Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Innovative sound film, 7 Sep 2007
Rene Clair along with other directors like Murnau, Hitchock, Pudovkin and Eisenstein were critical of the use of sound or more particularly dialogue in films fearing that it would return cinema to the theatre. "Le Million", Clair's second sound picture after "Under the Roofs of Paris" (1930) is a truly innovative film in it's use of sound which is used to complement the image and not the story. The most famous scene from this film, the tussle for the jacket that is overlaid with the sound of a football crowd is an excellent example of his innovation. "Le Million" is basically a comedy-musical about the hunt for a missing lottery ticket, set in Parisian bohemia, with a flamboyance that only the French are capable of. One has to believe that "Le Million" was an influence on the The Marx Brothers when they made "A Night at the Opera" in 1935 and perhaps even some of Chaplin's films in the 30s. Rene Clair would follow this film up with another classic "A Nous La Liberte"(1931).
Cast:
Annabella (Napoleon,1927; Hotel Du Nord,1938)
Rene Lefevre (Le Crime de Monsieur Lange,1936; Le Doulos,1963)
Cinematography:
Georges Perinal (Blood of the Poet,1930; A Nous la Liberte,1931; Thing to Come;1936; The Life and death of Colonel Blimp,1943; Falllen Idol, 1948)
The Criterion DVD is a good sharp transfer.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Light-hearted, sweet, clever and funny; an early sound musical by René Clair, 11 Jul 2007
Seventy-five years old, and René Clair's Le Million remains one of the most delightful, ebullient and amusing of movies. It's even more interesting if you take the time to read the insert in the Criterion case before you watch the film.
Michel (René Lefevre), a poor artist, shares a garret with his best friend, Prosper. Michel's girl friend, Beatrice (Annabella), lives across the hall. Then Michel discovers he has won the lottery with a prize of one million Dutch florins. But where did he put the ticket? Ah, yes, in the pocket of his coat. But he gave the old coat to Beatrice to mend. And when she saw Michel sitting very close to his model, Vanda, she angrily gave the coat away to a poor man who appeared in her room with a story about being chased. And the poor man, Grandpa Tulip, turns out to be a ringleader of a group of thieves. When he gets back to his store, where he sells all the stolen goods he receives, he tosses the old coat on a pile of clothing. And just then tenor Sopranelli enters the store looking for an old coat as part of his costume for an opera concert he's giving that night at the Opera Lyrique. "A great artist," he points out, "must pay attention to the slightest details." Soon everyone is after the coat, including all of Michel's creditors. And all this frenetic comedy is played out with songs. Le Million was one of the first, if not the first, musical comedies of the sound era.
The music pervades the movie, jaunty, romantic and light hearted, from fragments the characters' consciences sing to themselves to the long and sweet opera scene to the joyous opening and closing. Even the thieves have a song...
"We are the foot soldiers of inequality.
We take back the spoils of social injustice.
And under the watchful eye of the police...
...the watchful eye of the police...
We redistribute wealth and private property."
To which the police reply...
"We are the foot soldiers of legality.
No bandit can escape the police.
Our arm upholds the scale of justice
In the name of public virtue and private property."
The movie is full of marvelous and inventive sequences. The opening of the film takes us over the roof tops of Paris to a lit skylight, where two elderly men are clambering up to look in. They raise the skylight and the sound of happy song comes up to us. They're spotted, and the dancing crowd asks if they'd like some champagne. They'll be told the story of why everyone is dancing, and they...and we...are informed that the story, of course, has a happy ending. I was charmed starting right then.
A major sequence takes place back stage at the Opera Lyrique. Everyone who has learned of the ticket in the coat has converged here. At one point there is a mad chase for the coat that morphs into a football match complete with crowd cheers and an umpire's whistle. Another time there are fast comings and goings into closets, rooms, hallways and behind the scenery as the curtain goes up. And when the curtain goes up, Sopranelli and a bulky, middle-aged diva wearing a blonde wig with pigtails down to her hips begin to sing a ponderously romantic song. Behind an artificial bush Michel and Beatrice are trapped. And as the singing continues, the camera turns the scenery into a magic, artificial forest where it would be impossible for two lovers not to embrace. They turn the elephantine song into a tableaux with falling artificial leaves as they make the lyrics become real. It's one of the most inventive and sweetest scenes you'll ever hope to see. Throughout the movie are chases up and down stairs and in and out of rooms, with doors locked and opened, and improbable hiding places discovered. Critics have made a good case of how this film influenced Chaplin and the Marx Brothers, as well as Rodgers and Hart's and Rouben Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight.
Film analysis aside, you'd have to be a terminal grump to watch this movie without a smile on your face.
The Region 1 Criterion picture looks very good, especially considering age and probable condition of the source print. The only significant extra is a short film interview with René Clair made in 1959 when he discussed his views on sound in motion pictures.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic musical, 8 Dec 2008
The other two reviews are extremely learned and informative so I won't repeat the plot or what they say. I'd only like to add something about "Le Million"'s place in the history of the musical, and it's influence on others. Critics tend to see this in terms of evolution of the "integrated" musical, where songs, dance and dialogue all form one coherent whole developing character and story. According to conventional wisdom, the integrated musical arrived with "Oklahoma" Oklahoma: 2-disc (Special Edition) [1955]and "Carousel"Carousel: 2-disc (Special Edition) [1956]. In my view the role of Rodgers and Hammerstein is much overrated; the integrated musical started with PG Wodehouse in the 1910s, but thereafter it was largely developed in Europe, from the tradition of opera/operetta, and the most notable contributions in the US were from exiles - especially Kurt Weill, whose musicals were universally slaughtered when it came to filming them, apart from "The Threepenny Opera" Georg W. Pabst - The Threepenny Opera [1931] which was filmed in Germany before the Nazis came to power. The honourable exception is the Gershwins, who were pushing to expand the form from about the same time; both of them were devotees both of Weill and European cinema, and I'm convinced also that Rodgers and Hart must have seen "Le Million" before they wrote the 1932 Al Jolson vehicle "Hallelujah I'm a Bum" Hallelujah, I'm A Bum! [1933] (REGION 1) (NTSC), which is full of rhyming dialogue which slides into and out of the songs.
Rene Clair's pioneering and visionary work arose out of the limitations he had to work with; with the primitive state of sound, he realised that his best bet was to separate sound from visuals as much as possible. Where he has to synchronise, in dialogue, he does it in tight little sets with the camera in close too. As a result the sets are as stylised, as pretty and artificial as anything in later MGM musicals.
So music and sound effects bubble along in a unifying way with the action. The stylisation is added to by the fact that the actors are clearly used to working in silent films; in another context it would seem like overacting, but here it all contributes to the never-never land confection.
If this seems over-serious, I should also add that the film is VERY funny, and the scene in the Opera House has me laughing out loud every time I see it. Delirious - and only 80 minutes long. You won't regret a moment of them.
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