The 10 Best Eva Green Movies (2024)

Eva Green has it all - she can act in two languages (French and English), her diverse talent allows her to star in unexpected roles (yet quite expected for her in many ways), and whenever she portrays a character, that role becomes so iconic that no one else could do it as well.

Though Penny Dreadful doesn't fall in the movie category, it is her most recognizable appearance. She breathed life into Vanessa Ives so beautifully, giving the show that was occasionally quirky its signature weight and emotion. Green is an underrated actress and deserves lots more coverage and attention; if not for her great acting skills, then for being so effortlessly cool. Fans who miss Penny Dreadful's Monster Universe and Eva Green can turn to her filmography and check out some of her best films. This may not fill the Penny Dreadful-shaped hole in their hearts, but it'll surely give them the Eva Green fix they desperately need.

8 'Proxima' (2019)

As Sarah Loreau

In Proxima, Eva Green plays Sarah Loreau, an astronaut preparing for a year-long trip to the International Space Station. Sci-fi fans are often used to spectacular visuals and dramatic effects, but Proxima is only science fiction in the astronaut aspect; Jordan Mintzer from The Hollywood Reporter called it "realistic in terms of its setting and technical specificity, it sometimes feels like a documentary."

At its core, Proxima is a drama depicting a relationship between mother and daughter. As Sarah prepares to leave Earth for a year and live on the ISS (International Space Station), she needs to navigate her relationship with her young daughter Stella (Zélie Boulant-Lemesle) and face the fact that they won't see each other for a while. Green's greatest strength lies in understated roles and performances, which is evident in Proxima. Starring as a woman who must show coldness in the presence of her colleagues while juggling intense emotions for her daughter, she perfectly balances the two emotional spectrums, potentially drawing inspiration from real-life working mothers.

Watch on Tubi

'Nocebo' (2022)

As Christine

Vivarium director Lorcan Finnegan dives into medicinal folklore with Nocebo; the name stems from the opposite effect gained from a placebo, or when the dummy medicine causes negative side effects on a person's health. Finnegan's paranoia-inducing directing style makes this IMDb-classified thriller feel more like a horror at moments, especially fueled by the intense performances of Eva Green and Chai Fonacier.

Green takes the lead as Christine, a woman plagued by an unidentified illness; she takes a handful of medication daily for various symptoms but remains heavily ill. Christine experiences memory loss as a side effect, so when one day, caretaker Diana (Fonacier) appears at her door claiming she hired her for help, Christine accepts it as a fact. Diana is originally from The Philippines and is a folk healer who uses traditional medicine, leading Christine's husband Felix (Mark Strong) to doubt her.

While Green is a big part of why Nocebo works well, another is Chai Fonacier and the integration of her heritage into the thriller. According to CNN Philippines, Ara Chowdhury was recruited to help Finnegan write the parts taking place in The Philippines, giving the movie additional depth within its exploration of natural medicine and heritage.

Watch on Hulu

'Cracks' (2009)

As Miss G

Lists of the best women-packed ensemble movies shouldn't be considered complete without Cracks, the mystery thriller set in the 1930s England and led by Eva Green, Juno Temple, and Maria Valverde. It was written and directed by Ridley Scott's daughter, Jordan Scott, who based it on the same-name 1999 novel by Sheila Kohler. Green portrays the enigmatic and charming Miss G, the swimming coach in an all-girls school; Temple plays Di, a typical teenage girl with a clique, feeling on top of the world when things are going her way.

Valverde plays the Spanish-born newcomer Fimia, a timid and well-behaved girl with asthma issues. When Miss G becomes obsessed with Fimia, the dynamic in Di's clique switches from idolizing their coach to plotting how to get rid of her new favorite. Cracks explores various characters and dynamics, from school bullying on a group level to troubled individuals. Eva Green carries the movie with her sophisticated portrayal of a hedonistic woman who should probably not be a teacher, but is, and is very beloved by pupils. Suffice it to say she's often cast as a femme fatale, and Cracks helps her dive behind such a facade and play a woman that's essentially empty and deprived.

Watch on Tubi

7 'The Salvation' (2014)

As Madelaine

A Danish Western might sound unusual, but The Salvation director Kristian Levring drew inspiration from real life. Many Danish soldiers fled to the US during the 19th century in search of a new life after military defeat; this tense Western fictionalizes one Danish soldier's life amid moving to the Wild West. Mads Mikkelsen plays Jon, a man who doesn't show a lot of emotion in general, keeping most of it for his wife and son. When they arrive to settle together with Jon, their carriage gets attacked and Jon's family is brutally murdered by Paul Delarue and his thugs.

This part-revenge, part-redemption story also follows Madelaine (Eva Green), Delarue's wife, who is mute and greatly suffers at the hands of her brother-in-law, Henry Delarue (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). While Jon is on the journey of survival, Madelaine is there to exact revenge and free herself from the violent shackles of the Delarues. Even the best Westerns of all time rarely depict strong and capable women who successfully fight adversity, but with Eva Green in The Salvation, one thing's for sure - she is meant to be a fierce woman ready to take her fate into her own hands. Besides being a Western with a badass female character, The Salvation enables Mikkelsen and Jeffrey Dean Morgan to deliver fantastic performances.

Watch on Hulu

6 The Three Musketeers: Milady (2023)

As Milady de Winter

As one of the best screen adaptations of The Three Musketeers, the French two-part spectacle Les Trois Mousquetaires enthralled audiences in 2023. With their second (or technically third) collaboration last year, Eva Green and Vincent Cassel (after the series Liaison) return to screens as Athos and Milady de Winter. While the first installment focuses on D'Artagnan, the second is all about Green's character Milady de Winter. A known adversary to the literary heroes Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan, Milady is a highly skilled covert operator, assassin, and (typically for Green) femme fatale.

