Le bidon d'or: A frantic, dusty mess of a film

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, only if you have a very specific itch for old, frantic French comedies where half the dialogue is just people yelling over each other. If you want a tight story or something that makes sense, skip it. If you enjoy watching characters act like absolute maniacs because they lost a piece of trash, you might find some charm here. 🤷‍♂️

The whole thing revolves around a gold canister—the titular bidon d'or. Everyone wants it. Everyone loses it. It feels like a precursor to the kind of slapstick chaos you see in something like The Wrong Mr. Wright, just with more dust and less budget.

Notes from the couch

There is a scene near the middle where a character trips over his own feet for what feels like three full minutes. It wasn't funny the first time. By the third time, I was just staring at the wall behind my TV.

Thérèse Kolb is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. She’s the only one who seems to know what movie she’s actually in, while the rest of the cast acts like they’re trying to win a contest for the most theatrical arm-waving. 🎭

• The lighting in the exterior shots is bizarrely inconsistent. One minute it’s high noon, the next it looks like a storm is brewing.
• The sound editing is… loud. Just really, really loud.
• I’m pretty sure one of the extras in the background is just reading a newspaper in the middle of a chase scene.

It’s not as polished as East of Borneo, but then again, it’s not trying to be. It feels like a weekend project that got a bit out of hand. There’s a strange, disjointed rhythm to the pacing that makes the whole thing feel like it was edited with a pair of rusty garden shears.

Is it a total disaster? No. It’s just kind of there. It doesn't ask much of you, but it doesn't give much back either. It’s the cinematic equivalent of finding a penny on the sidewalk. You pick it up, look at it for a second, and then forget where you put it five minutes later.

If you're looking for something with the grit of Gypsy of the North, keep looking. This is strictly for the people who want to see a bunch of folks in old-fashioned clothes running around a French village looking confused. Maybe that’s enough for you today. It was barely enough for me.