Use le septième art to boost student interest & engagement.
Hands down, the most horrifying thing to happen during my first year of teaching was the time I didn’t preview a film I decided to use in my French 4 class.
My students had been working through a leveled reader of Alexandre Dumas’s La Reine Margot, and I’d remembered an Isabelle Adjani film of the same story. I’d seen it years earlier and figured I’d show a few choice scenes—particularly of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Safe, right? A bit violent, sure, but that was life during the Religious Wars, bébé.
What I had not remembered was the very unclothed nature of Catherine de Medici’s victims. Picture me suddenly remembering (in horror) that there’s about to be a very à poil Huguenot on screen, diving for the remote to hit the power button. Of course I don’t make it in time. Of course I proceed to freak out. Of course it becomes the stuff of school legend.
Years later, those students’ younger siblings were still bringing it up.
I didn’t entirely abandon French films after that day, but I did become considerably more discerning in my choices.
To help you avoid a Zut alors! moment like mine, I’ve assembled some school-appropriate selections for your French classroom. In addition to being PG-13 and below, the following films and videos have been chosen with accessibility, cultural relevance, and language level in mind.
Still, be sure to screen these before you use them to make sure they’re right for your students. And it never hurts to get a permission slip!
Why films and videos are so effective
Though they should be judiciously chosen, films, TV shows, and other videos are incredibly effective tools in your teaching arsenal. Teachers get to choose how they frame a film, deciding whether it’ll be used as a vocabulary builder, a sentence starter, a conversation prompt, a cultural exposé, and much more.
Students have a natural affinity for visual storytelling, which makes film uniquely effective at piquing their interest. Audiovisual mediums can help reach a wide range of learning styles and can help build empathy and emotional intelligence.
Additionally, French language films and videos can be invaluable tools to boost your students’ cultural savvy and increase access to a target language that isn’t very prevalent in the United States. Films, TV shows, and short-form videos can illustrate for students the actual people beyond the mime-and-poodle stereotypes and showcase the diversity of the French-speaking world. And Ratatouille doesn’t cut it, mon ami.
Watching authentic films and videos with subtitles can also:
Using films and videos is infinitely scalable, too; your use can be as pedagogically rigorous as you want it to be.
Let’s get into some of the best options to choose from.
The best French films to use in class
Synopsis: Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis follows Philippe Abrams, a French postal worker who lies to secure a transfer to a coveted position in a seaside town. When his ruse is uncovered, he’s instead transferred to a small town in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, where the cheese is as strong as the accents are thick.
Educational Value: Perfect for any unit on the different regions of France, Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis is particularly good at illustrating the misleading nature of stereotypes.
Why You Should Stream It: This delightful film is the highest-grossing French-language film in French box office history. Students love its very French, very slapstick brand of comedy.
Streaming Platform: Amazon, Hoopla, Kanopy, and Plex
Synopsis: This psychological thriller will have you on the edge of your seat as Audrey Tautou’s angel-faced protagonist transforms from a lovesick ingenue into quite the unreliable narrator.
Educational Value: It’s mostly a Halloween-season guilty pleasure, but I’ve successfully reviewed the passé composé and imparfait when asking students to summarize the story after viewing.
Why You Should Stream It: High schoolers love this film, which starts out like a rom-com and then takes a hard turn. The final scene usually has them shrieking.
Streaming Platform: YouTube (w/ ads), Hoopla, Kanopy, Plex
Synopsis: The film follows the story of Antoine, a young boy who catches a burglar red-handed on Christmas Eve. Except our burglar is dressed as Santa, and Antoine is over the moon at having met the real Père Noël. Heartwarming hijinks ensue.
Educational Value: This one is excellent for that last week before winter break, with lots of holiday vocabulary and opportunities for student output addressing family traditions, childhood memories, and more.
Why You Should Stream It: One of my 11th-grade boys actually cried during this film; he loved it so much. It’s nostalgic, cozy, and very, very funny.
Streaming Platform: Apple TV+
Synopsis: In this very underrated film that tackles themes of identity and belonging, Mourad is a French-Algerian car salesman who decides to pass himself off as Italian to find more acceptance in his career and social life. But when his father makes him promise to observe Ramadan, Mourad’s days pretending to be Dino the Italian may be numbered.
Educational Value: This film is rife with AP Themes and provides plenty of fodder for students to reflect on their identities and communities.
Why You Should Stream It: L'Italien tackles some very complex themes—namely Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment—with a light touch, helping students understand a complicated societal dynamic without feeling expository or preachy.
Streaming Platform: Apple TV+, Amazon, Fubo
Synopsis: An excellent film recounting a year in the French equivalent of a Title 1 middle school, Entre les murs is based on the lead actor’s memoir of his time as a teacher. The film quietly (but effectively) explores empathy in education, cultural hegemony, and stereotyping.
Educational Value: This is a great film to use in any unit about school, immigration, and identity.
Why You Should Stream It: This film pulls an effective bait-and-switch; the students who appear uninterested and delinquent initially end up unlikely protagonists fighting a system designed to other them.
Streaming Platform: Apple TV+, Amazon
Synopsis: Winner of the 1992 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, Indochine tells the story of Eliane (Catherine Deneuve), a second-generation colonist and plantation owner outside of then-Saigon. Wealthy and powerful, Eliane’s relationship with her adopted Vietnamese daughter is increasingly strained as political tensions flare and an independence movement begins to take hold in the region.
Educational Value: Indochine is an excellent illustration of history and culture for French 4, any pre- or post-AP class, or—if time allows—AP itself. Older students may pick up on the central mother-daughter relationship as a metaphor for France’s ties to its (former) colonies.
