Today in France, there seems to be a resurgence of interest in 1930s French culture, with the release of Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001), set in Montmartre, and Patrick Bruel’s re-edition of 1930s popular songs (2002). French films of the 1930’s have hardly been exploited by linguists. I have compiled a corpus of five French films of the 1930’s (Fric-frac, Circonstances atténuantes, Le Jour se lève, La Règle du jeu and Hôtel du Nord) whose lexical items I have analysed to assess how language has evolved. The stereotypical representation of lower and upper-class speakers which was a popular theme in French cinema at that time enables the analysis of vernacular forms used by the Parisian lower class. I will endeavour in this analysis to establish the change in attitudes towards the standard and stigmatised language varieties in France by looking at lexicographers’ labelling of non-standard items with stylistic indicators such as familier, populaire and argotique. I also intend to gauge through a survey conducted recently in France whether the once denigrated français populaire found in 1930s French films is obsolete or whether it is still used in the 21st century.