Pierre Morhange returns to his homeland (France) when his mother dies. He meets up with an old boarding school friend and they read their music teacher’s diary named Clément Mathieu from that time. The movie goes back in time, when Pierre is a young boy, just arriving at the boarding school for difficult boys. A new choir teacher (Clément Mathieu) arrives at the school and completely transforms the lives of the boys in a positive way through music. The movie was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars in 2005 and it’s a classic French movie you should watch.
Les Chansons d’Amour (2007)
This film was a kind of ode to Jacques Demy’s Les Parapluies de Cherbourg and his other films since the director was inspired to divide the film into three parts: The Departure, The Absence, and The Return. He also had Chiara Mastroianni (Catherine Deneuve’s daughter) appear in the film and as adds other small nods to Demy’s other classics. The story is about a blissfully happy couple, Ismael and Julie, both fall in love/invite another woman, Alice, into their lives (and love life). The three of them become a couple but an unexpected death threatens to end all the love between the three.
Faubourg 36 (2008)
Faubourg 36 is a film set in 1930s Paris during the early Second World War. One of the songs from this musical Loin de Paname was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song and was also nominated for a few César awards. The story is about a man, Germain Pigoil, who runs a vaudeville (a variety entertainment theatre with various musical acts) but an entrepreneur wants to put him out of business and his wife runs off with her lover and wants their son’s full custody. The entrepreneur and Germain make a deal to keep the vaudeville open. A young and beautiful woman with an astounding voice joins their troupe and creates a buzz around the theatre.
What are your favorite French musicals?
