Les deux 'Monsieur' de Madame: A dizzying trip through 1930s slapstick

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, you probably already know if you’re the kind of person who enjoys 1930s French farce. If you’re looking for a tight plot, look elsewhere. If you want to watch people run in and out of rooms while looking panicked for eighty minutes, pull up a chair. 🍿

It’s not for the impatient, that’s for sure. The humor is loud, and the pacing feels like a treadmill set to the wrong speed.

The vibe

There’s this moment where Guy Favières looks directly at the camera, or at least it feels like it, with this expression of pure, unadulterated annoyance. It’s the best part of the whole film. The rest is just a blur of doors opening and closing.

Sometimes the actors seem to forget they are in the same frame. They talk over each other like they’re fighting for the last seat on a bus. It’s messy, but in a way that feels oddly sincere.

Little things that stuck

• The wallpaper in the main living room is genuinely distracting. I spent five minutes trying to figure out the pattern.
• The way characters hold their hats when they get nervous. It’s a very specific, weird physical tick.
• The dialogue is so fast that if you look away to check your phone, you lose the plot entirely. Not that the plot matters much.

I found myself comparing the pacing to something like Fast Company, though they are entirely different beasts. They both share that manic energy where everyone is just trying to survive the script.

The Verdict (kind of)

The movie gets noticeably better once it stops trying to explain the premise and just lets the chaos happen. There’s a scene near the end involving a tray of drinks that goes on about 20 seconds too long. It starts to feel awkward, almost like they ran out of things to say but didn't have the heart to yell 'cut.'

I’m not saying it’s a masterpiece. It’s barely a coherent story. But watching Pierre Dac try to navigate the nonsense is a strange joy. 😵‍💫

Don't expect a revelation. Just expect to be confused, maybe a little bit annoyed, and occasionally laughing at a facial expression that wasn't even meant to be funny. That’s enough, right?