Title: Le Million
Year: 1931
Country: France
Language: French
Genre: Musical, Comedy
Director/Writer: René Clair
based on the play of Georges Berr and Marcel Guillemaud
Music:
Armand Bernard
Philippe Parès
Georges Van Parys
Cinematography:
Georges Périnal
Georges Raulet
Cast:
René Lefèvre
Annabella
Jean-Louis Allibert
Paul Ollivier
Constantin Siroesco
Vanda Gréville
Raymond Cordy
Odette Talazac
Rating: 7.4/10



French tastemaker René Clair's early talkie, LE MILLION sees him tackle with an archetypal musical experiment, intelligently weaves diegetic aural accompaniment (three composers are involved) into its caper plot, a tuneful piano piece here, a melodious chorus emerging inside a character's head there, and a large chunk of the farce is circumscribed inside a theater where LES BOHéMINES is on to boot.

The plot is a no-brainer, Michel Bouflette (Lefèvre), a down-and-out artist, albeit of being assailed by debtors (butcher, grocer etc.), he is still inclined to cop a feel with a hussy Vanda (Gréville), which ruffles the feathers of his fiancée Béatrice (Annabella). When his friend Prosper (Allibert, devilish handsome) delivers him the thrilling news that they have won the lottery for one million Dutch florins, only to their dismay, the lottery ticket is inside Michel's jacket which has been given away to a criminal mastermind Grandpa Tulip (Ollivier) by Béatrice.

So the rest of the story is a race to trace the whereabout of the jacket and try to reclaim the ticket, from Grand Tulip's shop, a camouflage for his unlawful business, to a stint in the police office (where Prosper turns Janus-faced), then the opera theater where a tenor Ambrosio Sporanelli (Siroesco) decides to wear the said jacket to perform in public. It is a cat-and-mouse knockabout between team Michael and team Prosper, both are aided by a female sidekick (Béatrice and Vanda respectively), which is a common trope being played again and again ad nauseam, even. While a third party, namely Grandpa Tulip's men, also lay their hands on the jacket, not for the lottery, surprisingly, but to reciprocate the kindness to whom Grandpa Tulip is beholden, which means a celebratory ending!

Clair has a distinguished flair in sublimating Parisian cityscape for audience's admiration and a dab-hand who can infuse alluring sophistication into the film's chipper comedic agility and timing, the cast is animated and gung-ho, to a point of betraying an impression of self-awareness, as if to reaffirm their rapt viewers that it is a show for laughter, all in all, a brilliantly maneuvered divertissement throbbing with elation and kinetics.

referential point: René Clair's I MARRIED A WITCH (1942, 5.8/10); Jean Renoir's ELENA AND HER MEN (1956, 5.2/10), FRENCH CANCAN (1954, 7.0/10)

    善于使生活復(fù)雜化的藝術(shù)家，習(xí)慣讓自己豐富到困擾的畫家，周旋于兩個(gè)女人，應(yīng)付與眾多的債主之間，理直氣壯地喊著：“我受不了你們的討錢方式。”活生生的形象，鮮明的個(gè)性特征。
    故事不是很復(fù)雜，潦倒的畫家在絕境之中，得知中了大獎(jiǎng)，彩票卻一再波折，爭奪大戰(zhàn)熱烈戰(zhàn)展開。很多用心雕刻卻自然的情節(jié)：麥克談情時(shí)的三次打斷，特別是貝奇絲闖入的反應(yīng)；旺達(dá)知道他的窮困之后的起身；兩個(gè)女人站在兩邊，麥克的兩難選擇；一邊是貝奇絲剛撕碎的照片，一邊是她挺身而出維護(hù)。有緊有慢，有起有伏，有線索有懸疑，還有眾多小幽默。特別是舞臺之上，更富有戲劇性和烘托性。
    強(qiáng)調(diào)：中獎(jiǎng)之后，麥克的狂喜無語；眾債主的快速變臉，當(dāng)小女孩獻(xiàn)花祝詞“很高興認(rèn)識一個(gè)百萬富翁”時(shí)諷刺達(dá)到了頂峰，連天真的孩子都如此說話，世道可見一斑。完滿結(jié)局時(shí)的歌中，揭示克萊爾的意愿：“金錢不代表一切，那是你虛偽的理由?！?br>    音樂歌舞片在克萊爾這里近乎完美，結(jié)構(gòu)疏密有間，敘事節(jié)奏鮮明，音響處理歌聲。從卓別林道憨豆豆可以在這部影片里面尋找到相似。
    補(bǔ)充一下，最喜歡情景交融的劇中劇。

