1957 Charlotte et Véronique ++++ short romantic comedy
1958 Charlotte et son Jules ++++ broad comedy
1960 À bout de souffle ++++ metafictional film noir crime drama thriller
1960 Le Petit Soldat ++++ political drama thriller
1961 Une Femme est une femme ++++ metafictional musical romantic comedy
1962 La Paresse ++++ metafictional philosophical comedy
1962 Vivre sa vie ++++ sociopsychological drama
1963 Le Nouveau Monde ++++ post-apocalyptic science fiction
1963 Les Carabiniers ++++ metafictional war drama combat film
1963 Le Mépris ++++ self-reflexive romantic film-making drama
1964 Montparnasse et Levallois ++++ romantic comedy
1964 Bande à part ++++ metafictional romantic crime drama thriller
1964 Une Femme mariée ++++ metafictional satirical cultural marriage drama
1965 Alphaville ++++ metafictional film noir dystopian science fiction spy thriller
1965 Pierrot le fou ++++ metafictional romantic road crime drama thriller
1966 Masculin féminin ++++ metafictional sociological romantic coming-of-age comedy drama
1966 Made in USA ++++ metafictional political crime drama thriller
1967 2 ou 3 Choses que je sais d’elle ++++ metafictional philosophical sociological drama
1967 Anticipation, ou L’Amour en l’an 2000 ++++ metafictional dystopian science fiction
1967 Caméra-Oeil ++++ political essay film
1967 La Chinoise ++++ metafictional philosophical political comedy drama
1967 Week End ++++ metafictional philosophical political fantasy black road comedy drama
1968 Le Gai Savoir ++++ philosophical political essay film
1968 Un Film comme les autres ++++ political essay film
1968 One Plus One ++++ philosophical political experimental film
1969 British Sounds ++++ political essay film
1970 Le Vent d’est ++++ metafictional philosophical political drama essay film
1971 Lotte in Italia ++++ philosophical political drama essay film
1971 Vladimir et Rosa ++++ metafictional political comedy drama essay film
1972 Tout va bien ++++ metafictional political comedy drama
1972 Letter to Jane ++++ political documentary essay film
1974 Ici et ailleurs ++++ experimental essay film
1975 Numéro deux ++++ metafictional philosophical political drama essay film
1976 Comment ça va ++++ metafictional philosophical political drama essay film
1979 France tour détour deux enfants ++++ philosophical political essay film
1980 Sauve qui peut (la vie) ++++ metafictional psychological drama
1981 Lettre à Freddy Buache ++++ essay film
1982 Passion ++++ lyrical metafictional film-making drama
1982 Scénario du film Passion ++++ philosophical film-making essay film
1983 Prénom Carmen ++++ lyrical metafictional romantic psychological crime film-making drama
1985 Je vous salue Marie ++++ philosophical religious drama
1985 Détective ++++ metafictional romantic crime drama thriller
1985 Soft and Hard (A Soft Conversation between Friends on a Hard Subject) ++++ philosophical film-making essay film
1986 Grandeur et decadence d’un petit commerce de cinéma ++++ metafictional satirical show business crime comedy drama
1986 Meetin’ WA ++++ experimental interview essay film
1987 Soigne ta droite ++++ lyrical metafictional philosophical satirical comedy
1987 King Lear ++++ metafictional philosophical post-apocalypse science fiction drama
1989 Histoire(s) du cinema 1a et 1b ++++ philosophical political cultural historical essay film
1990 Nouvelle Vague ++++ metafictional philosophical sociopolitical allegorical romantic drama
1991 Allemagne année 90 neuf zéro ++++ metafictional philosophical political drama essay film
1993 Les Enfants jouent à la Russie ++++ philosophical political cultural metafictional/essay film
1993 Hélas pour moi ++++ metafictional philosophical religious drama
1994 Je vous salue Sarajevo ++++ philosophical political cultural essay film
1994 JLG/JLG: Autoportrait de décembre ++++ metafictional philosophical comedy drama essay film
1994 Histoire(s) du cinema 2a et 2b ++++ philosophical cultural historical essay film
1995 2 X 50 Ans de cinéma français ++++ philosophical political cultural historical essay film
1995 Histoire(s) du cinema 3a et 3b ++++ philosophical political cultural historical essay film
1996 For Ever Mozart ++++ metafictional political philosophical war film-making drama
1996-97 Histoire(s) du cinema 4a et 4b ++++ philosophical political cultural historical essay film
2000 De l’origine du XXIe siècle ++++ political philosophical historical essay film
2001 Éloge de l’amour ++++ metafictional political philosophical drama
2001 Dans le noir du temps ++++ philosophical essay film
2004 Notre Musique ++++ metafictional philosophical political war drama
2010 Film socialisme ++++ metafictional philosophical satirical cultural political drama
2010 Maurice Schérer ++++ essay film
2014 Adieu au langage ++++ metafictional lyrical philosophical political drama/essay film
(I'm less sure of my use of the label "experimental" that I've used in a (very) few of these descriptions. I may have put that in as a vague, undefined signifier for something I wasn't able to conceptualize more precisely at the moment of viewing.)
*A note on the use of the genre identifier "lyrical" in some of these labels/descriptions (such as
Passion and
Prénom Carmen, and
Adieu au langage), as in a "lyrical narrative film". This also is borrowed from Groben's theory, when he talks about "associative lyricism". I gather that "lyrical" here (especially if divorced from narrative) becomes closer to something like "experimental".
“To create a lyrical sequence we have to reduce or totally block the possibilities of constructing a stable hypothetical time-space with well-defined agents and objects… (T)he space loses its qualities of ‘space of acts’ and becomes ‘space of purposeless subjective perception’... Because of its lack of enactive agents and distinct objects, lyricism is... non-narrative, and its main 'dynamic' means are visual rhythm and oscillation, supplemented by motion from the represented world (especially the 'romantic' world produced by the motion of wind and waves)...
(T)he concrete identity of an object can be diminished by activating associative connections, especially if this takes place at a lower or a higher level than the typical level of focus of attention. If we juxtapose images of ‘eyes’, ‘flowers’ and ‘sun, we will create metaphoric associations between the objects by means of a ‘lower’ level than the typical focus of attention. One feature, ‘roundness’, is the basis of the association, and this ‘breaks up’ the perception of the discreteness of the singular, composite object; the object is experienced as a set of features associated with similar features in others objects. This activates ‘lyrical’ associative networks in consciousness, in which the objects are linked at feature level (say, roundness)… All narrative films consist of a combination of a thematic-achronic and a narrative-dischronic level, but in some films the thematic-achronic level abstracts and subsumes the concrete-composite narrative and creates feelings of atemporal, allegorical meanings and truths that are lyrical-saturated rather than narrative-tense. In musicals we often see lyrical-paratelic sequences based on ‘abstraction’: the concrete love-narrative is interrupted in order to abstract it into ‘love’ in general.”(p. 164-165)
- Torben Grodal, Moving Pictures: A New Theory of Film Genres, Feelings, and Cognition (1997)