La souris bleue: A weird, frantic little mess

Is it worth your time?

If you like movies that feel like a stage play held together by duct tape and caffeine, you might actually like this. If you need a plot that makes sense or characters who behave like real human beings, stay far away. This is for the folks who get a kick out of seeing 1930s actors just yelling their way through a farce.

Honestly, the whole thing feels like it’s teetering on the edge of falling apart every ten minutes. The pacing is weird. It’s not just fast; it’s like someone edited it with a pair of rusty kitchen scissors.

Robert Arnoux is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Sometimes he’s actually funny, and other times he looks like he’s trying to remember if he left his stove on at home. You can tell he’s sweating under those hot studio lights. Poor guy.

Small things I noticed while watching:

• There’s a background extra in the second act who is clearly trying not to laugh during a serious argument. It's distracting but also the best part of the scene.
• The sound quality drops off a cliff whenever they move more than five feet away from the microphone. It sounds like they're whispering from inside a cardboard box.
• The titular 'blue mouse' shows up in ways that make absolutely no sense for the narrative. It’s like the director just decided it needed to be there and didn't bother explaining why.

It reminds me a bit of the frantic energy in Horse Feathers, but without the benefit of the Marx Brothers actually knowing how to land a joke. It’s just… noise. Happy, chaotic noise.

There’s a scene where Henri Garat tries to sneak out of a room, and the camera lingers on the door handle for a solid four seconds too long. It becomes this weird, meditative moment about door hardware. I couldn't stop staring at it. Was it a mistake? Was it high art? Probably just a mistake. 🐭

I wouldn't say this is a lost classic. It's more like a lost napkin that someone scribbled a bunch of jokes on. If you’re bored on a Tuesday, go for it. Just don’t expect a life-changing experience.

The ending just sort of happens, too. No big reveal. No grand finale. Everyone just kind of stops talking and the lights go out. It’s almost charming in how little it cares about wrapping things up.