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Michigan State University

French Film: Free Web Sites

This is a guide to finding French films available in the M.S.U. Libraries. Last updated 06-05-2023

Free Web Sites

Amazon.fr

Search in the DVD/Blu-ray or Prime Video sections. 

Box Office Mojo

Box Office Mojo is the leading online box-office reporting service. Box Office Mojo is owned and operated by IMDb Internet Movie Database.

Culturetheque Watch

This link goes to the "Watch" section of Culturetheque, the Alliance Francaise's website.

DaaVeeDee.com

Site says they have a large selection of foreign, independent, arthouse, classic and cult import DVDs and Blu-Rays in the USA.  Notice the facets it is possible to search, along the left side of the screen: actors/writers/directors, film festivals, countries, filmed between various date ranges, etc.

Directory of World Cinema

This is a database of peer-reviewed critical articles written by scholars and students of international films.  There is a print counterpart for France, see first section.

European Film Gateway

The EFG Portal gives you quick access to hundreds of thousands of film historical documents as preserved in European film archives and cinémathèques: photos, posters, programmes, periodicals, censorship documents, rare feature and documentary films, newsreels and other materials. Targeted at scientific researchers and the interested public alike, the EFG offers a look at and behind the scenes of filmmaking in Europe from the early days until today.

Does not contain links to the films themselves, but, in the sense that visuals about the films are primary sources, this resource does offer visual primary sources.

Europeana Migration

 

A sub-collection of Europeana, a website described above in this list.  Offers photographs, artworks, documents, sounds, videos and more on the topic of migration to, from and within Europe, gathered from museums, galleries, libraries, audio-visual archives and archives across Europe, in English or other European languages.  Funded by the European Commission and its member states. Co-funded by the European Union.

 

French Culture

This site aims to provide Americans with resources on all aspects of French culture: literature, performing arts, film, television, higher education, grant programs, and French language.  Find out when/where French culture events happen, such as art exhibits, film showings, book signings, music festivals/performances.  Sections:  Books, film, TV and new media, visual and performing arts.  Interviews and video clips and links to French TV channels may be streamed online free of charge, even in the U.S.

IMDb Internet Movie Database

Directory type information, summary of the film content, user contributed reviews. 

Internet Movie Script Database French Scripts

They say they have the "biggest collection of movie scripts available anywhere on the web."  Their site lets you read or download movie scripts for free.  They are in HTML format and can be read in your web browser, they say, without needing additional software.  There are only a few French ones.

Lumiere

Lumière (originally known as the Library of Foreign Language Film Clips) was created by the U. of Cal. Berkeley Language Center in 2008. This online library contains 20,706 clips drawn from 7,397 films in 191 languages. Clips and films in Lumière may be used only as part of a course offered by not-for-profit educational institutions for students registered for credit at that institution. It's free to use but requires an institutional agreement; MSU does not have an institutional agreement.  Contact the French studies subject librarian if you are interested in this.
 

Margaret Herrick Library Digital Collection

Housed in the Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in Beverly Hills, Cal., this Library was established in 1928, the year after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded.  It is name for the long time librarian there, Margaret Herrick.  It is a reference and research collection on the history and development of the motion picture as an art form and as an industry.  Open to public.  Materials are non-circulating.  Some resources are available digitally here.  On the advanced search page putting in French actresses or French film did retrieve some results.

Moving Image Archive

This is a subsection of the broader Internet Archive hosting materials freely available in the public domain.  All subjects.  2.5 million plus items.  Includes a library of short, silent, and feature films; the Democracy Now! independent news programs; and the Prelinger Archives, a vast assortment of ephemeral recordings assembled and deposited by filmmaker-archivist Rick Prelinger.  Browsing is the most effective means of exploring this site.  Simple keyword searching is possible.  Metadata quality varies.

My French Film Festival

Some of the short ones might be freely accessible.

National Film Board of Canada

Welcome to NFB.ca, the National Film Board of Canada's award-winning online Screening Room, featuring over 3,000 productions. Films on this site can be streamed free of charge, or downloaded for your personal use for a small fee. Collection includes documentaries, animations, experimental films, fiction and interactive works. See films that take a stand on issues of global importance that matter to Canadians—stories about the environment, human rights, international conflict, the arts and more. Includes animated films for both adults and children.  Films for all ages, in both French and English.

Telescope Film

"A resource for finding international film online...  A a database of 450,000 films, which users can search by title, country, language, genre, etc. We will tell them everything that’s out there, if it’s available to watch online, and where.  Then they can click through to the streaming service of their choice (we're connected to 110).  The site is free to use."  Tells where films are distributed.  Can take a long time to load.
 
Might have some free French language learning resources
 

UniFrance French Cinema Worldwide

Offers news about French films abroad, some short films for free, info about film festivals, short bios of people in the industry, and news about feature films.

VideoLib

This used to be is an e-list hosted by U.C. Berkeley.  Now its archives are available in Mail Archive.  You can look here in its archives for advice about films.  

Visions du Reel

Visions du Réel (Visions of Reality) is an internationally renowned documentary film festival held in April each year in Nyon, Switzerland. Established in 1969 as the Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, the event adopted its current name in 1995 and is the largest Swiss documentary festival. At its inception, the festival promoted Swiss films and films that were otherwise inaccessible — that is, those created in the Eastern Bloc countries behind the Iron Curtain Now it is open to worldwide entries.  Might have some free content, such as posters.