primeiros trinta minutos geniais.

One of Renoir's and the era's awesomest. It renders Paris of the day naturalistically but magically. Renoir excels in picturesque sunny outdoors. The text is both intelligent and timelessly funny. I laughed out loud frequently at the dry but hard-hitting comedy of manners. A joy to watch.

I thought I was going to love this, since Michelle Simon's anarchic sailor in "L'Atalante" is one of my favorite performances, but both and the film soon grow disagreable and tedious. And yet . . . the great open air shots of Paris stick in my memory.

"Even enterprise without state can be amply rewarded in the films of Renoir." - Eric Henderson

Its funny and the message comes through a little too clearly, but the bits just went on too long.

More ironic than funny. Some nice outdoor photography, though.

#640

Fui assisti-lo sem qualquer expectativa e me surpreendi com um filme engraçado, crítico e não convencional. É incrível como uma comédia tão anárquica tenha sido feita no início dos anos 30, em que não apenas é ridicularizada a falsidade da filantropia e do casamento dos personagens pequeno-burgueses; como a própria figura de Boudu é bastante irritante e não oferece nenhuma característica de afeição ou identificação ao espectador, sendo o oposto do simpático vagabundo de Chaplin.

# 559

Not a big Michel Simon fan. He almost ruined L'Atalante, and here he plays it even more over-the-top. The movie, one of Renoir's first, starts out promising with some sharp satire, but devolves into a tedious series of incidents involving Simon acting like a prick. I guess it's supposed to be funny, but I found it irritating.

A failed comment on bourgeois mores, as Boudu is depicted as plainly unlikable, yet his upper class benefactor is a relatively decent (if flawed) man. Any sympathy you may have for Boudu is just obliterated because he is so annoying. The presentation is also somewhat drab and dated, with little-to-none of the brilliant staging Renoir is known for.

Early 30s sound fims are by-and-large, excruciating. Michel Simon in the most annoying role I've ever seen does not help matters, yet somehow, the cast of characters and script are still devoted to him to an absurd degree. This is not the Renoir I know of, I actually forgot it was him in all the banality of this. And this is a comedy? Sure fooled me.

634

637

The second half is sort of a letdown, in my opinion.

If Michel Simon weren't so damn annoying this would be a magnificent film, a commentary the place of money in our lives with a lot of wry humor. As it stands it's a good but somewhat flawed satire that shows Renoir finding his way.