Who better to cast in such a role than Eva Green, the French acting powerhouse? She slips into the role of Milady easily, tackling fight scenes as well as delivering lines confidently and with conviction. There's lots of sword fighting and action that Green feels natural in, and she said in an interview for France Today that she "embraced the villainy" of Milady de Winter, stating "It’s fun because it’s very far from what we are in daily life."

Rent on AppleTV+

5 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' (2016)

As Miss Peregrine

Tim Burton is a beloved director with numerous hits under his directing belt, and when Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children came out, it was welcomed with high anticipation. Eva Green stepped into the titular role of Miss Peregrine, in charge of a school where kids and teenagers with supernatural abilities can come to learn more about themselves. When Jacob (Asa Butterfield) arrives, he meets a slew of interestingly unusual kids. Jacob realizes there's a higher purpose in his presence after Miss Peregrine and the children help him embrace who he is.

Miss Peregrine's home welcomes peculiar tenants, kids that have abilities beyond basic human comprehension, creating a sort of counterpart to the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters from Marvel's X-Men. Eva Green is the perfect choice for the role of a fierce protector and queen of the peculiar; this is the second out of three collaborations between Green and Burton, making people wonder why she's not in most of his films, considering she often fits the bill for the typical off-beat but lovable Burton characters. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children isn't among Burton's most popular films, but it's surely one of his best fantasy movies to date.

Watch on Disney+

4 'Perfect Sense' (2011)

As Susan

Perfect Sense puts together a seemingly unlikely couple - Ewan McGregor and Eva Green. The movie is set in Glasgow, Scotland (McGregor's turf) but it encapsulates a global pandemic. People suddenly begin losing all five senses, and the world spirals into chaos. It starts with smell and taste, developing into hearing and sight. Michael (McGregor) and Susan (Green) are neighbors who meet during the onset of this pandemic and develop a romantic relationship. They're both meant to encapsulate typically cold people who don't care much about others.

When two people like that meet, audiences observe how their treatment of others, combined with losing most of their senses, develops into an intense love story; according to Perfect Sense, it helps Michael and Susan realize that love is the "perfect sense" in question. The story is emotionally charged, as it shows how people are willing to come together during times when they can't help their circ*mstances. Though sci-fi in some respects, this is mainly a romantic drama and a tale of humanity binding together to experience its last moments.

Watch on Tubi

3 'The Dreamers' (2003)

As Isabelle

Fans of Bernardo Bertolucci will rejoice in seeing Eva Green serve as a muse for The Dreamers, a movie about hedonism, sexual exploration, and political turmoil. Though these are common topics for most of Bertolucci's films, The Dreamers is generally quite loved and praised; the best example would be Roger Ebert's review which could be summarized with his sentence: "The film is extraordinarily beautiful. Bertolucci is one of the great painters of the screen."

Eva Green and Louis Garrel play twins Isabelle and Theo, the children of a famous French poet; Michael Pitt enters the role of Michael, a young American studying in Paris in 1968. Michael and Isabelle meet at the cinema, bonded by their love of film. When Isabelle and Theo's parents leave for the summer, they invite Michael to stay with them, and he accepts. The Dreamers is an homage to cinema, particularly the New Wave, but the movie's driving force is undoubtedly Isabelle, or, better said, Eva Green (who debuted in this film.) The freedom, lavishness, sexiness, and wit she portrays Isabelle with make the movie feel like everything someone might romanticize about Paris.

Buy on Amazon

2 'Kingdom of Heaven' (2005)

As Sibylla

Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven is one of his most successful period dramas, especially due to one of the best ensemble casts on film. Starring Orlando Bloom, the story is told from his perspective, and how he goes from a lone blacksmith to a descendant of a brave knight fighting in Jerusalem. The story revolves around the conflict that took place in the 12th century when the Western Empires went to Jerusalem to free it from the captivity of the sultan Saladin. This conflict is also known as The Third Crusade in history.

Eva Green plays Sibylla, a crucial part of Jerusalem's royalty; her character seems like a romantic interest at first but develops into a pivotal character in the plot. This helps her take control of her character and portray her with regal poise and a sense of coolness, despite having some (sometimes seemingly) incomplete dialogues and lines. Though Kingdom of Heaven isn't always praised, it's pivotal for Scott and his career of making essential historical epics come to life. It was also clearly pivotal for Eva Green, who went on to do great things since then.

Watch on Starz

1 'Casino Royale' (2006)

As Vesper Lynd

Though The Dreamers was Green's big-screen debut, many didn't know of her before Casino Royale. Deemed among the best James Bond movies, Casino Royalebrought a highly beloved Bond girl to the story that was increasingly becoming more of the same old. It seems that when Daniel Craig stepped into Bond's shoes, the 007 movies started taking on a different dimension. Bond was still the cool and incredibly successful international agent, but he was also now a man of flesh and blood, filled with emotional turmoil and capable of romantic connection.

Cue Vesper Lynd, one of the coolest Bond girls of all time. It seems like Vesper's shoes couldn't have been filled by anyone other than Eva Green, who portrays her with a cold charm and restraint. Green seemingly established herself as the femme fatale to watch out for in Casino Royale, and though she claimed she wanted to break free from such roles, it's undeniable that she made Lynd 007's cool girl counterpart and not just a plain Bond girl.

Watch on Amazon

NEXT: Every Daniel Craig James Bond Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best