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I never knew the charm of spring
I never met it face to face
I never knew my heart could sing
I never missed a warm embrace

‘Till April in Paris[1]

Doris Day sings the title song in Warner Bros.’ April in Paris (1952), appearing as Ethel S. “Dynamite” Jackson and starring alongside Ray Bolger as S. ”Sam” Winthrop Putnam in a musical tale of mistaken identity and hijinks in Paris – well, they were actually on a soundstage in Burbank made up to look like Paris, but they made the most of it.

I actually visited the real Paris, France[2] for the first time in April – I won a free trip for two a few days before I was married (that was a good week). It was cool and rained on occasion, but I’m originally from Seattle, so that wasn’t an issue. Despite the fact that neither of us spoke more than a few words of bad high school French (and yes, I took my wife) we had a wonderful time. We even saw a movie while we were there (Docteur Patch, in English with French subtitles).

Since then, we’ve watched many a (subtitled) French film – mostly on TV, but occasionally in the theater. For those in the Los Angeles area, we highly recommend the annual COLCOA (City of Lights, City of Angels) French Film Festival held at the Directors Guild of America’s theater in Hollywood each year. It’s an eclectic mix of features and shorts, fiction and documentary, drama and comedy, live action and animation  – all having their US, North America, or world premieres.

If you’re looking for more of an introduction to French cinema, then I recommend Paste magazine’s list of The 100 Best French Films of All Time. The films on the list have been selected “to provide a primer on French language film from an English-speaking perspective, exploring the schools of thought and exotic taxonomies that have defined what French filmmaking has been since George Méliès first set a moon cackling like a creep in 1902.”

Those who look closely will note that the list of 100 French films actually contains 102 entries – thanks to 3 films that appear at number 66: Marcel Pagnol’s Marseille Trilogy: Marius (1931), Fanny (1932), and César (1936). These, and the 99 other superior examples of French cinema can all be found in the EIDR Registry via their respective EIDR IDs, listed below.

100 Best French Language Films

[1] “April in Paris” from the Broadway musical Walk a Little Faster (1932). Music by Vernon Duke. Lyrics by Yip Harburg.

[2] Not to be confused with Paris, Texas, a 1984 film Included in “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die,” which currently contains 1,210 entries for reasons we won’t go into here.