Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "french-colony"
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1. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 605,892 | Gross: $1.02M
2. Papillon (1973)
R | 151 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A French convict in the 1930s befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil's Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon
Votes: 138,354 | Gross: $53.27M
3. Papillon (I) (2017)
R | 133 min | Adventure, Biography, Crime
Wrongfully convicted for murder, Henri Charriere forms an unlikely relationship with fellow inmate and quirky convicted counterfeiter, Louis Dega, in an attempt to escape from the notorious penal colony on Devil's Island.
Director: Michael Noer | Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Damijan Oklopdzic, Christopher Fairbank, Jason Ryan
Votes: 86,156 | Gross: $2.34M
4. The Lover (1992)
R | 115 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
In 1929 French Indochina, a French teenage girl embarks on a reckless and forbidden romance with a wealthy, older Chinese man, each knowing that knowledge of their affair will bring drastic consequences to each other.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Jane March, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Jeanne Moreau, Frédérique Meininger
Votes: 23,495 | Gross: $4.90M
5. The Battle of Algiers (1966)
Not Rated | 121 min | Drama, War
In the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo | Stars: Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Samia Kerbash
Votes: 65,640 | Gross: $0.06M
6. Indochine (1992)
PG-13 | 160 min | Drama, Romance, War
Eliane adopts Camille, whose Vietnamese parents were friends. In 1930, a French navy officer is interested in Eliane (owns 60km2 plantation) and later in Camille. There's an uprising in Vietnam against French colonial power.
Director: Régis Wargnier | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Perez, Linh-Dan Pham, Jean Yanne
Votes: 10,944 | Gross: $5.73M
7. Two Brothers (2004)
PG | 109 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
Two tigers are separated as cubs and taken into captivity, only to be reunited years later as enemies by an explorer who inadvertently forces them to fight each other.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Guy Pearce, Freddie Highmore, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Oanh Nguyen
Votes: 15,900 | Gross: $18.95M
8. Red Dust (1932)
Passed | 83 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The owner of a rubber plantation becomes involved with the new wife of one of his employees.
Director: Victor Fleming | Stars: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Gene Raymond, Mary Astor
Votes: 4,929 | Gross: $1.70M
9. White Material (2009)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama, War
Amidst turmoil and racial conflict in a Francophone African state, a white French woman fights for her coffee crop, her family and ultimately for her life.
Director: Claire Denis | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Lambert, Isaach De Bankolé, Nicolas Duvauchelle
Votes: 8,424 | Gross: $0.30M
10. Clean Slate (1981)
Not Rated | 128 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A pathetic police chief, humiliated by everyone around him, suddenly wants a clean slate in life - and resorts to drastic means to do so.
Director: Bertrand Tavernier | Stars: Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Marielle
Votes: 6,714
11. Simone: Woman of the Century (2022)
140 min | Biography, Drama, History
Explores the life of Simone Veil -- the famous French figure who survived the Holocaust and went on to become a leading politician, human rights campaigner, and feminist -- through a series of non-chronological memories
Director: Olivier Dahan | Stars: Elsa Zylberstein, Rebecca Marder, Élodie Bouchez, Judith Chemla
Votes: 1,436
12. Sirocco (1951)
Passed | 98 min | Action, Drama, Film-Noir
A cynical American expatriate gets involved in smuggling and gun-running for the rebels during the 1925 Syrian insurgency against French occupation.
Director: Curtis Bernhardt | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lee J. Cobb, Märta Torén, Everett Sloane
Votes: 2,666
13. Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
TV-PG | 86 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Anne Chevalier, Matahi, Hitu, Bill Bambridge
Votes: 6,382
14. The Rebel (2007)
R | 103 min | Action, Drama, Romance
France employs local secret agents in Vietnam 1922 to eliminate resistance. The rebel leader's pretty daughter gets captured. Later an agent seems to have fallen in love with her and helps her escape. He flees, too. Lots of martial arts.
Director: Charlie Nguyen | Stars: Johnny Tri Nguyen, Veronica Ngo, Dustin Nguyen, Thang Nguyen
Votes: 2,370
15. Muriel (1963)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama
In the seaside town of Boulogne, no one seems to be able to cope with their past, least of all Hélène, an antique furniture saleswoman, her stepson Bernard, and her former lover Alphonse.
Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Nita Klein, Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée
Votes: 3,731
16. The Housemaid (2016)
Not Rated | 105 min | Horror, Romance
When an orphaned Vietnamese girl is hired to be a housemaid at a haunted rubber plantation in 1953 French Indochina, she unexpectedly falls in love with the French landowner and awakens the... See full summary »
Director: Derek Nguyen | Stars: Nhung Kate, Jean-Michel Richaud, Kim Xuan, Svitlana Kovalenko
Votes: 898
17. The Rabbi's Cat (2011)
Not Rated | 100 min | Animation, Comedy, Fantasy
Set in Algeria in the 1920s, a rabbi's cat who learns how to speak after swallowing the family parrot expresses his desire to convert to Judaism.
Directors: Antoine Delesvaux, Joann Sfar | Stars: François Morel, Hafsia Herzi, Maurice Bénichou, Jean-Pierre Kalfon
Votes: 3,764 | Gross: $0.02M
18. Outside the Law (2010)
R | 138 min | Crime, Drama, War
A drama about the Algerian struggle for independence from France after WWII.
Director: Rachid Bouchareb | Stars: Jamel Debbouze, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila, Chafia Boudraa
Votes: 4,117
19. Widow of St. Pierre (2000)
R | 112 min | Drama, History, Romance
In a small French colony, a drunken man kills someone. While a guillotine is being shipped in, he changes, becoming a good and popular man.
Director: Patrice Leconte | Stars: Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteuil, Emir Kusturica, Michel Duchaussoy
Votes: 5,731 | Gross: $3.06M
20. Rebellion (2011)
136 min | Action, Drama, History
Dissidents in a French overseas territory attack a police station and take hostages.
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz | Stars: Mathieu Kassovitz, Iabe Lapacas, Malik Zidi, Alexandre Steiger
Votes: 2,878
21. The 317th Platoon (1965)
100 min | War
In Vietnam, 1954, a French platoon isolated behind enemy lines tries to come back. It is led by the inexperienced, idealistic sous-lieutenant Torrens, and by adjutant Willsdorf, a WWII veteran of the Wehrmacht.
Director: Pierre Schoendoerffer | Stars: Jacques Perrin, Bruno Cremer, Pierre Fabre, Manuel Zarzo
Votes: 1,655
22. Un barrage contre le Pacifique (2008)
116 min | Drama
A troubled mother's spirit crumbles when her adult children strike out for independence. Feeling abandoned she contemplates taking drastic action.
Director: Rithy Panh | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Gaspard Ulliel, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Randal Douc
Votes: 868
23. Battle of the Brave (2004)
PG-13 | 143 min | Drama, History, Romance
In the mid-18th Century, as England and France battle over control of Canada, an epic romance between a peasant woman and a trapper unfurls.
Director: Jean Beaudin | Stars: Noémie Godin-Vigneau, David La Haye, Juliette Gosselin, Sébastien Huberdeau
Votes: 1,364
24. Héliopolis (2021)
116 min | Drama, History
In region of Guelma, a small village called Heliopolis , the daily life of an Algerian family takes its usual course. But on May 8, 1945, the day the end of World War II was announced, ... See full summary »
Director: Djaffar Gacem | Stars: Aziz Boukrouni, Mehdi Ramdani, Souhila Mallem, Alexis Rangheard
Votes: 385
25. Terror's Advocate (2007)
Unrated | 135 min | Documentary, Biography, History
A documentary on Jacques Vergès, the controversial lawyer and former Free French Forces guerrilla who has defending unpopular figures such as Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy.
Director: Barbet Schroeder | Stars: Jacques Vergès, Klaus Barbie, Barbet Schroeder, Bassam Abu Sharif
Votes: 1,698 | Gross: $0.04M
26. Le Crabe-Tambour (1977)
120 min | Adventure, Drama, War
A dying mariner, full of regret, is looking for his longtime colleague somewhere on the high seas.
