Roger la Honte (1933): A dusty bit of French melodrama

Is this thing worth the time?

Honestly, only if you are a sucker for 1930s French cinema or really into historical dramas that feel like they were pulled out of a damp attic. If you need pacing or a modern sense of stakes, you will probably be bored to tears within twenty minutes.

It is not exactly a thrill ride. It is more of a slow, polite walk through a garden of bad decisions and social ruin.

The vibe

There is something about the way these old films capture misery. It is not loud or flashy; it is just a guy standing in a room looking slightly stressed while people judge him. Roger la Honte feels a lot like The Gilded Dream in that regard—stuffy, but you can see the effort being put into the misery.

The dialogue is so formal it sounds like everyone is reciting a legal brief. Sometimes, you just want someone to drop a plate or trip over a rug to break the tension. Nobody ever does.

Oddly specific observations

• The lighting in the courtroom scenes is bizarre. It makes everyone look like they are hiding something even when they are just talking about the weather.
• I noticed a background actor who clearly forgot their lines about halfway through a scene. They just kind of stood there, squinting at the camera until the cut.
• The mustaches in this movie are truly a feat of engineering. How do they stay so stiff?

The movie drags in the middle. It’s like the director got distracted by the wallpaper or something. There is a sequence where a character walks down a hallway that feels like it lasts for three business days.

I found myself thinking about Cikáni while watching this. Both films have that weird, heavy atmosphere where the setting feels like a character that is trying too hard to be brooding. It’s a bit much, honestly. 🎭

Final thoughts (or lack thereof)

It is not a masterpiece. It is just a movie that exists. Sometimes that is enough if you want to turn your brain off and watch people in fancy suits lose their minds over social standing. Just don't expect to be changed by the experience.

Also, the ending? It’s a total shrug. It just kind of stops, like they ran out of film and said, "good enough." A bit unsatisfying, really.