Looking for French movies on Netflix? Don’t miss out on these!
Netflix has an amazing selection of movies from all over the world, including both their original productions and movies they offer through licensing.
Can you learn a language through Netflix?
Absolutely! Netflix is a great tool to improve your language skills!
Benefits of watching French movies on Netflix
•Pause and replay
French spoken by native speakers can often be very fast, and even at an advanced level of French, you’ll often miss things. Of course, when talking to a native speaker you don’t want to stop during a conversation and ask them what everything means, and you can only ask someone to repeat themselves so many times.
One of the best things about watching French movies on Netflix is being able to pause when you don’t understand something.
•Idioms and colloquialisms
Unlike language textbooks, movies are made by native speakers for native speakers. This means the language they use isn’t something you’ll usually come across unless you live in the country.
Idioms and colloquialisms are often translated in the subtitles, so if you are watching something with subtitles in a language you know well, it’s an easy way to find French equivalents for commonly used idioms.
If you aren’t using subtitles in a language you know, I suggest using Frenc subtitles. This way you will not only hear the idioms but also see them spelled out.
•Language immersion
If you aren’t living in a French-speaking country, watching movies is a really easy way to create an immersive environment. This helps you improve your listening skills, reading skills (if you are using subtitles), and will generally help you get a better feel for the language.
This is why watching French movies on Netflix is one of your best options. Netflix offers a wide variety of language options, including subtitles. If you are interested in finding out all the different ways Netflix allows you to find content in your target language, read this post we’ve written on this blog.
Okay, so there are all general benefits of watching movies, but what makes watching French movies on Netflix so good?
Well, one of the benefits of Netflix being online is that you watch it through a browser, which allows developers to create extensions that can help you learn a language more efficiently.
Some of my favorite are Language Learning through Netflix, which allows you to add double subtitles to the content you are watching, select the type of translation as well as pause and add words to a study list.
Another great one is Super Netflix, which allows you to add custom subtitles to anything you are watching, in case you aren’t able to find the right ones through Netflix.
How can you learn French with Netflix?
While learning a language through Netflix sounds pretty ideal, there are strategies that will help you, and strategies that won’t. Here are some of my favorite strategies, and when/why you should use them.
This way you can easily improve your language skills, no matter what level you have while watching French movies on Netflix.
Let’s assume you speak English, and you want to learn French. This is just used as an example to make the strategies clearer, but these techniques work and apply to every language available.
1. English content with French subtitles
Level – Beginner/Intermediate
Why – Because you already understand English, so there is no need for subtitles. By adding them in French you are getting exposed to the language while listening to a language you already know.
I find this incredibly helpful in the beginning. If you already know a few words, you can quickly pick them out and figure out more words through context.
Don’t be afraid to pause every once in a while, study a sentence, look up words you are unsure about.
You can also write down sentences you think might be helpful. For example, if people use certain expressions and they are translated into French.
The best part about this is that even when it’s hard to find content in French, you can apply this strategy to constantly improve your skills or be exposed to French.
2. French content with English subtitles
Level – Beginner
Why – To get used to the sounds of French while still understanding what’s going on.
I think language exposure is a very underrated tool to help you become fluent in a new language. You don’t have to understand everything, but it helps you develop a feeling for intonation, pronunciation, and rhythm.
When I was younger I spent the same amount of hours a week studying German, French, and English. Only one of those stuck, and it’s because I had had so much exposure. English was everywhere, even when I was small. I couldn’t understand a thing, but when I did start learning it, it felt a lot more familiar than for example French, a language I would mostly hear in class during a listening exercise.
That being said, I would only recommend this if you are too much of a beginner to add subtitles in French. If you are still not at a point where you can read subtitles that are 100% in French, consider doing both.
3. French-language content with French subtitles
Level – Intermediate (Advanced)
Why – To connect speech to what is written
Hearing French while also seeing it written on-screen really helps to connect speech to written words. I personally also feel it helps me remember things better, as I am not just hearing or reading it, but doing both at the same time.