  一個(gè)一文不名的藝術(shù)家忽然中了百萬法郎，藝術(shù)家自己，他的好朋友，他的女朋友們，鄰居們（都是藝術(shù)家的債主），在這筆橫財(cái)面前全都展現(xiàn)出了自己人性本質(zhì)中最隱秘的東西。
  導(dǎo)演René Clair決定讓觀眾們在歡歌笑語中來深入人性，來考察人性。所以作為觀眾的我就看到了一部讓人無比開心，無比歡樂的電影。
  以下是我所認(rèn)為在電影中最精彩的部分（歌劇戲），中的一些細(xì)節(jié)。
  電影中，男女主角在舞臺上（與另兩位歌劇演員同在一個(gè)舞臺上），在一片花瓣雨中談情說愛。（太浪漫了?。?br>  但等到（舞臺上）那幕戲結(jié)束，，我們才知道，原來那些所謂花瓣只是一個(gè)劇院工作人員在舞臺的高空隱秘處灑下的小紙片。（無比浪漫的法式愛情以一個(gè)法國式的調(diào)侃來破壞（笑！））
  舞臺上，一幕悲劇正上演，在同一個(gè)舞臺上，另一幕幾乎讓人笑破肚皮的彩票爭奪戰(zhàn)也同時(shí)上演。（兩種截然相反的戲劇風(fēng)格同時(shí)在同一個(gè)舞臺上上演，充分體現(xiàn)了導(dǎo)演超強(qiáng)的控制力?。?br>  結(jié)局：那個(gè)先前不愿與主角分享彩票，后來有妄圖獨(dú)吞彩票的主角的“好朋友”，最終沒有得到彩票。當(dāng)然那個(gè)”誰有錢，就跟誰“的男主角的“前女友”也沒有得到彩票。最終，經(jīng)過這場彩票風(fēng)波考驗(yàn)的，深深相愛的這對男女主角最終得到了彩票，永遠(yuǎn)幸福的生活在了一起……
  我想，導(dǎo)演在此明確的表達(dá)了他對于這個(gè)世界（人和事）的態(tài)度和立場。
  但是，關(guān)于結(jié)局中的另一個(gè)部分就讓我有些難以理解了，一個(gè)慈祥的老頭無私的送回了彩票。太不可思議了！在René Clair的這部電影中，他給我們展示的這樣一個(gè)物欲橫流的世界上，居然會(huì)有這樣一個(gè)人？！
  以下是我對此的理解和分析：導(dǎo)演其實(shí)想說的是，這個(gè)老頭其實(shí)是上帝他老爺子的化身，他（上帝）一直在觀察著我們我們的一言一行，同時(shí)也在守護(hù)著我們，幫助著我們。（同時(shí)也快樂的把我們玩弄于股掌之中。（笑）
  最后，我把影片中最后的一段臺詞抄錄于下，它充分說明了絕大多數(shù)的法國人其實(shí)是一群玩世不恭的樂觀主義者。
  當(dāng)你身無分文的時(shí)候，你的生命看起來是不公平的，但是你的思想是放蕩不羈的，當(dāng)你年輕并可以說自己是百萬富翁的時(shí)候，錢不是一切，但那只是你的偽裝，那樣你就會(huì)得到大家的尊重，錢不是一切，請切記！當(dāng)一個(gè)智者告訴一個(gè)窮光蛋。一些事情的時(shí)候，我們相信他，已經(jīng)在心目中把錢放到了一邊。當(dāng)然，因?yàn)槲乙呀?jīng)得到了它！