Un soir de réveillon (1933)
Directed by Karl Anton

Comedy / Musical
aka: Christmas Eve

Film Review

The main attraction of this somewhat dated operetta is its wonderfully eccentric cast, which includes the delightful Arletty - the future star of Hôtel du nord (1938) and Les Enfants du paradis (1945) - in one of her early film appearances.  The plot is a typical 1930s muddle of coincidence and mistaken identities, the songs are so abysmally bland they ought to have been cut, but the cast inject so much verve and humour into it that, overall, the film is quite entertaining.
© James Travers 2008
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.

Film Synopsis

One Christmas Eve, Monique is invited to dine with her aunt, who is hopeful that she will marry Monsieur Landier, a man whose only attraction is his wealth.  That same night, Monique visits her friend Viviane and persuades her to invite her to a Christmas Eve party, where she will be chaperoned by her father's loyal servant, Honoré.  At the party, Monique, passing herself off as Viviane's sister Ninon, attracts the attentions of a handsome young playboy, Gérard.  Aware of the immense gulf between their social positions, Monique tries to dissuade her new admirer, without success...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.


Film Credits

  • Director: Karl Anton
  • Script: Paul Armont, Marcel Gerbidon, Albert Willemetz, Jean Boyer, Paul Schiller
  • Cinematographer: Harry Stradling Sr.
  • Music: Raoul Moretti
  • Cast: Meg Lemonnier (Monique Lepage aka Ninon), Henri Garat (Gérard Cardova), Armand Dranem (Honoré), Arletty (Viviane), René Donnio (Bob), Martine de Breteuil (Loulette), Marcel Carpentier (Carbonnier), Robert Casa (M. Lepage), José Sergy (Landier), Lucette Desmoulins (Paulette), Pierre Sarda, René Koval, Rose Lorraine
  • Country: USA
  • Language: French
  • Support: Black and White
  • Runtime: 85 min
  • Aka: Christmas Eve

The very best fantasy films in French cinema
sb-img-30
Whilst the horror genre is under-represented in French cinema, there are still a fair number of weird and wonderful forays into the realms of fantasy.
The Golden Age of French cinema
sb-img-11
Discover the best French films of the 1930s, a decade of cinematic delights...
The very best of German cinema
sb-img-25
German cinema was at its most inspired in the 1920s, strongly influenced by the expressionist movement, but it enjoyed a renaissance in the 1970s.
Kafka's tortuous trial of love
sb-img-0
Franz Kafka's letters to his fiancée Felice Bauer not only reveal a soul in torment; they also give us a harrowing self-portrait of a man appalled by his own existence.
Continental Films, quality cinema under the Nazi Occupation
sb-img-5
At the time of the Nazi Occupation of France during WWII, the German-run company Continental produced some of the finest films made in France in the 1940s.
 

Other things to look at


Copyright © frenchfilms.org 1998-2024
All rights reserved



All content on this page is protected by copyright