L'amoureuse aventure (1932) Review: A Loud, Dusty, and Deeply Charming Farce

If you have seventy-five minutes to spare and love dusty, crackly 1930s French comedies where everyone talks way too fast, then yes, L'amoureuse aventure is absolutely worth a watch. You will probably hate it if you need high-definition visuals or can't stand old-school farce logic where a tiny disguise changes a person's entire identity. 🕵️‍♀️

The plot is as old as time, or at least as old as silent films like Lovers' Delight. A rich lady finds out her husband is cheating, so she decides to get even by pretending to be a humble chambermaid for some ordinary guy.

Honestly, the setup is incredibly silly. But Marie Glory is so charming that you kind of just go along with it anyway.

There is this one scene early on where she is trying to dust a table and keeps knocking over the same little porcelain dog. It is a tiny bit of physical comedy that made me laugh out loud, mostly because the actor playing the husband looks so genuinely annoyed by it.

Albert Préjean being a total goofball

Albert Préjean shows up and just steals the entire movie with his goofy grin. He has this energy where he looks like he's about to burst out laughing at his own jokes at any second.

The chemistry between him and Glory is what keeps this whole fragile thing from collapsing. Without them, it would just be people yelling in rooms.

And boy, do they yell. Early French talkies really loved showing off that they had microphones now, so everyone talks at maximum volume.

Sometimes the sound quality gets so fuzzy you can barely hear the music. It actually adds to the cozy, time-travel feeling of the whole experience.

I did notice one weird thing in the background of the hotel lobby scene. There is an extra who just stands near a pillar, staring directly into the camera for like ten seconds straight.

He looks completely lost, like he wandered in from the street and nobody told him they were shooting a movie. 😅

Why it mostly works (even when it shouldn't)

The writing is credited to five different people, which usually means a movie is a complete disaster. Here, it just means the pace is totally erratic.

Some scenes drag on forever while others end so abruptly you wonder if a reel of film got lost in a basement somewhere.

Like, we get a long sequence of people arguing about a hat, but then the actual resolution of the marriage drama happens in about two seconds. It is highly chaotic but somehow very endearing.

If you enjoyed other breezy retro comedies from this era, like Children of the Ritz, this has a very similar lighthearted vibe. Just do not expect any deep life lessons here.

It is just a bunch of pretty French people running around doors and lying to each other for an hour. And honestly, sometimes that is exactly what you need.

Didja notice?

• The incredibly loud clinking of teacups that drowns out actual dialogue.
• That one guy's mustache which seems to change shape between shots.
• The incredibly obvious painted backdrop outside the window.