This might be one of my favorite things, and it’s a strategy I still apply daily.
I am currently a C1 speaker of English, and I still find new words, new expressions. Better yet – when I was younger I used to watch things without subtitles. Great for my pronunciation, not so great for my spelling.
I learned loads of new words, but I had no idea how to spell them, and we all know English spelling is notoriously unreliable. When I started watching content in English I found myself constantly seeing words I was already using, that were spelled completely different than what I had imagined.
Plus, and this might be a bit of a personal thing, but I find that the more I speak the more phonetic my spelling gets. While I am perfectly aware of the difference between “you’re” and “your”, after a week of mostly speaking English without writing or reading it, I am much more likely to misspell it or to overlook the mistake.
By keeping subtitles on English, even when I am not actively studying it anymore, I find that I keep up my reading brain and am a better speller when it is time to write something.
4. French without subtitles
Level – Intermediate / Advanced
Why – To practice your listening skills.
If you are interested in practicing your listening skills, this is an amazing way to do so.
It might also benefit your pronunciation, as you are not focusing on how things are written, but purely on how it is pronounced. This means that if native speakers skip letters or are pronouncing certain letters differently than usual, you won’t be distracted by the spelling.
Why are “thought”, “though”, and “tough” all spelled nearly the same but pronounced differently? It doesn’t matter if you are only focussing on how they sound, and it’ll be easier to distinguish them in the future.
That being said, as I’ve mentioned before, I think adding subtitles, in general, is a great tool to focus on both listening and reading, and I still use it as a tool to stay on top of my spelling.
5. Prewatch and rewatch
Level – Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced
Why – To know what is going on while watching something in French
One of the biggest risks of watching something in a foreign language is that you might not be able to understand everything, and therefore you might not follow the plot, or miss something important.
That, however, isn’t an issue when you already know what is going to happen.
When learning a foreign language, I love rewatching classic movies or even rereading books. Because I already know what is happening, it is much easier to fill in gaps and words you don’t understand.
Ideal for this type of rewatching, in my opinion, is things along the lines of Harry Potter and animated movies.
I myself am not a big fan of dubbed movies, which is why I generally prefer animated movies.
That being said, if there is a particular movie that is a classic in French, you could simply watch it twice – once with subtitles in English, and once either without subtitles or with subtitles in French.
This way you know what is going on, so you won’t miss important clues, but you can still practice your language skills.
What if something isn’t available in my country?
Unfortunately, not all content on Netflix is available worldwide. In the list down below, we have taken this into account and tried to show the most widely available ones, but if you are looking for even more content, I would highly recommend using a VPN service like NordVPN.
NordVPN allows you to access Netflix from another country, which means you can expand your Netflix library to include more content in your target language by simply switching your location.
What are some movies you can find on Netflix in 2022?
So, you are looking for French movies on Netflix. Here are some of our recommendations.
1. 10 Jours En Or (2012)
IMDB Score: 5.8
Genre: Comedy, Drama
“Bachelor Marc Bajau travels the country on behalf of a clothing brand. He loves life on the road, free from responsibility. But when he starts a new tour to promote the latest line, a one-night stand mysteriously disappears, leaving him in charge of six-year-old Lucas – Thus begins a journey through France like no other, where Marc and Lucas will cross paths with Pierre, an eccentric retiree, and Julie, a young woman afraid to go home and face her family. During this odyssey, flanked by his unlikely trio, Marc faces some difficult decisions that could alter his life forever.”—M. Shamasneh
2. Divines (2015)
IMDB Score: 7.4
Genre: Comedy, Drama
“A street teenager from a dysfunctional family from a banlieue (HLMs) in Paris comes across a young dancer who turns her life upside down.”
