Le Bonheur (1934)

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Despite a 50 year career that began with the 'Silents' in 1917 and extended to the Age of Television (1967) Maurice L'Herbier was at best a Journeyman director, a Gallic equivalent if you will of Hollywood's Edward Bernds or the UK's John E Blakeley yet Journeymen occasionally turn out something worth more than 80 minutes in a flea-pit and L'Herbier has done so here with a story at once enigmatic and complex with information deliberately withheld from the viewer which, for 1934 was sophisticated to say the least. To bare-bone it a loner (Charles Boyer in his pre-Hollywood days) who ekes out a living sketching for a newspaper attempts to kill a popular entertainer (Gaby Morlay) whose repertoire include the chanson 'Le Bonheur' (Happiness). For his pains he is given 18 months medium time and on his release may well form a relationship with Morlay whose marriage is just a tad less solid than a strawberry Jello. To add to the mix THIS film ends just as a film ABOUT these events is starting shooting which, again for 1934, was ultra-modern and links it to such later works as Chicago, itself based on Roxie Hart, in which a murder trial is 'dramatised and/or vaudevillised as entertainment for the masses. Boyer is admirable in the leading role and Morlay is adequate in support. French cinema buffs will relish Michel Simon as a limp-wristed art director and Paulette Dubost weighs in with her usual reliable solidity. Fairly obscure but worth seeking out.

In 1898,Empress Elisabeth from Austria was murdered in Switzerland:the man who killed her was an anarchist and he chose her because the man he wanted to slay was not around... for lack of anything better."Le bonheur" is a disturbing modern movie particularly for Marcel L'Herbier whose movies of that era("la Porte du Large" "les Hommes Nouveaux""Entente Cordiale" ) are generally obsolete stuff.A man (Boyer)tries to kill a singer (Gaby Morlay).First we do not know anything about this man ,except that he sketches people for a newspaper.He lives alone and a girl tries to seduce him.Then a very strange trial begins.Boyer gives a stunning performance,with his empty look and his absolute indifference.An anarchist,an antisocial man but an educated one (he's got a law degree) his motives seem to elude the viewer.The story is very complex ,including something recalling the 1898 assassination (I chose her because my political target was not available), a song the criminal heard her victim sing (called "le bonheur" =happiness).After a while, a strange relationship has developed between them.He's only got an eighteen-month sentence ,her marriage is on the rocks and it seems that the day he's released something new can begin..The second part is even more modern than the first one .The producers try to capitalize on the "event" and they make a movie out of it!The "hero" relives his past...Michel Simon appears as a gay artistic director.