The 100 Greatest Films From France (Belgium and Netherlands) - Dennis Grunes

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The 100 Greatest films from France by the great and underrated film critic, Dennis Grunes;

July 2009. Below you will find what I consider to be a a given moment on a given day the one hundred best films from France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland. Each film is given a 295-300-word entry. The first 15, a stab at my most favorites of these films, are given in order of preference ; the remaining 85, in chronological order—and in alphabetical order where there are multiple titles for a given year.
There are certain omissions. Obviously, films I haven’t seen or have forgotten seeing cannot be included. Also, films in Africa, such as those by Jean Rouch, as well as Jean-Louis Bertucelli’s Ramparts of Clay, have already been included in a previous list of mine, The 100 Greatest Films from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and are not included again here, for no other reason than to give other films a chance. You should also be forewarned that nothing or no filmmaker has been included for purely historical interest or importance. Cinéaste Olivier Stockman has reasonably suggested that Georges Méliès ought to be represented because, in addition to his “personality and vitality,” “his work created a vital link between the live show and the concept of cinema going as a legitimate form of entertainment/art.” Alas, the few films of Méliès that I have seen do not strike my fancy—although the one a bit of which is shown in Heddy Honigmann’s Forever (2006), a film included in this list, absolutely amazes me, and I describe it in my entry on Honigmann’s film. So, in a way, Méliès is included in the list below.
In any case, 100 is a hard number, and various inclusions and omissions are bound to disappoint. (Why is there nothing by Jacques Becker, Henri-Georges Clouzot or Albert Lamorisse?) However, I have done my best, and it is possible that a film possessing multiple nationalities is included in one of the other lists. Jon Jost’s Oui non (2002) posed a different problem, though. Officially, it is a film from Italy but was shot in Paris with everyone speaking French.