Why are there so many great French movies streaming for free on Tubi??
If you’re looking for free French movies to watch right now, Tubi is surprisingly one of the best places to start. I don’t know why, but it is true. I only realized this after putting together a little post on French actress Marine Vacth, who is so good in Jeune et jolie, about an out-of-control 17-year-old-turned-sex worker. There it was — on Tubi?? Free? Just waiting to be viewed? It didn’t seem possible.
Netflix used to have a great assortment of French movies — I first saw Blue Is the Warmest Color, seen above, which I love — on Netflix! But now it’s Tubi offering a wild mix of iconic New Wave films (The 400 Blows! Contempt!), contemporary classics (Blue Is the Warmest Color, Titane) and legit oddballs (like the first, and only the first, season of Un Village Francais, the classic French TV series about life under German occupation in the titular community).
This isn’t to say Tubi offers a streamlined experience: It was actually very annoying to find the movies below. And I don’t even think Tubi is necessarily the very best streaming service for French entertainment: I’d choose Criterion for prestige films, and MhZ for contemporary TV and movies. But both of those services cost money. For a free, random assortment of some truly great French movies? That are hard to find but waiting right there for you? Vive le Tubi!
Briefly: A beautiful 17-year-old throws her long-suffering mom a swerve when she embarks on a career in sex work.
Best thing about it: Marine Vacth is so good as Isabelle, the teenager making some very questionable decisions.
Watch this if: You want to get another viewpoint on sex and relationships in France.
Where it’s set: A pretty rarefied version of Paris, including the incredibly fancy school I used to live above: Lycée Henri IV (graduates include Emmanuel Macron).
Briefly: Two students meet and fall in love in Lille. But it’s complicated.
Best thing about it: Everything. Adèle Exarchopoulos and a pre-James Bond Léa Seydoux are amazing as Adèle and Emma, whose relationship is strained by their different backgrounds.
Watch this if: You want just the truest depiction of a relationship, from start to….(spoilers). But it’s beautiful the whole way.
Note: This movie is famous/infamous for some very explicit sex scenes, which became the focus on a ton of controversy. It would have been better without them.
Where it’s set: The beautiful northern city of Lille!
Briefly: The Germans occupy a small French village during WWII. But just the first season!
Best thing about it: The deep, deep dive into the social politics at the time, which will be new for most U.S. viewers. It’s so exciting! Life! Death! Chickens everywhere!
Watch this if: You want a super-immersive experience of life under German occupation in France…and don’t mind switching to Prime for the remaining six seasons.
Where it’s set: The fictional community of Villeneuve, in the Jura and near the border with Switzerland.
Briefly: A French kid (loosely based on director François Truffaut) tries to survive a perilous childhood.
Best thing about it: You can see why this film is one of the hallmarks of the French New Wave — it feels youthful, fresh, strange, and unlike anything that came before it.
Watch this if: You want a look at the “real life” of the post-WWII youth in France, right before all the social upset of the 1960s. It’s nostalgic, funny, beautiful, and weird.
Where it’s set: A hardscrabble Paris and the beach at Honfleur, in Normandy.
That’s a really cute sweater, with the slightly oversized neckline and the exaggerated stripes — French blue-and-white stripes but cooler, and perfect for springtime. Note there’s a barely visible but quite substantial ribbed hem — it’s tucked here, but it might provide undesired bulk.
This top is the corporate version of the dress above. Same killer color, same gorgeous fabric. And we all have meetings, right? And sometimes we must wear nice tops to them?
Disclosure: Unlike the other items on this page, I haven’t seen the Mae bag IRL, so know that. But I can admire it from afar: It’s larger than the Sézane bags that I love so much, and after running around town with a Milo for a year, sometimes I’d love to actually, you know, get a book in there. The metal accent is extremely good looking, and while the Bordeaux color wouldn’t have been my first choice, it wisely rides that line between whimsy and timelessness. That’s an extremely sexy bag! And one I haven’t seen s thousand times before already.
Maybe you were looking for a dupe for the Bobby, Sézane’s cropped trench, but wanted to spend an extra $160? Balzac has a great short trench, called the Ace. Maybe the extra cash is going to the leopard-print piping (derogatory).
Yeah, I really do love this material, whether in dress, sleeveless, or sleeved blouse form. Couple things that make this nice here: the refined round neck, and the little flutter on the sleeves to give it some movement and drama.
So cute, even if I have concerns about the wearability of the cuffs on the sleeves.
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