My honest thoughts on Les yeux noirs (1935) - A sweaty, gorgeous mess

If you have eighty minutes to spare today and want to feel sad in a very specific, 1930s French way, Les yeux noirs is actually worth your time.

Anyone who loves dusty old melodramas with too much piano music and intense staring will eat this up.

But if you need things to happen fast, or if you hate characters who make terrible life choices, you should probably skip it. 🍷

The plot is basically about this girl Tanya—played by the incredibly cute Simone Simon—who doesn't know her dad is actually a head waiter.

She thinks he is some big shot, but he is just serving drinks to rich jerks to pay for her fancy school.

Then this sleazy banker guy takes her to the exact same restaurant to try and, well, get her drunk in a private room.

The awkwardness in this scene is so thick you could cut it with a butter knife.

I noticed the camera zooms in on Harry Baur's face—he plays the dad—and his mustache is literally twitching with rage while he serves them.

It is easily the best part of the whole movie.

There is also a moment where a violin player stands right next to their table and just stares at them while playing.

The scene goes on about twenty seconds too long, and the silence afterward starts to feel awkward rather than emotional.

Tanya eventually gets saved from the creepy banker and ends up hanging out with her piano teacher, played by Jean-Pierre Aumont.

He looks like he forgot his lines in half the scenes, but he has nice hair so I guess it is fine.

This movie reminds me a bit of the family drama in The Human Side, which came out around the same time, but with way more Russian depression.

It also has some of that silent era DNA where people express emotions by throwing their whole body onto a sofa.

The Weird Little Things I Noticed:

• The banker's hair is so greasy it reflects the studio lights like a mirror.
• At one point, a background extra clearly looks directly at the camera and then quickly pretends to eat soup.
• The piano music is incredibly loud, like the sound guy just fell asleep on the volume slider during the recording.

It is not a perfect movie by any means.

The ending sort of just... happens, and then the screen fades to black without really explaining what happens to the dad.

But I actually liked that it did not try to wrap everything up in a neat little bow.

It felt more like a real person's messy life, even with all the silly dramatic gasping.

If you can find a copy with decent subtitles, give it a shot tonight.

It is much better than most of the forgotten stuff from this era, like Broken Ties, which is just a massive chore to sit through.