Director: Pierre Schoendoerffer | Stars: Jean Rochefort, Claude Rich, Jacques Perrin, Aurore Clément
Votes: 927
27. Aventure malgache (1944)
Not Rated | 32 min | Short, War
While preparing backstage, an actor tells his castmates about an adventure he had during World War II in the Axis-controlled French colony of Madagascar working for the Resistance and clashing with the collaborationist local police chief.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Paul Bonifas, Paul Clarus, Jean Dattas, Andre Frere
Votes: 1,726
28. Murder in the Pacific (2023)
Documentary
The efforts by the New Zealand authorities to solve the case of who bombed the Rainbow Warrior ship in 1985, which resulted in the death of one of the crew.
Stars: Chris Martin, Peter Willcox, Bunny McDiarmid, Pierre Joxe
Votes: 80
29. Equator (1983)
85 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Novel-based crime drama about naive Timar, who goes to Gabon, French Equatorial Africa in the 1950s with dreams of making fortune. He's seduced by Adele, a shady owner of a local hotel, Libreville, who uses him to commit murder.
Director: Serge Gainsbourg | Stars: Francis Huster, Barbara Sukowa, Reinhard Kolldehoff, François Dyrek
Votes: 138
30. Les enfants du placard (1977)
105 min | Drama
Nicolas has an appointment with his sister Juliette. They are bound by a heavy secret of childhood: their mother committed suicide while their father had charged Nicolas to keep her. Since ... See full summary »
Director: Benoît Jacquot | Stars: Brigitte Fossey, Lou Castel, Jean Sorel, Georges Marchal
Votes: 82
31. Strange Confession (1944)
Approved | 92 min | Drama, War
In World War 2 an escaped murderer who takes the identity of a dead soldier becomes a hero fighting in Africa, but his past catches up with him.
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Jean Gabin, Richard Whorf, Allyn Joslyn, Ellen Drew
Votes: 223
32. Imperial Venus (1962)
PG | 140 min | Drama, History, Romance
This loose biopic relates the adult life of Paolina (Paulette), the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte. She is portrayed as a willful, yet impulsive woman, through her marriages and scandals, through the heights and depths of Napoleon's life.
Director: Jean Delannoy | Stars: Gina Lollobrigida, Stephen Boyd, Raymond Pellegrin, Micheline Presle
Votes: 205
33. Missing Husbands (1921)
Not Rated | 172 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery
Two men, lost in the desert, meet Queen Antinea, ruler of Atlantis.
Director: Jacques Feyder | Stars: Jean Angelo, Georges Melchior, Marie-Louise Iribe, Stacia Napierkowska
Votes: 426
34. Secret Service in Darkest Africa (1943)
Approved | 243 min | Action, Adventure, War
An American secret agent travels to Africa to infiltrate a German spy ring.
Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet | Stars: Rod Cameron, Joan Marsh, Duncan Renaldo, Lionel Royce
Votes: 113
35. The Heart of a Nation (1943)
113 min | Drama, War
The story of how the people of Paris cope with the strains and struggles of war, from the siege of the city by the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 to the invasion by the Germans in World War II.
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Raimu, Michèle Morgan, Louis Jouvet, Suzy Prim
Votes: 144
36. Africa, I Will Fleece You (1992)
Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, History
A documentary examining political repression in Cameroon, Central Africa.
Director: Jean-Marie Téno | Stars: Jean-Marie Téno, Narcisse Kouokam, Marie Claire Dati, Essindi Mindja
Votes: 110
37. Pondichéry, juste avant l'oubli (1986)
52 min
In Pondicherry in 1951, during the transfer of the French Indian territories from French governance to the Indian union, 3 children from a noble family must choose their destiny: to remain French despite their origin or to integrate India.
