What's a typical "French face" supposed to look like?

Publish date: 2024-05-19

I have a pretty good eye for the faces of Europeans and I would recognize a Pole, a Finn, a Spaniard, a Georgian, an Irishman or a Kraut anywhere and anytime. But it seems to me that the looks of French people are just all over the place, without much cohesion among their mugs noticeable.

So please enlighten me and tell me which facial features are supposed to be unique to the Frenchmen.

by Anonymousreply 106November 16, 2021 7:33 PM

Something about the mouth.

by Anonymousreply 2March 22, 2021 8:02 PM

Parrot beaks on the women; big, bulbous, cleft noses on the men.

by Anonymousreply 5March 22, 2021 8:15 PM

I always think of french women as being rather gamine looking like Leslie Caron

by Anonymousreply 6March 22, 2021 8:19 PM

Because of the way they talk, a lot of them kinda look like they're sucking in their cheeks and pouting/pursing their lips. A very condescending look

by Anonymousreply 7March 22, 2021 8:20 PM

OP - question for you- I'm mostly Polish, but have never been to Poland, curious what characteristics stand out of us Pols?

by Anonymousreply 8March 22, 2021 8:22 PM

R8 They look like potatoes.

by Anonymousreply 9March 22, 2021 8:25 PM

Patchy facial hair and baked bean teeth from the smoking.

by Anonymousreply 10March 22, 2021 8:26 PM

Just google image Francois Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Emmanuel Macron, Jean-Claude Killy, Arnaud Clement, Auguste Escoffier, Jean-Paul Gaultier, among others.

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by Anonymousreply 13March 22, 2021 8:32 PM

I don't know how else to describe this, but thin faces and pointy features that shouldn't work on paper but that work on execution. Louis Garrel, Gaspard Ulliel, Charlotte Gainsbourg.

by Anonymousreply 14March 22, 2021 8:45 PM

Camillie Cottin from Call My Agent (Dix Pour Cent ) is a fine example. And a fantastic show, btw.

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by Anonymousreply 15March 22, 2021 11:45 PM

Exquisite bone structure.

by Anonymousreply 16March 23, 2021 12:32 AM

Men: Patrice Chereau - Nicolas Sarkozy Women: It's a matter of style more than features.

by Anonymousreply 17March 23, 2021 12:37 AM

Model Clement Chabernaud besides his frenchyfrenchfrenchypoo name looks French, mature.

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by Anonymousreply 18March 23, 2021 12:44 AM

And he looked french as a Twink.

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by Anonymousreply 19March 23, 2021 12:45 AM

frenchy French french clement

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by Anonymousreply 20March 23, 2021 12:46 AM

I don't think he looks that French. He looks like he could be Jamie Dornan's cousin.

by Anonymousreply 21March 23, 2021 12:47 AM

Frenchy twink with frenchy French French name Maxence Danet-Fauvel, cleaned up

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by Anonymousreply 24March 23, 2021 12:49 AM

no does not look Irish. French born beauties, male or female, thin or full lipped, get a set of the mouth, as mentioned about, from all that French vowel work. Their mouths look like their pretty but carnal language.

by Anonymousreply 26March 23, 2021 12:52 AM

Most Europeans look pretty similar, we have common ancestry.

The question is like asking people to identify the differences between people from New York v Baltimore.

by Anonymousreply 30March 23, 2021 3:11 AM

Don't look at me, I'm half Hungarian and half Greek!

by Anonymousreply 31March 23, 2021 3:24 AM

Catherine Deneuve once served as the official model for a revised image of Marianne, the embodiment of the French Republic.

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by Anonymousreply 33March 23, 2021 3:30 AM

People from different parts of France look different. From Breton cream-skin fairness to the human olives around Marseille.

by Anonymousreply 34March 23, 2021 3:30 AM

[quote] Most Europeans look pretty similar, we have common ancestry.

I agree. I also really don't think most white Americans (and white Canadians and Australians) look that different from the people of the British Isles either. Which makes sense because majority of their ancestry is usually English, Irish or German. Same with many African-Americans who don't look that different from West and Central Africans though they cane have more European features due to admixture.

The biggest differences is probably weight and height due to diet and environment.

by Anonymousreply 36March 23, 2021 3:37 AM

It's like East Asians: there are differences, with some overlap.

Swarthy Spaniards don't look like fair Spaniards, who can look classically French. Southern Italians don't look Norwegian. Northern Italians can look German. Etc.

by Anonymousreply 38March 23, 2021 3:46 AM

Craggy face, huge nose with bulbous cleft tip, eyes close together, wry mouth. A young Gerard Depardieu:

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by Anonymousreply 39March 23, 2021 3:48 AM

I’ve always thought of that photo of the French man watching the Nazis occupy Paris as the typical “French” face.

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by Anonymousreply 44March 23, 2021 5:46 AM

Less likely to have blue eyes than Brits or Scandinavians

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by Anonymousreply 45March 23, 2021 5:58 AM

R44, Marseille. Says so in the caption.

by Anonymousreply 46March 23, 2021 6:03 AM

I've played around with a lot of French men. The typical face of French man is gaunt. He also has a prominent nose.

by Anonymousreply 48March 23, 2021 6:05 AM

Case in point, former French pairs skater Morgan Cipres (who has his own lascivious history, allegedly).

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by Anonymousreply 49March 23, 2021 6:08 AM

Big schnoz and small-ish stature. I don't find many French men attractive.

by Anonymousreply 50March 23, 2021 6:10 AM

Noses like they don't intend to be cheated out of their share of air and a mouth made for snugging marbles. High foreheads.

by Anonymousreply 52March 23, 2021 6:15 AM

Could not be mistaken for anything other than French.

