Bonne chance! Review: A deeply weird, charming 1930s lottery fantasy

If you like fast-talking French people from the 1930s who spend money like water, you will probably have a good time with Bonne chance!. But if you get creeped out by older guys hanging around much younger girls under the guise of "good luck," maybe skip this one. 😅

The whole thing starts with Marie. She is about to marry this guy who has to go do his military service for two weeks.

Right before he leaves, she buys a lottery ticket because of this older artist guy, Claude. Claude is played by Sacha Guitry, who also wrote the movie and basically directs it like a giant playground for himself.

They win two million francs. Which, back in 1935, was probably enough to buy a small country or at least a lot of cheese.

So what do they do? Instead of waiting for the fiancé, Claude convinces Marie to go on a "pre-honeymoon."

Yes, you read that right. A honeymoon before the actual wedding, with the old guy instead of the fiancé.

It is wild how the movie just expects us to be totally fine with this. But somehow, because the vibe is so breezy, you almost buy into it.

They go around buying Renoirs and castles. There is this one scene where they are just eating caviar and it looks like they are having the absolute time of their lives.

I kept waiting for the fiancé to show up and get mad, but he is just... gone. The military training must be really intense.

Honestly, the chemistry between Guitry and Jacqueline Delubac is what keeps this from being totally weird. They were actually married in real life, which explains why they look so comfortable together.

Though, sometimes Claude looks at her with this expression that is hard to read. Is he her dad? Is he her lover? The movie keeps teasing this idea that he might adopt her because she does not know her father.

It is like a weird emotional loophole.

Some parts of this reminded me of that silent film era energy, like A Woman of the World, where the town morals are just slightly out of sync with what the main characters are doing. Or maybe even the silly logic of Monkeys Prefer Blondes.

But Guitry has this way of talking that is just so fast. If you do not speak French, the subtitles are going to give your eyes a serious workout.

He does this thing with his hands too. Every time he speaks, his fingers are fluttering around like he is trying to catch flies.

There is a side character played by Pauline Carton who is just incredible. She has this face that looks like she constantly smells something bad, and her voice is like a squeaky door.

Every time she was on screen, I wanted the movie to just stay on her.

But instead, we get more scenes of Claude spending money.

The scene with the Renoir painting goes on about 30 seconds too long. They just stand there looking at it, and you can tell the movie wants you to think "ah, art!" but I was just thinking about how cold that room must have been.

Also, the sound quality is pretty rough. It has that early talkie hiss, like someone is frying bacon in the next room.

But that is part of the charm, I guess.

I did notice a strange thing in the background of one of the hotel scenes. There is a painting on the wall that looks incredibly crooked, like the set designer just gave up that day.

I couldn't stop looking at it.

By the end, you realize not much has actually happened. It is just people being charming and wealthy for an hour and a half.

If you want a deep plot, go watch something else. This is just pure, expensive fluff.