Le Bonheur: When Stockholm Syndrome is the Plot

Is this thing worth a watch?

If you like old-school French melodrama where people make decisions that would make your jaw drop, sure. It’s a bit dusty, but the performances have a weird, crackling energy. If you need your movies to be grounded in actual human psychology, you might want to skip this one. You’ll be yelling at the screen within the first twenty minutes.

The premise sounds like something pulled out of a tabloid from the thirties. Actress gets shot by a political radical, then suddenly decides he's the love of her life. It’s wild. Like, really wild.

The Absurdity of the Romance

There’s a moment where she’s standing in the courtroom, looking at the guy who basically ruined her life, and you can just tell she’s completely gone for him. It’s not subtle. The movie doesn't even try to hide the lack of logic, which is honestly kind of charming in a weird way.

Charles Boyer is in this, and he’s doing that thing he does where he looks perpetually slightly pained but dashing. It works for the character, I guess. He makes the anarchist act seem almost like a misunderstood hobby.

Odd Little Details

• The courtroom scenes are way too tidy. Nobody talks like that in real life, even in 1934.
• The lighting in the bedroom scenes is so dramatic it’s almost funny. Shadows everywhere.
• I’m still not sure why the judge didn't just throw them both out of the building.

It reminds me a bit of the romantic stakes in A Free Soul, where the lines between 'right' and 'wrong' are basically suggestions. You start watching for the drama, but you stay because you can't believe they are actually committing to this ending.

The pacing is a bit of a rollercoaster. One minute it's a slow burn, the next, someone is confessing their undying love during a cross-examination. It feels like the writers were just throwing darts at a board of dramatic tropes.

I caught myself staring at the background extras more than once. There's this one guy in the jury who looks like he’s trying to hold in a sneeze for the entire duration of the trial. It’s distracting, but in a good way.

Anyway, it’s not a masterpiece, but it’s definitely something. If you’ve got a rainy afternoon and a high tolerance for vintage soap opera energy, give it a go. Just don't look for the logic, because it clearly left the building before the cameras started rolling. 🎥