Boudu Saved from Drowning
1932
I have to review like four movies after this since I am ahead so forgive me if I am a bit short. This is another good French comedy. Now that we are getting away from silent movies, there have been a lot less propaganda films and a lot more slapstick comedies. I don't have a whole lot of complaints about that.
This movie is about a tramp who (spoiler alert!) is saved from drowning. He strongly resembles Charlie Chaplin's character but I found Michel Simon a lot more charming. He gets accepted into a nice bookseller's house but like in most comedies, the bookseller gets more than he bargained for!
This movie is very entertaining. The dialogue is witty, the acting is excellent, and the plot is different enough to be really intiguing. Very nice.
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
Why don't I just write the reviews ahead of time?
The guy on the bench is the assistant director. I know that is not very interesting, but the trivia page on IMDb is not exactly overloaded with knowledge.
Available on YouTube but again for some reason I can't put it up.
This is a smart movie for exposing the double standards of the bourgeoisie, but Boudu is so unsympathetic that I cannot say that I liked the movie.
ReplyDeleteWow this one is hard to recall. Another to revisit.
DeleteI quite liked this even though I felt little sympathy for Boudu himself. It does lose a star for me though on account of the unconvincing nature of his false beard.
ReplyDeleteHaha I can't believe I didn't notice that!
DeleteSaw this movie last week and found it not that interesting. The camerawork was really mediocre on that drowning part, maybe you can blame it on the techniques which they had in 1932. I found Boudu a loud annoying dude, but had also no sympathy for the somewhat haughty bourgeoise family. However the end made some things good though.
ReplyDeleteI worry about my reaction to this. Obviously we were supposed to be with Boudu and his revolutionary(?) radical (?) demolishing - figuratively & literally of the family .. but I'm afraid I also found him an obnoxious, offensive, boorish asshole.Is this damaging to my liberal Guardian reading credentials?
ReplyDeleteI can't remember thinking he was annoying, but I can barely recall this movie at all. So your credentials are safe Ray.
ReplyDelete