Director: Joël Farges | Stars: Jean Larroquette, Sunayana Panda Shukla, Maurice Shukla, Sounie Shukla
38. Break Free: Two People. Two Years. One Dream (2019)
120 min | Documentary, Adventure
When Lena and Ulli start the engine of their old Land Rover, Lady Terés, they have a plan: to drive from Hamburg to South Africa in six months. What they don't know yet is that they won't ... See full summary »
Director: Lena Wendt | Stars: Ulrich Stirnat, Lena Wendt, Fufu, Ziza
Votes: 254
39. Lotfi (2015)
170 min | Action, Biography, Drama
The film relates the career of Colonel Lotfi, whose real name is Benali Boudghene, since his beginnings as an activist in Tlemcen where, with his classmates from high school, he posted the ... See full summary »
Director: Ahmed Rachedi | Stars: Youcef Sehairi, Ahmed Rezzak, Hassan Kechache, Boulem Zeblah
Votes: 16
40. The Algerian War, 1954-1962 (1984)
280 min | Documentary, History, War
The Algerian War was a momentous struggle for independence from France by Algerian nationalists between 1954 and 1962. This eight-year conflict caused the fall of six French Prime Ministers... See full summary »
Star: Jim Norton
Votes: 17
41. Mission of Danger (1960)
80 min | Adventure, Western, War
Digest of 3 "Northwest Passage" (1958) 30-minute episodes: 2 by director George Waggner, and the central episode, 'The Break-Out' (first aired 19 October 1958), by Jacques Tourneur.
Directors: Jacques Tourneur, George Waggner | Stars: Keith Larsen, Buddy Ebsen, Don Burnett, Taina Elg
Votes: 142
42. A Yank in Indo-China (1952)
Passed | 67 min | Action, Adventure, History
Mulvaney (John Archer) and Cling Marshall (Douglas Dick), operators of a small-cargo airline which flies food into French and Viet Namese forces fighting the Communists invaders, are asked ... See full summary »
Director: Wallace Grissell | Stars: John Archer, Douglas Dick, Jean Willes, Maura Murphy
Votes: 29
43. Escape from Devil's Island (1935)
Approved | 64 min | Drama, Romance
Johanna Harrington waits eagerly at her cottage on the edge of the jungle that flanks the Devil's Island penal colony for the arrival of her father Steve Garrington, her sweetheart Dario, ... See full summary »
Director: Albert S. Rogell | Stars: Victor Jory, Florence Rice, Norman Foster, Stanley Andrews
Votes: 27
44. Chasing Danger (1939)
Approved | 60 min | Action, Adventure
When American newsreel cameraman stationed in Paris is sent to cover an Arab rebellion he finds a financier presumed dead but actually fomenting desert warfare.
Director: Ricardo Cortez | Stars: Preston Foster, Lynn Bari, Wally Vernon, Henry Wilcoxon
Votes: 37
45. Bethsabée (1947)
97 min | Drama
Arabella, a beautiful woman with a turbulent past, joins her lover, Captain Dubreuil, in a remote place of Morocco. Another officer, Captain Sommerville, who happens to be her former lover,... See full summary »
Director: Léonide Moguy | Stars: Danielle Darrieux, Georges Marchal, Jean Murat, Paul Meurisse
Votes: 46
46. Tomahawk (1957– )
30 min | Adventure, Family, History
The adventures of the French explorer and fur trader, Pierre Esprit Radisson.
Stars: Jacques Godin, René Caron, Roland Lepage, Lionel Villeneuve
Votes: 17
47. The Brides of Bourbon Island (2007– )
190 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In the seventeenth century , beautiful women of Madagascar are unwillingly sent beyond the seas to distant French colonies and married off to wealthy French colonials.
Stars: Jean-Yves Berteloot, Sara Martins, Cécile Cassel, Marie Piot
Votes: 28
48. Gerboise bleue (2009)
90 min | Documentary
A documentary about the controversial and secret French nuclear testings in Algeria.
Director: Djamel Ouahab
Votes: 7
49. Afrique 50 (1950)
17 min | Documentary, Short
Documentary about the living conditions in a small Ivorian village during French colonization.
Director: René Vautier | Star: René Vautier
Votes: 321
50. Mediterranean Ports of Call (1941)
Approved | 9 min | Documentary, Short
A James A. FitzPatrick short in his Traveltalk series, concentrating on the ports of Algiers and Monaco in the Mediterranean.
Director: James A. FitzPatrick | Star: James A. FitzPatrick
Votes: 82