7. Ma Mere
Isabelle Huppert remains to this day one of the most iconic faces of French cinema - her presence exudes a sultry yet intellectual sexuality, something which Michael Haneke exploited to its fullest potential with his film about a masochistic woman in The Piano Teacher. Director Christophe Honoré doesn't quite know how to make the most of his lead in Ma Mere, a similarly twisted look at a woman with a predilection for unconventional sexual behaviour. In this case Huppert plays a woman who enters into an incestuous relationship with her son, culminating in one of the most literally bloody climaxes ever committed to film. Shocking more than it is thought-provoking, Ma Mere is perhaps a quintessential example of French arthouse which is more eager to promote a visceral reaction than an intellectual one. In the hands of someone like Francois Ozon this could have been a movie of considerably more to say about sexual desires.