Le Million (1931)

November 23, 2015 9:14 AM

René Clair's 1931 musical comedy features an impoverished painter and his rival racing across Paris to recover a jacket concealing a winning lottery ticket.

Part of the Criterion On Hulu club.

NEXT: "As the holidays loom, a group of friends find that enormous changes in their personal lives keep them from celebrating what drew them together in the first place: their mutual love of foreign film."

No, that's not the description of next week's movie, it's a description of the Criterion On Hulu club! Our queue is empty, and with everything going on in my life (and a couple other folks' lives) I'm not going to add anything to it myself until after the holidays.

Anyone else in the Club is free to do so, however; just drop a line in the Upcoming Criterion thread so we know that there'll be a post soon. And that's true year-round, not just the holidays: if there's something you want to watch, add it to the queue!

posted by Ian A.T. (2 comments total)

Thanks for bottom lining this Ian A.T. and I agree, let's hold until after the holidays. Keep this project fun, not work!

As to Le Million, I really liked it and thanks for posting. Something I thought about a lot while watching: although it's a comedy and filled with amusing interactions and so forth, I read it as having this very dark view of human nature. There are no true friends, no true love. Every relationship is about extracting something from someone. It's pretty grim to my watch.
posted by latkes at 9:20 AM on November 23, 2015

So I've come in over two years later to respond to Latkes and say - I couldn't disagree with you more. Michel ultimately realizes he was a dick, Prosper relents, and even Grandpa Tulip could have kept the ticket at the end but didn't. I thought it was delightful.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:30 AM on March 27, 2018