LE BONHEUR     1934
(Happiness)
Directed by Marcel L'Herbier
111 minutes
In French with English subtitles

Here is another haunting, obscure gem that has almost never been seen outside France (and is barely known even within France). This off-beat black and white movie is pure poetry in the sense of how the storyline and the images interact. This film crept into my life a while ago, and hasn't ever left. Director Marcel L'Herbier was an avant-garde theorist who made what he called "realistic fairy-tales". And what is striking in the film is that its well-crafted sense of poetry also carries a sarcastic wit that makes it absolutely unique.

Le bonheur concerns an anarchist-cartoonist who decides to kill a famous female movie star. It's kind of the opposite of what happened recently with Charlie Hebdo. I won't unfold the storyline, but what happens in the middle of the film is amazing, actually it's our entire society and it's the film business which is cleverly put on trial, highlighting just about everything that is wrong with the entertainment business today. With shimmering cinematography, a cameo by Michel Simon, a subliminal glimpse of young Jean Marais, and starring Charles Boyer with his lonesome Patrick Dewaere-esque eyes. Pure dynamite.

It won the Mussolini cup for best foreign film at the Venice film festival (the Mussolini cup- Ha!). This will be a high-definition projection of this outrageously rare film.