Stupéfiants: A strange, moody trip

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, you probably only want to watch Stupéfiants if you are a completionist for Peter Lorre or just have a weird obsession with pre-war French melodrama. If you prefer your pacing to be snappy and your plot points to make sense from start to finish, you will hate this. It is a slow, smoky, and occasionally frustrating slog.

But there is a vibe here that is hard to ignore. It is heavy. It feels like a fever dream that has been sitting in a damp basement for eighty years. 🚬

The Lorre Factor

Look, Peter Lorre is in this, and he is doing his usual thing where he looks like he has seen things that would make a normal person jump off a bridge. Even when he is just standing in the background of a frame, he has this way of drawing your eye. He is the only reason the movie feels like it has a pulse half the time.

The rest of the cast is... fine? I guess? They deliver their lines with a lot of gravity, but the script is so intent on being a tragic cautionary tale that it forgets to actually make the singer, our main girl, feel like a real person. She is mostly just a vessel for the plot to move forward.

Odd Little Moments

• There is a shot of a street lamp flickering that goes on for way too long. It is almost hypnotic.
• The brother’s "tough guy" act is hilarious. He tries to look threatening in a suit that clearly doesn't fit him right.
• The shadows! My god, the shadows in the drug den scenes are doing more acting than the extras.

It is not as sharp as some other period pieces like The Dying Swan, which manages to handle its dark themes with a bit more grace. Stupéfiants is blunt. It just hits you with the "drugs are bad" message over and over until you feel like you are being scolded by a parent.

Still, watching this makes me think of how different it is from something like The Sap from Syracuse, where everything is just so bright and silly. This movie is the polar opposite of a good time, but it has this thick, oppressive atmosphere that sticks to your skin.

The dialogue is often just people whispering ominous things to each other in dark corners. It gets a little repetitive. Sometimes I wanted someone to just scream or break a plate, just to shake things up.

Maybe it is worth a look if you are in the mood for something gloomy. Just do not expect it to change your life.