Enlevez-moi (1932) review - a messy, fast-talking French comedy

If you love dusty 1930s French comedies where everyone talks at the speed of light, Enlevez-moi is a fun little time machine. But if you hate chaotic theater plays filmed on cheap sets, you should probably skip this one. 🍿

The whole plot is basically about a girl who wants to be "kidnapped" to escape a boring marriage. Yes, it is extremely silly and doesn't make much sense if you think about it for more than two seconds.

I mainly watched this because of Arletty. She isn't even the main star here, but every time she walks on screen, she just steals the spotlight with that incredible side-eye. 🙄

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Enlevez-moi (1932) through its definitive frames.

There is a scene where a guy tries to climb through a window and his hat falls off twice. It clearly wasn't planned, but they just kept it in anyway. I love small, messy mistakes like that.

It has that same frantic, slightly clumsy energy you find in early talkies like The Vagabond Queen. But its definitely a world away from the artsy mood of Vampyr, which also came out around this time.

The musical numbers are... well, they are okay. Jacqueline Francell has a lovely voice, but the audio quality is so crackly it sounds like she is singing through a rusty tin can.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Enlevez-moi (1932) through its definitive frames.

At one point, a character gets so excited he literally knocks over a small table in the background. Nobody acknowledges it. They just keep shouting their lines.

Also, the main guy, Youcca Troubetzkov, has the most ridiculously shiny hair I have ever seen. It looks like he used an entire bottle of olive oil before every single take.

Here are a few things I wrote down while watching:

• The piano player in the party scene looks incredibly bored.
• Arletty's hat looks like a deflated pancake, but somehow she makes it look cool.
• There is a lot of doors slamming. Like, so much slamming.
• The subtitles I found were terrible, but honestly, you don't need them to get the jokes.

Its not a masterpiece, and some of the jokes are definitely showing their age. But if you want a sweet, messy piece of french cinema history, it’s worth a look.