Vile of French, having photo framed in black (10)
I believe the answer is:
despicable
'vile' is the definition.
(I know that vile can be written as despicable)
'of french having photo framed in black' is the wordplay.
'of french' becomes 'de' ('of' in French).
'having' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'photo' becomes 'pic' (short for picture).
'framed in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'black' becomes 'sable' (heraldic term for black).
'pic' inserted inside 'sable' is 'spicable'.
'de'+'spicable'='DESPICABLE'
(Other definitions for despicable that I've seen before include "Mean" , "Vile" , "bum" , "rotten" .)