Those French thrillers ...

[Wllm Clys Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Wllm Clys]

I'm a big fan of French thrillers such as Les Yeux Sans Visage, Diabolique, Le Boucher, ... I'm trying to figure out if there is anything that connects them besides the fact that they were made by Frenchmen. Is there such a thing as the French thriller style?

I noticed that those films tend to have a very slow tension build-up and keep you on the edge of your seat for two hours. That's all I can come up with. Anything else? :)

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

The slow burn is definitely a linking characteristic. Many of them deal with upper class/rich/elitist characters too, especially those made by Chabrol.

[paul h. woly boly Find all posts View Profile Close paul h.]

It's hard to go wrong with Henri-Georges Clouzot, who directed DIABOLIQUE. Check out at least THE WAGES OF FEAR, if you haven't already.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

It's hard to talk about French cinema without sounding pretentious. So I won't. I love the suspenseful build-up and personality explorations of French thrillers. Especially the Clouzot and Melville films. Neither director made enough films. Clouzot's LE PRISIONAIRE is a suspense film about a woman who can't stop herself from going too far into S&M. It's very suspenseful and needs a release. A few of his best films have never been released on DVD. I have everything by Chabrol that's on DVD and a couple of blus. Criterion has the blu rights to most of his films, I understand, but they don't seem to intend to release any more of them. I picked up Jose Giovanni's TWO MEN IN TOWN (1973) with Delon & Gabin and Alain Corneau's LOVE CRIME (2010) with Ludvienne Sagnier and Kristin Scott-Thomas. Haven't watched them yet.

The Gaumont MOD program has tons of French thrillers I want to see ... but they are not English friendly.