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5.8/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.8/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Rouletabille aviateur remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Look, if you are the type who gets a kick out of old-fashioned mystery serials and doesn't mind a bit of clunky 1930s storytelling, you might have a good time here. If you need your movies to have, you know, actual stakes or coherent physics, you will probably hate every second of this. It feels like a relic, but in a way that’s sometimes charming and mostly just confusing.
Our guy Rouletabille is supposed to be on vacation in Hungary. Instead, he’s running around fighting air pirates. The whole thing feels a bit like The Desert Pirate if you traded the sand for propeller planes and questionable mustaches. It’s got that jittery, low-budget energy where people enter a room, say something very important, and then immediately run out of it.
There is this one scene where they are trying to track down these pirates, and the way they stare at the maps is just... intense. You can tell the actors are really trying to sell the urgency, but it just looks like they’re trying to read a menu in a dark restaurant. 🧐
It reminds me a little bit of the chaotic pacing in Help! where things just happen because the plot needs them to. One minute they’re at a fancy dinner, the next they’re dealing with some sky-high crime. It never really settles down to let you breathe.
The daughter of the Budapest police chief shows up and suddenly the movie forgets about the pirates for ten minutes to focus on some awkward side-eye. It’s weirdly specific and kind of funny. I don’t think it was supposed to be, but here we are.
Honestly? It’s not a masterpiece. It’s just a weird little artifact. If you’ve got an hour to kill and you want to see what 1932 thought was "high-stakes action," give it a go. Just don't expect it to change your life. ✈️