Service de nuit: A little bit of night shift chaos

Is this worth the watch?

If you like old-school, snappy French comedies from the thirties, yeah, you'll probably have a decent time. It moves fast and doesn't ask you to solve any heavy puzzles. If you need grit or deep character growth, stay away. This is basically a stage play that decided to wander onto a film set. 🏨

I caught this the other night when I wanted something that didn't demand my full brain power. It’s a bit like watching Le cordon bleu in terms of that specific, light-hearted energy where everyone is just kind of rushing around in suits.

The vibe

There's this moment about twenty minutes in where a door gets slammed, and the sound is just… loud. It felt less like a professional sound design choice and more like someone literally just slammed a door hard behind the camera. It gave me a chuckle. That’s the movie in a nutshell. It’s a little bit dusty, very stagey, and completely aware of its own limitations.

Paulette Dubost is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. She has this look on her face in the long shots—like she’s waiting for the train to arrive or for someone to finally drop the cue. It’s funny because you can see her *thinking* while the other actors are still rattling off their lines.

Some random notes

• The night shift setting works well because it forces everyone into the same hallway.
• The pacing is erratic. Sometimes it flies; sometimes it hits a wall for no reason.
• I think I spotted an extra in the background who just stops moving entirely for ten seconds.
• The dialogue is sharp, though it feels like it was written to be shouted across a room.

Honestly, watching this made me think of What a Life, mostly because both films have that 'let’s just get through the day' energy. They aren't trying to be cinematic masterpieces. They are just trying to keep the lights on and the audience awake.

The cinematography is… fine. It’s very much 'point the camera at the actors and hope they don't walk out of the frame.' There isn't much flair here, but there is a strange honesty to it. You aren't being manipulated by fancy lighting or weird camera angles. It's just there.

Some of the humor hasn't aged perfectly, but that’s expected. You just sort of roll your eyes and move on. It’s not worth getting worked up over. The movie ends pretty abruptly, like someone just pulled the plug on the projector, which I actually kind of respected. No long, sappy wrap-up. Just done.

Would I watch it again? Probably not. Am I glad I saw it once? Sure. It’s a relic, but it’s a living, breathing one. 🌙