What are the funniest French films? This article should guide you if you are looking to discover the best French comedies for family fun even for holiday like Christmas. It’s not that easy to organize a family movie night that changes the age-old Disney! Obviously, we have to find a film suitable for the age of our children – but as long as a film that appeals to adults too.
By the way, I would like to reassure future parents: just because we have children, we do not have to watch only Frozen. I regularly rack my brains to come up with original ideas suitable for their age and thought it would be cool to put them together to create a list of films to draw from.
Laugh for health
Evacuate stress, reduce blood pressure, strengthen the immune system, reduce pain, be positive … these are not the effects of a new miracle drug, but those of a technique we all know: laugh.
Here is my selection of the 15 best French comedies to see as a family, sorted by age. I’ve mixed great classics and little-known nuggets in different styles to appeal to everyone. And above all: all these films have been tested and evaluated at home. Whichever one you choose, I guarantee you will have a great laugh and a better health mind!
TOP 15 the funniest French comedies movies of all time
LE GRAND BAIN (THE BIG BATH)
An unemployed depressed fifty-something, Marcus found a taste for life by joining an amateur synchronized swimming club.
With Laurent, Simon, Thierry and the others, they will embark on the crazy project of representing France at the World Championships.
Here is a choral film of the most atypical. You have to see this band of fifties a little flabby, with fading dreams come to heal their wounds in the chlorinated water of the large bath. Choreas are as random as their life paths, but the essential is not there. They’ve already hit the bottom of the pool, so now they can only go up. It doesn’t matter if it’s in style – or not: they’ll take on their role with panache.
It’s beautiful to see these men getting naked, without pretense. This is not about changing the world. They are no longer deluding themselves: the only championship in which they really participate is that of sincerity. What would happen if we showed what we got deep in our guts?
Le grand bain is undoubtedly one of the best French comedies of recent years. If you missed it at the movies, now is your chance to catch up!
Microbe & Gasoline
Daniel and Théo, nicknamed Microbe and Gasoil, are two adolescents marginalized by the other students. During the summer holidays, they decide to build a rolling cabin to explore France on their own. With a lawn mower engine and a few planks, they get to work.
Michel Gondry, the brilliant director of “Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind” (cult film at home) or “L’écume des jours”, has produced one of his most personal projects here. This teenage road movie, handcrafted with little money, reveals all the ingenious tenderness of this great director, little known in France. His two quirky heroes flee a stifling daily life to embark on a wacky adventure, made of odds and ends. They are funny, tender, as fragile as they are endearing. There is so much simplicity and sincerity in this poetic epic that sticks so well to adolescent spleen. Microbe and Gasoil will talk to those who have dreams bigger than the frame assigned to them:
It’s a wonderful movie to watch with our pre-teens.
LE DÎNER DE CONS (The Dinner Game)
Pierre is an editor who takes part in a dinner of idiots every week. Each participant must bring a specimen and whoever finds the best is declared the winner. By unearthing François Pignon, a fan of scale models in matches, he is sure to make a big splash. But not everything is going to go as planned.
Jacques Villeret is exceptional in this role! His candor radiates the film of grace. He emanates such sweetness from his character that one would be unable to blame him for his clumsiness. Opposite him, Thierry Lhermitte and Francis Veber’s line editing work wonders.
No wonder the stupid dinner is regularly cited among the best French comedies.
LA VIE EST UN LONG FLEUVE TRANQUILLE (LIFE IS A LONG, QUIET RIVER)
Nothing predisposed the Le Quesnoy and Groseille families to meet. Both are large families living in the same city, have boys born on the same day – except that one is middle-class and the other in great poverty. One day, they find out that their newborn babies were exchanged when they were born.
By confronting these two families at the opposite end of the social scale, Étienne Chatiliez is not content to do the work of an entomologist. Of course, he pins his characters without missing the slightest opportunity to mock their faults. But behind the vitriolic criticism that spares no one points an immense tenderness and a regular debunking of clichés about social heredity.
From “Monday it’s ravioli” to the priest singing “Jesus is coming”, the cults follow one another. But beyond the comedy scenes, we also watch this film with a nostalgia tinged with defeatism: this social divide has widened even further since then.
Besides, if you liked Life is a Long Quiet River, why not watch the irreverent Tatie Danielle again, another Chatiliez film to be ranked among the best French comedies?
POPULAIRE(POPULAR)
During the first run, she must type at least 360 characters per minute.
Insurance broker in Lisieux, Louis Echard is looking for his new secretary. Fleeing a traced destiny of a stay-at-home mother, Rose Pamphile presents herself. She makes mistakes but types faster than her shadow. Louis Echard offers to hire her, but on one condition: that she train with him for the typing championships.
Popular is a vibrant tribute to the romantic Hollywood comedies of the 1950s. Régis Roinsard has meticulously reconstructed post-war France in a pop version, pitting the grayness of a small provincial town against the glitz of America. The charm of this refreshing comedy is very much due to the duo formed by Déborah François and Romain Duris, both impeccable.
Obviously, Rose the extrovert’s freshness and Régis’s gruff charisma complement each other so well that the training program will quickly slip into a more intimate relationship. But what makes the film so charming are the typing contests filmed like wrestling matches, where no opponent is willing to give ground to the other.
An excellent way to approach the question of feminism in post-war France and to measure the progress made since.
APRÈS VOUS…(AFTER YOU…)
One evening, Antoine saves Louis, who was trying to kill himself. This Good Samaritan decides to help him get his life back on track. He manages to get him hired in the restaurant where he works and goes in search of the woman for whom Louis wanted to die. But this is where it all goes wrong.
