La Garçonne (1936) review - A messy, smoky 1930s rebellion

If you have any love for dusty, slightly scandalous French melodramas from the 1930s, La garçonne is absolutely worth a look tonight. It is a wild ride for anyone who likes seeing old-school rebellion, but if you cannot stand crackly audio and slow, theatrical pauses, you will probably turn it off in ten minutes.

The whole thing is about Monique, who decides she would rather run away into the Parisian night than marry some boring guy her parents picked out. She basically goes on a massive, jazz-age bender of self-discovery. 🍸

Honestly, the movie gets way more interesting once she starts hanging out in those smoky cabaret clubs. There is this one scene where Monique is just staring at a singer with this incredibly intense, almost scary look on her face.

That singer is played by a super young Édith Piaf, by the way. She only gets a tiny bit of screen time, but she sings with so much energy it practically blows the dust off the camera lens.

The Wild Bohemian Vibes

I kept thinking about how different this feels from Hollywood stuff of the same era, like School for Girls. This French film does not care about being neat and tidy; it wants to show you the messy, late-night stuff.

Monique gets caught up in a lesbian affair with a chanteuse, which must have made censors back in 1936 absolutely lose their minds. The romance itself is treated with this weirdly casual shrug, which I actually loved.

It is not all great, though. Some of the dramatic confrontations between Monique and her parents feel like they are happening in slow motion.

The dad has this absurdly giant mustache that twitch whenever he gets angry. I found myself staring at his upper lip instead of listening to his dialogue. 👨🏻

Also, the transition from "innocent girl" to "rebellious flapper" happens so fast you might get whiplash. One minute she is crying in her bedroom, and the next she is wearing this incredibly chic, boyish suit and smoking like a chimney.

"I want to live my own life, even if it burns me to a crisp."

The film is based on a book that was super controversial, and you can still feel that anxious, desperate energy in the scenes. It is like the movie is constantly trying to shock you, even if the "shocks" feel pretty tame by today's standards.

I did notice the lighting in the club scenes is wonderfully moody. Shadowy corners, smoke rising into the light beams, people looking very dramatic while holding tiny glasses.

But then we get these long, boring stretches of people sitting in offices talking about money and contracts. Those scenes go on way too long, and I definitely checked my phone once or twice.

Still, for a movie that is almost ninety years old, it has a surprising amount of bite. It is much more lively than some other forgotten relics from the era, like Love's Languid Lure, which just puts you to sleep.

If you want to see some legendary French actors looking incredibly cool while making terrible life choices, give this one a spin. Just do not expect a perfectly polished masterpiece.