La Fessée: A loud, messy trip back to 1937

Is this for you?

Look, if you have a soft spot for 1930s French comedies that feel like a stage play shot with too much espresso in the veins, you might get a kick out of La Fessée. If you prefer your movies to have a coherent plot or, you know, a sense of personal space, you should probably skip this one. It's loud, it’s frantic, and it’s mostly just people yelling at each other in fancy rooms.

The whole thing is built around the kind of misunderstandings that would be cleared up in three seconds if anyone actually listened to anyone else. But then we wouldn't have a movie, right? 🙄

The Vibe

It’s honestly kind of impressive how much energy everyone is putting into these scenes. I kept waiting for someone to just stop, sit down, and have a glass of water, but that never happens. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in The Actress and the Poet, though this one feels like it’s trying to set a record for how many times a door can be slammed in eighty minutes.

The cast is working overtime. You can tell they were directed to keep the pace at a sprint, even when the dialogue doesn't really call for it. Sometimes it works! Other times, it’s just a blur of faces and bad choices.

Odd Little Moments

• There’s a scene about midway through involving a prop that clearly doesn't work the way they wanted it to, and the actor just rolls with it like a champ.
• The way the background extras stare into the camera every now and then is... unsettling.
• The sound mixing is a bit of a nightmare. Sometimes the voices echo like they're in a cathedral, then suddenly they’re right in your ear.

I found myself zoning out during the long middle section where the plot turns into a circle. It’s the kind of movie where you can leave the room to make a sandwich and come back exactly where you started, emotionally speaking. 🥪

It lacks the sharp wit of better films from that era. Still, it’s an interesting artifact. It’s got that specific, slightly dusty charm that only old French studio films seem to have. It’s not trying to be Samson and Delilah, thank goodness. It just wants to make you laugh by hitting people with things and watching them trip over rugs.

Did I enjoy it? Maybe for twenty minutes. After that, it was mostly just noise. But hey, if you like watching people scramble, you’ll have a ball.