Prisonnier de mon coeur (1932) - Cozy French jailhouse silliness

If you have a soft spot for dusty, early-sound French comedies where everyone talks at the top of their lungs, Prisonnier de mon coeur is absolutely worth an hour of your life. It’s a total relic, but a charming one.

If you hate scratchy audio and actors overacting like they are still in silent movies, you should probably run away now. 🏃‍♂️

The whole thing centers on this guy who basically gets himself thrown into a provincial prison because he is obsessed with the warden's daughter. Except the prison is more like a cozy bed and breakfast where the guards are basically room service.

It has that incredibly specific, chaotic energy you only find in French cinema from this transition era. It reminds me a bit of the wild stylings in Le brasier ardent, though way less avant-garde and much more interested in silly door-slamming jokes.

Roland Toutain plays our main guy, and honestly, the man has too much energy. He doesn't just walk into a room; he sort of vibrates into it.

At one point, he does this weird little hop over a stool that wasn't even in his way. I had to rewind it just to make sure I saw it right. Why did he do that? Nobody knows, and the movie doesn't care.

Then there is Pierre Larquey. I swear, that man could make reading a grocery list look funny.

He has this tired, droopy face that contrasts so well with Toutain's puppy-dog bouncing. Every time Larquey is on screen, the movie instantly gets 20% better.

The audio is pretty rough, which is expected for 1932. Sometimes the background hiss is louder than the actual dialogue, making it sound like everyone is whispering during a heavy rainstorm.

There is this one scene in the middle where a character is trying to hide behind a curtain. The curtain is clearly about three feet too short, so his entire legs and shoes are just standing there in plain sight. It goes on for a solid two minutes and nobody mentions it.

It is definitly not a masterpiece. The ending feels like they ran out of film and just decided to stop shooting.

But there is something so incredibly cozy about these early talkies. They were still figuring out where to put the microphones, so characters will suddenly freeze and stare directly at a flower pot while talking. It's hilarious.

If you want a polished comedy, look elsewhere. But if you want to spend an afternoon looking through a dusty window into 1930s Paris, give this one a shot.