Pour un sou d'amour: A relic worth a look?

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, you probably already know if you're the target audience for Pour un sou d'amour. If you’re the type of person who digs into film history archives just to see how people held a teacup in 1930s France, you’ll find some charm here. Everyone else? You’ll likely find it dry as toast and twice as crumbly. 🥖

It’s not a fast movie. It’s not even a medium-paced movie. It’s a movie that takes its sweet time getting to the point, and sometimes, the point feels like it went out for a smoke break and never came back.

The Vibe

There's a specific kind of staging here that feels very theatrical. Josseline Gaël has this way of holding the frame that reminds me a bit of the heavy-handed drama you see in La petite fonctionnaire. It’s all very earnest, maybe even a little too earnest for modern ears.

I found myself staring at the background furniture more than the actors during the middle act. There's a vase on a side table in one scene that looks like it’s about to fall over, but it just… stays there. The tension of whether that vase would tip was, strangely, the most exciting part of that sequence.

Small Observations

• The lighting is very flat, like they forgot to turn on the main lamp in the room.
• There’s a moment where a character walks across the room and you can hear the floorboard creak. They kept it in! It’s the little accidents that feel real.
• The dialogue is thick with that old-fashioned phrasing that makes you realize how much language has changed.

I couldn't help but compare the overall mood to The Blind Goddess, though this one lacks that specific bite. It’s softer. It’s almost apologetic about existing. 🎞️

The pacing definitely drags. There are scenes where the characters just sort of stand around waiting for the next line of dialogue to be invented. You can almost see the gears turning in their heads, trying to remember the blocking.

Would I watch it again? Probably not. Is it a crime to have watched it once? No. It’s just a quiet, slightly awkward piece of history that doesn't quite know what to do with itself, much like the characters in One Hour of Love.

It’s fine. It’s just fine. Sometimes fine is enough when you’re bored on a Tuesday night.