3. I Am Not An Easy Man
IMDB Score: 6.4
Genre: Comedy
“Vincent Elbaz stars as a shameless chauvinist in this Eleonore Pourriat film. He gets a taste of his own medicine when he wakes up in a world turned on its head and dominated by women. He quickly locks horns with a powerful female author (Marie-Sophie Ferdane), who teaches him some unexpected lessons.”
4. Blue is the Warmest Color
IMDB Score: 7.7
Genre: Drama, Romance
“Adèle’s life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire and to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adèle grows, seeks herself, loses herself, and ultimately finds herself through love and loss.”
5. April and the Extraordinary World
IMDB Score: 7.3
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
“It’s 1941 but France is trapped in the nineteenth century, governed by steam and Napoleon V, where scientists vanish mysteriously. Avril (Marion Cotillard), a teenage girl, goes in search of her missing scientist parents.”
6. My Golden Days (2015)
IMDB Score: 6.8
Genre: Drama, Romance
“Paul is preparing to leave Tajikistan, while thinking back on his adolescent years. His childhood, his mother’s madness, the parties, the trip to the USSR where he lost his virginity, the friend who betrayed him and the love of his life.”
7. He Even Has Your Eyes (2017)
IMDB Score: 6.2
Genre: Comedy
“When French-African couple Paul and Sali discover the longed-for baby they are about to adopt is white, family chaos and confrontation ensue.”—Netflix
8. Ma Loute (2016)
IMDB Score: 6.0
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
“Summer 1910. Several tourists have vanished while relaxing on the beautiful beaches of the Channel Coast. Infamous inspectors Machin and Malfoy soon gather that the epicenter of these mysterious disappearances must be Slack Bay, a unique site where the Slack river and the sea join only at high tide. There lives a small community of fishermen and other oyster farmers. Among them evolves a curious family, the Bréfort, renowned ferrymen of the Slack Bay, lead by the father nick-named “The Eternal”, who rules as best as he can on his prankster bunch of sons, especially the impetuous Ma Loute, aged 18. Towering high above the bay stands the Van Peteghems’ mansion. Every summer, this bourgeois family – all degenerate and decadent from inbreeding – stagnates in the villa, not without mingling during their leisure hours of walking, sailing or bathing, with the ordinary local people, Ma Loute and the other Bréforts. Over the course of five days, as starts a peculiar love story between Ma Loute and the young and mischievous Billie Van Peteghem, confusion and mystification will descend on both families, shaking their convictions, foundations and way of life.”—Memento Films [mv_create title=”Learning French?” key=”1″ thumbnail=”https://foreignlanguagecollective.com/wp-content/uploads/8922.jpg” type=”list” layout=”numbered”]
9. Lolo (2017)
IMDB Score: 5.7
Genre: Comedy
“Violette, a 40-year old workaholic with a career in the fashion industry falls for a provincial computer geek, Jean-Rene, while on a spa retreat with her best friend.”
10. West Coast (2016)
IMDB Score: 5.9
Genre: Drama
“Four french teenagers in a small town are sure to be real West Coast gangstas. They gonna live their crazy last expedition. They will grow and learn.”
11. The African Doctor (2016)
IMDB Score: 7.0
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama
“The story of Seyolo Zantoko, who as a freshly graduated doctor of Congolese descent in France, struggled with his family to integrate in a small rural village, and ended up being considered as one of the most respected doctors in the area.”
12. The Climb (2017)
IMDB Score: 6.9
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Romance
“A young man from the suburbs with no mountaineering experience decides to climb Mt Everest to show a woman he’d do anything for her.”
13. Demain Tout Commence (2016)
IMDB Score: 7.4
Genre: Comedy, Drama
“A bachelor enjoys his sweet life on the French Riviera until a one-night stand tells him, he’s dad to Gloria and leaves her with him. He moves to London with Gloria. Mom turns up 8 years later.”
We hope you enjoyed our recommendations for French movies on Netflix.