Why You Should Stream It: This film is nearly 3 hours long, so I don’t suggest screening the whole thing (your students will beg you! Stay strong!). But this is a classic and so, so good at illustrating the pain of colonialism and the hard-won independence of modern-day Vietnam. Beautifully shot on location, Indochine is powerful and engrossing.
Streaming Platform: Apple TV+, Amazon, Fubo
The best French TV shows to use in class
Synopsis: The late Anthony Bourdain blended culinary tradition, culture, and history into each episode of his CNN travel show Parts Unknown, making it an excellent show for students. The Senegal and Lyon episodes include interviews with Youssou N’Dour (Senegal) and Paul Bocuse (Lyon) as well as Bourdain’s attempts at speaking his father’s native tongue.
Educational Value: Though they’re in English, these are excellent episodes to pair with cultural readings. When I taught out of T’es Branché?, I always used the Senegal episode for Lesson 3C in Level 2 and the Lyon episode for Lesson 2B in Level 3.
Why You Should Stream It: Culture readings can be highly effective teaching tools, but there’s nothing like a good travel show to capture (and hold) student attention.
Streaming Platform: Apple TV+, Prime Video, Hulu, Sling TV, Max, discovery+
Synopsis: France’s worst bakers compete on Nailed It! to see who can come the closest to recreating an elaborate dessert. When it’s time to unveil their creations, each contestant must proudly proclaim that they “nailed it!” (“C’est du gateau!” en français) while their desserts crumble and melt before viewers’ eyes.
Educational Value: This show's pure silliness does wonders for lowering the affective filter, and students may pick up on some (family-friendly) slang.
Why You Should Stream It: Sure, Netflix has a season of Chef’s Table set in France that you could stream with subtitles during a food unit. But students will likely prefer this goofy baking show featuring the country’s worst chefs to the high-brow nature of Chef’s Table.
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Synopsis: Six 16-minute episodes of Tales of Africa depict animated retellings of African stories from different regions of the continent.
Educational Value: The language in each is easy to understand and will help boost listening comprehension.
Why You Should Stream It: Expose your students to the diversity of the French-speaking world with these short videos highlighting Francophone Africa. Their length makes them ideal for in-class viewing with a follow-up activity.
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Synopsis: Students love to hate-watch as beer-budget Americans set their sights on champagne-taste lodgings in Paris and beyond.
Educational Value: House Hunters International can provide a great introduction to housing in other countries, and episodes are quite short.
Why You Should Stream It: Although in English, House Hunters International can be a great way to kick off a housing unit, offering students a look inside a wide variety of logements they read about.
Streaming Platform: Amazon, HGTV Go, Apple, YouTube, Hulu
The best short-form French videos to use in class
Synopsis: These wonderful short-form videos from France 24’s English channel introduce viewers to various aspects of French culture. Recent episodes have covered the TGV, La Poste, and France’s love of swimming pools.
Educational Value: These videos are a great supplement for culture readings and lessons. Excellent to use as a conversation starter, writing prompt, or to introduce the topic of an IPA.
Why You Should Stream It: These 10-15 minute videos go surprisingly in-depth on a wide range of topics. Create an EdPuzzle or Nearpod for a homework assignment all students are sure to love!
Streaming Platform: YouTube
Synopsis: Meet your students where they are, digitally. Suggest that they follow some of these TikTok creators suggested by the American Association of Teachers of French.
Educational Value: TikTok provides language exposure outside of class.
Why You Should Stream It: Find a TikTok video to kick off a discussion, launch a unit, or even use as an audio text for listening comprehension questions!
Streaming Platform: TikTok
Synopsis: Each unit of T’es Branché?’s third edition kicks off with student-focused objectives and engaging cultural videos. These videos, seamlessly integrated into the eBook, showcase native speakers sharing personal anecdotes and posing thought-provoking questions related to the unit’s theme.
Why You Should Stream It: Your students will appreciate hearing native speakers use the very vocabulary their working on.
Educational Value: These videos provide comprehensible input tailored to each unit's theme.
Synopsis: Every March marks the start of Manie Musicale, a March Madness-inspired bracket of the best (school-appropriate!) French music videos. Students get to fill out their brackets beforehand and vote in the international contest every few days. Sometimes artists get involved, too, and record videos thanking their new student fandoms.
Educational Value: Manie Musicale is primarily an opportunity to engage with Francophone culture. Many songs have simple lyrics that students find easy to memorize, making it a great way to get kids engaged with the language outside of class. Teachers interested in using Manie in their classrooms should visit the site and register in late January/early February.
Going beyond être and avoir
Learning French isn’t just about conjugating verbs or mastering double object pronouns. Diving into the culture and experiencing the language in context should both play a part in learning la langue de Molière. With the rich selection of films and videos out there, French students everywhere can have a more meaningful and authentic encounter with the language.
Maybe just steer clear of Dumas.
Kelly joined Carnegie Learning in 2023, bringing a decade of diverse educational experience. Her career includes one year as a high school Dean of Students and nine years teaching French at secondary and post-secondary levels. An AP French exam reader in 2017 and 2020, Kelly holds ACTFL OPI certification and is versed in various world language pedagogies, including TPRS and Organic World Language (OWL). She taught using Carnegie Learning's T'es Branché? curriculum for six years. As a content writer, Kelly is dedicated to highlighting educator experiences and empowering teachers to enhance student outcomes nationwide.
Explore more related to this authorAudiovisual mediums can illustrate for students the people beyond the mime-and-poodle stereotypes and showcase the diversity of the French-speaking world. And Ratatouille doesn’t cut it, mon ami.
Kelly Denzler
