+2
Rather than an all time top 5, I'll just list the 5 best french films I"ve seen (for the first time!) this year.
5) Le vieil homme et l'enfant - The Two of Us (1967) - Berri
A young Jewish boy is sent to live with an elderly couple in the countryside. He's being hidden from the Nazis during the occupation. He tries to fathom what a Jew is from jumbled rants of the mildly anti-semitic but loving old man.
4) My Night at Maud's (1969) - Rohmer
A talky intellectual film about love and faith. I liked this because, the characters revealed themselves through what they said, instead of their actions and deeds.
3) L"Art d'aimer - The Art of Love (2011) - Mouret
Mouret takes the premise from his last film "Please, please me" where a man must absolutely have an affair and applies this comically to four couples. Typical, dead pan humor. Mouret seems to mature as a filmmaker with each successive film, so his latest offering always seems his best.
2) The Names of love (2011) - Leclerc
A nice comedic mediation on how national identity forms society and deforms the individual.
1) Pourquoi tu pleures? - Bachelor Days are over (2011) - Lewkowski
A twenty something man gets cold feet a couple days before his marriage. Great casting, most of the characters literally come alive seconds after their first screen appearance. Plus the French family unit contrasts wonderfully with her close-knit ethnic family.