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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
Honestly, it depends on how much you enjoy watching people get stressed out in black and white. If you like old-school French farce where the plot matters less than the shouting, you’ll have a grand time. If you prefer things that make, you know, actual sense, you’ll probably want to turn it off after twenty minutes. 😅
Armand Bernard is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. His face is basically a rubber band that hasn’t snapped yet. The whole thing feels like it was filmed in a frantic weekend, and I mean that in a good way.
The pacing isn't so much a steady heartbeat as it is a frantic tapping on a table. One minute everyone is whispering, the next they’re screaming about some minor social faux pas like it’s the end of the world. It’s exhausting, but in a way that feels almost honest to how ridiculous people can be.
I found myself staring at the background extras in one scene. One guy in the back just keeps adjusting his hat for like a solid minute. Nobody told him to stop, so he just... kept doing it. It’s mesmerizing.
Watching this made me think about other period pieces like Le gendre de Monsieur Poirier. There’s a similar vibe of people being stuck in their own stuffy traditions, though here, the traditions are mostly just an excuse for the sets to get trashed. It lacks the quiet moments you might find in, say, The Fixer, but it’s got way more energy.
Don't expect a masterpiece. Expect a movie that just wants to get to the next punchline, even if it has to run over the plot to get there. It’s messy. It’s loud. It’s very 1933.
It’s not trying to be a The Somme level of technical feat, thank god. It’s just a bit of fluff that’s managed to survive the years. Sometimes, that’s enough. Maybe. 🤷♂️