La perle (1929) is a weird, sweaty little dream of a movie

You should probably watch La perle if you enjoy that specific type of old French cinema where nobody explains why a forest is suddenly inside a building. If you need a plot that moves from A to B without stopping for a stocking-related detour, you will absolutely hate this.

It starts out normal enough with a man buying a pearl. Then he walks out the door and he is just... in the woods.

There is no transition. No wavy lines to show it is a dream.

He just steps over the threshold and there are trees everywhere. I actually rewound the video because I thought I missed a jump cut, but no, it is just there.

He realizes a pearl is missing and goes back. The jewelry store is back too.

Inside, there is a saleslady sitting on a glass showcase. She has her skirt hiked up way higher than what was probably polite in 1929.

There is another pearl necklace tied to her leg, right by her garter. It is a very deliberate and strange image that feels like it was stolen from someone's private diary.

The guy just takes it. He doesn't ask. He just grabs the jewelry off her leg.

Then the jeweler gets mad and fires her. Which feels a bit unfair considering the guy just barged back in, but logic isn't really the guest of honor here.

The next scene is probably my favorite part of the whole thing. The fired lady just hops onto the handlebars of the guy's bicycle.

They ride off together like they’ve been best friends for years. It has this oddly sweet, chaotic energy to it.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of La perle (1929) through its definitive frames.

The movie is mostly just the pearl getting lost and found over and over. It feels like a precursor to those weird experimental shorts you'd see in a college film class.

It reminds me a bit of the atmosphere in The Woman and the Beast, though much less grounded. Or maybe something like Cleopatra if you stripped away all the budget and just kept the staring.

The way the characters move is very stiff. They look like they are posing for photos even when they are supposed to be walking.

I noticed the man’s hat stays perfectly level the whole time. Even when he is frantically searching the ground for the pearl, that hat is locked in place.

The film quality is a bit grainy, which actually helps the vibe. It makes the forest scenes look like they were filmed in a haunted attic.

Is it a deep story? Not really.

It feels like Georges Hugnet just had a few cool images in his head and decided to string them together with some film. I respect that more than a movie that tries to be smart and fails.

There is a sequence where the pearl is in a glass of water. Or maybe it's gin? Whatever it is, the lighting makes the pearl look like a tiny, glowing eyeball.

The ending is abrupt. It doesn't really conclude so much as it just... stops being a movie.

I think it’s worth a look if you have twenty minutes and want to see what people thought was "edgy" before the sound era took over. It's definitely more interesting than The Marriage Market, which is way too predictable for its own good.

One more thing—the way the jeweler points his finger is genuinely terrifying. He has these long, spindly hands that look like they belong on a different person.

Didja notice?

• The shopkeeper's mustache looks like it might fall off if he sneezes.
• The way the bicycle wobbles under the weight of two people is very relatable.
• That one shot of the pearl in the dirt that lingers for way too long.
• Nobody seems particularly upset about the missing jewelry after the first five minutes.
• The trees in the forest look oddly flat, like they might be cardboard.

It's a weird one. Watch it with the lights off.