I had a hard time choosing only a film by Pierre Salvadori, who is a master of elegant French comedy. He also signed the excellent Cible émouvante and Hors de prix, two other little gems that would also deserve to be in this guide to the best French comedies.
But I have a particular fondness for the unlikely duo that Daniel Auteuil and José Garcia form here, at their best. Salvadori’s films are full of tenderness, each time with a soundtrack that hits the mark. With him we leave the register of comedies which chain gags at all costs to enter a state of grace conducive to reverie.
We are all both the one who wants to change the fate of others and the one who refuses to be saved.
LA CITÉ DE LA PEUR (THE CITY OF FEAR)
Press Secretary Odile Deray goes to the Cannes Film Festival to promote a horror film. The film is so bad that no one is interested in it, but the projectionists who screen it are dying one after the other in strange ways. A police commissioner is then responsible for watching over Odile.
From the credits, it starts strong: the style of Les Nuls is immediately identifiable. It goes in all directions, in a second-degree burlesque that does not respect any narrative code. The film is full of cinematographic references, enjoyable finds and schoolboy humor.
I also find The City of Fear very close to the spirit of the Monty Pythons, with that deadpan humor that rolls over a bulldozer, ready to overturn all the rules. And yet, there is a form of logic that permeates this film, which hides a wonderful tribute to the history of cinema behind its schoolboy-like jokes.
Did you know that the cult choreography of the Carioca takes up the dance from the 1930 film Flying to Rio, in which we see Fred Astaire and Ginger fly over the stage? Here they are 60 years before Chabat and Darmon:
LE CORNIAUD
While on vacation in Italy, Antoine Maréchal is hit his car by Saroyan. He offers to compensate him by offering him his trip in a luxurious Cadillac which he lends to him. Far from suspecting that this car is loaded with contraband booty and that he unwillingly becomes the accomplice of a mafia gang.
This cult road movie is a marvelous pretext to reunite with the irresistible duo Bourvil – De Funès whose complicity bursts the screen. Bourvil excels in tender naive and De Funès is at the top of his burlesque art. The cult lines follow one after the other over the miles: “Ah, she’s going to do a lot less well, obviously!”. And when Bourvil realizes that he is carrying the youkounkoun – a famous diamond – he will cleverly turn the situation around:
After all, you should never confuse naivety and stupidity.
L’HOMME DE RIO (THE MAN FROM RIO)
Leave your country, your family, your army, your friends, cross the oceans to see a damsel stir with the noise of pots and pans,
While on leave, Adrien is delighted to leave the army for a few days to find Agnès, his fiancée. But it will go from surprise to surprise; a precious statuette brought back from the Amazon by Professor Catalan, Agnes’ tutor, was stolen from the Musée de l’Homme. Shortly after, the professor is kidnapped before Agnes suffers the same fate. No hesitation; Adrien follows her trail across the Atlantic to save his sweetheart.
I already told you about this movie that I love in my guide to the best adventure movies for the family. This movie could have been called The Running Man. Belmondo never stops in this breathtaking film, a little gem chiseled by Philippe de Broca as a tribute to Tintin.
Spielberg himself adores this film, which served as the inspiration to create the Indiana Jones series. But above all, I fall in love with Françoise Dorléac, irresistible, and this booming Brazil, a perfect metaphor for our modern world which is abusing nature.
If you haven’t seen the man from Rio yet, you’ll discover one of the best French comedies to see with your family!
ASTÉRIX MISSION CLÉOPÂTRE (ASTERIX MISSION CLEOPATRA)
No one can flout the Roman Empire! When we attack it, the empire strikes back!
To prove to Caesar the greatness of Egyptian civilization, Cleopatra decides to have him build a palace in less than 3 months. But only a magic potion would make it possible to meet this deadline.
To succeed in this tour de force, the architect Numerobis decides to ask for help from a band of die-hard Gauls.
Alain Chabat pays tenderly crazy homage to the world of Goscinny & Uderzo. Rather than opting for a faithful adaptation, he bet on a certain state of mind. The film multiplies the nods to pop culture with references full of poetry. And the result is explosive. It’s simple: every shot is cult! I particularly like the lyrical flights of Edouard Baer, brilliant as a dreamy scribe. By the way, did you know that he improvised this monologue:
In short, in my opinion Asterix mission Cleopatra deserves its place in the pantheon of the best French comedies to see as a family – you can watch it at will and never get tired of it!
OSS 117 : Le Caire, nid d’espions (OSS 117: Cairo, nest of spies)
The first OSS 117 remains the best proof that one can succeed in being funny when talking about colonialism and geopolitics. It’s easier when all the horrible lines come out of the mouth of a totally stupid Special Agent.
Intouchables
As much loved as hated (by those who dislike good feelings and too mainstream stuff), the movie starring Cluzet and Omar Sy had smashed everything in its path. The Americans couldn’t help but make a remake of it, because they don’t like watching French films, but it shows that there is something good about this comedy.
La Grande Vadrouille
No matter what you say, De Funès is probably the funniest actor we’ve ever had on screen in France. The guy could replace a whole line with a single gesture or a single grimace. And when we add Bourvil in a very simple and moving mode alongside him, it works really well. It’s not for nothing that TF1 brings out the film to us at the slightest opportunity and that it is still a hit.
RRRrrrr !!!
When you put Chabat and the Robins des Bois together, you can be sure that something good is going to come out. Who remembers the days when it came out in theaters and we all looked dumb saying “2 places for RRRrrrr !!! please ”at the counter?
Les visiteurs
Not bad not bad, The Visitors, but we have to admit that without Valérie Lermercier, the film would have no flavor. Okay, maybe I’m a little harsh. After all, it’s still way better than its disgusting sequels and remakes.
Top 10 best seller French comedies movies 2023 in Amazon
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