Running Date: Oct-Dec 2026

No national cinema outside North America has a more distinguished record in making crime films than France. With roots in prewar ‘Poetic Realism’, French crime cinema really came into its own in the decades immediately following World War II. Literary influences, from Georges Simenon’s Maigret to the long-running ‘Série Noire’ book series, and an abiding debt to Hollywood helped shape the genre. But the distinctive voices of major filmmakers such as Jacques Becker, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jean-Pierre Melville and Claude Chabrol, and the indelible screen images of great stars such as Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon, ensured that French crime films had a unique style all their own.

This course looks at four key examples of French crime cinema, each from a different decade, to examine the characteristics and creative achievements of the genre and how it changed over the years. Becker’s Touchez pas au grisbi set the pattern for the French gangster film, with its theme of thieves falling out. Melville’s Le Samouraï is a dazzling film noir in colour, with Alain Delon in his signature role. Chabrol’s Le Boucher, hailed on its release as the greatest French film since the Liberation, is part of the New Wave director’s cycle on middle-class murder. And Luc Besson’s Subway represents a ‘New New Wave’ of highly stylised thrillers aimed at young, international audiences and showcasing stars such as Christophe Lambert and Isabelle Adjani. Join us for a journey into the gallic underworld!

Tutor:

Dr Sheldon Hall is an Emeritus Fellow of Sheffield Hallam University and the author of numerous articles and books about cinema history. He has been teaching Film Studies courses at the Showroom since 1998.