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by Anonymousreply 54March 23, 2021 6:22 AM

Mitterand had the classic French face.

But even more than his face, those gesticulating arms marked him as French from a kilometre away.

by Anonymousreply 55March 23, 2021 6:24 AM

When I think of a typical Frenchman, I think of Yves Montand... even though he was Italian.

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by Anonymousreply 56March 23, 2021 6:28 AM

I hope you realize this is a silly discussion. French is a nationality, just like American is a nationality. People from all over the world have gone to France to start a new life or just stopped by long enough to have babies with the natives (like the Germans in WW2) so they are a mixed people, just as we are a mixed people. That said, Louis Garrel looks super-French to me. He is maybe not so mixed.

by Anonymousreply 57March 23, 2021 6:35 AM

They have the face of a hamster and smell like elderberries!

by Anonymousreply 58March 23, 2021 7:05 AM

Dick nose, circles under eyes, thin like a cigarette, nasty yellow teeth, always have their mouth open and like spilling crumbs or wine all over themselves.

by Anonymousreply 59March 23, 2021 8:01 AM

The have thin mustaches and wear berets.

by Anonymousreply 60March 23, 2021 8:47 AM

R48 so basically, the opposite of what’s attractive.

by Anonymousreply 61March 23, 2021 9:02 AM

they have certain amphibious features?

by Anonymousreply 62March 23, 2021 9:13 AM

[quote] Don't look at me, I'm half Hungarian and half Greek!

Don't forget Jewish, Sarko at R31. And therefore not truly French ever.

by Anonymousreply 64March 23, 2021 10:56 AM

Almond shaped eyes are said to be typical of the people from Brittany.

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by Anonymousreply 66March 23, 2021 5:23 PM

Macron is classically French-looking.

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by Anonymousreply 67March 23, 2021 7:02 PM

They seem more stoic. Intense eyes. Hair that looks a bit messy. They look like they are sucking air in their mouths sometimes. That exchange student in The UK show The Inbetweeners was a good stereotype.

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by Anonymousreply 68November 14, 2021 6:22 PM

[quote]What's a typical "French face" supposed to look like?

One smells them before one sees them.

by Anonymousreply 69November 14, 2021 6:25 PM

R49. More details regarding his sluttiness, please!

by Anonymousreply 72November 14, 2021 7:52 PM

French tennis player PHH looks like (what I imagine is) the “typical Frenchman”.

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by Anonymousreply 73November 14, 2021 8:58 PM

Look up Christine Lagarde; her picture is in the dictionary, next to typical French female facial structure.

by Anonymousreply 75November 14, 2021 9:20 PM

Serge Gainsbourg (*hurl!*)

by Anonymousreply 76November 14, 2021 9:22 PM

Angular, longish facial structure, dark hair, brown eyes with a dead gaze, large nose, long neck, lean,

by Anonymousreply 78November 14, 2021 10:05 PM

I think of: wider-set, more oval eyes (no round American peepers); dark circles under the eyes; skin is even-toned with olive or yellow undertones and no puffiness (not a lot of chubby cheeks); may have wrinkles around the mouth but no worry lines between the eyebrows; healthy and bouncy hair

by Anonymousreply 79November 14, 2021 10:10 PM

Louis Garrel and the whole cast of La Belle Personne.

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by Anonymousreply 84November 14, 2021 10:30 PM

R11, FWIW, Jean Reno is ethnically Spanish.

by Anonymousreply 85November 15, 2021 3:45 AM

Beady eyes. A face of planes and angles. Brown hair. There are few natural blondes if any.

by Anonymousreply 89November 15, 2021 1:13 PM

I don't have anything to contribute about typically French faces.

I just wanted to post a picture of Benoît Hamon (khaki pants) with what looks like an impressive bulge.

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by Anonymousreply 90November 15, 2021 1:25 PM

No one likes French people. Not even their fellow Europeans like them.

by Anonymousreply 91November 15, 2021 2:15 PM

Usually kind of a pinched, mousy, rat face. I don’t mean to be harsh. But that’s my experience.

by Anonymousreply 92November 15, 2021 2:31 PM

Brian Joubert…Gallic face. The eyes I think.

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by Anonymousreply 93November 15, 2021 2:40 PM

They are handsome but a little pointy with big noses. A close friend is Quebecois Metis. He's brown with some Native features but also has the delicate French thing. Still gorgeous in his 50s.

by Anonymousreply 94November 15, 2021 2:48 PM

I think the actor Pierre Niney is what would happen if a caricaturist was told to exaggerate Frenchness to its Frenchiest

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by Anonymousreply 95November 15, 2021 2:52 PM

Melvil Poupaud has, to me, a typically Frenchman's face:

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by Anonymousreply 96November 15, 2021 2:54 PM

Angular face, long bony nose.

by Anonymousreply 97November 15, 2021 3:24 PM

Thin pursed lips, beady eyes.Maybe a mustache but not always. At least that's men. Women, Idk, it's more about how they dress.

by Anonymousreply 99November 15, 2021 4:01 PM

French men have craggy faces and big ol' noses, no matter their ethnic background, it seems. I always thought of Jean-Paul Belmondo as the quintessential French-looking guy, but his father was of Italian descent, born in Algeria. Go figure. Jean Gabin also has a very French face. For women, my mind immediately goes to Catherine Deneuve even though she's more of an aspiration than reality - which would probably be closer to Edith Piaf's look

by Anonymousreply 101November 16, 2021 12:20 AM

Isn’t Deneuve Alsatian? They tend to be more Germanic in appearance than the average French person.

by Anonymousreply 106November 16, 2021 7:33 PM

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