14. Ils Sont Partout (2016)
IMDB Score: 6
Genre: Comedy
“This film written, directed and starring Yvan Attal explores the impact of stereotypes about Jews in French society. It is presented as a series of vignettes that take on each stereotype differently. Just the right level of humour and serious social commentary.”
15. Des Vents Contraires (2011)
IMDB Score: 6.5
Genre: Drama, Mystery
“Sarah tells Paul that she wants out of their marriage; the next day she disappears. A year later and Paul along with their children return to his childhood town to start anew after the loss of his wife and their mother.”
How do I find more content in French?
Looking for even more French-language content? Don’t worry.
There are many ways to find foreign language content on Netflix
You don’t just have to limit yourself to original French-language content. In fact, there are many ways to access foreign language content on Netflix that can help you improve your language skills.
Here are a few of my favorites.
- Original content
Let’s face it, nothing beats a movie in its original language. I have met Germans who dared to say that sometimes the German voice-over was better than the original and that you ‘really don’t see’ that the mouths move in a completely different way than they should, but they are either lying or delusional.
When learning a language try to find as much original content as you can find. Luckily, there is an easy way to do so on Netflix.
When going to the little search box in the corner, simply search for ‘*blank* language’.
For example, ‘German language’, or ‘Arabic language’.
This will give you an overview of all the content available in that language.
Not only that, Netflix lets you specify what kind of content you want. You could look specifically for “German-language documentary” or “Portuguese language action movie”.
Note: you really need to specify the language part. When simply looking up “German movies”, Netflix might also be looking at production which means they could also be offering some movies that are made by Germans but not necessarily in German.
Some languages might have more options than others, but this is the fastest way of finding out what original language content Netflix has to offer.
This is probably the easiest way to find French movies on Netflix.
2. Audio in …
If you have already gone through all of the original language stuff, you might be tempted to simply change the audio in original English content. I am personally not a big fan of material with voice overs, but some people swear by it. The nice thing about this option is that it expands your possible pool of movies and series greatly.
Most original Netflix content offers audio and subtitles in different languages, but if you want to simplify the process, even more, you can simply search for “Audio in French” and let Netflix do the rest.
This will load all of the titles that are available with different audio than the original. Generally, these are Netflix originals that are shared worldwide and therefore have different audio sets available, which they have all conveniently uploaded for us language learners (Thank you Netflix! We see you!)
Once you have selected a show you can change the audio to the language you want to learn. You can then always change the subtitles to English, to make sure you understand everything, or you can leave the audio in English and only change the subtitles to the language you are learning (which is also greatly beneficial to your language learning process).
3. Subtitles in
Similarly to the search shown above, you can also search for “Subtitles in French” and be presented with the subtitles that are available in different languages.
Please note that even though the search may be the same, the results may differ a lot, mostly in the sense that there will be many more options when it comes to the availability of subtitles in foreign languages.
When selecting your new show you simply change the language of subtitles, and voila.
This is actually one of my favorite language learning strategies. As mentioned before, I am not a big fan of voice-overs, so I always watch movies in their original language. A lot of the things I watch are in English, which is a language I already understand, so I change the subtitles to a language I am still learning
4. Change the language
If you still haven’t found your language because it’s unavailable, or it simply doesn’t show up among the options, you can also try by changing the language of your Netflix profile.
You can go to the top right-hand corner and select the option “MANAGE PROFILES”
From there, you simply select your own profile and change the language.
Under languages, you should be able to select your language of choice, provided it is one of the available options.
Click “SAVE” and refresh your page if necessary.
From now on, the menus, options and maybe even titles of series will be in the selected language.
If all is well, subtitles should still be available in your native language, or the language your account was created in, but it should also have the additional option of your recently selected language.
It doesn’t work for all shows. If the show you are interested in watching isn’t available in the language of your choice, you might find these subtitles don’t even exist, so it won’t show them.
For most shows that are available in multiple languages, and especially Netflix originals, you will have the new option of adding subtitles in French.
With these little tricks you should be able to find even more french movies on Netflix.Loading…
