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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
Skip this one immediately if you cannot stand crackly 1930s audio. But if you have a soft spot for weird old French shorts where people just scream at each other, La brigade du bruit is a total trip. 🔊
It is very short, fast, and incredibly silly. Perfect for a quick laugh if you like history.
The plot is basically just people making a massive racket. Noël-Noël plays this guy who gets incredibly annoyed by every little sound, which is ironic because the movie itself is loud as hell.
Honestly, the sound design is so messy it feels like they just put a microphone in a metal bucket and threw it down the stairs. I kind of loved it though.
You get this feeling that early talkies were just so excited to be loud. Like they just discovered noise and wanted to use all of it at once.
It reminded me a bit of the chaotic energy in other early comedies from around then, like Dodge Your Debts, where the plot is just an excuse for people to run around and fall over. It has that same loose, zero-budget theatrical vibe you get in East Lynne with Variations.
"Early sound films didn't care about balance. They just wanted to make sure you heard everything, even the footsteps that sound like gunshots."
There is this one lady, Yvonne Hébert, who has this incredibly piercing laugh. It actually made my dog bark. 🐕
She just shows up, does this weird face, and laughs. No explanation given.
I love how nobody in these old movies walks normally. They all sort of bounce around the room like they are on springs.
The writing by Paul Colline has some clever bits, but mostly it's just pure physical chaos. It stops very suddenly too.
Like, the camera crew just ran out of film and went to lunch. It don't even try to have a real ending.
Don't expect a masterpiece here. It's just a fun, loud little relic from a time when movies were still figuring out how to speak.
