A number of earlier Julien Duvivier films are now available on DVD. Lobster have Au Bonheur des Dames (1930) which presents silent cinema technique at its most effective and forceful.
Superbly photographed, the department store drama is engagingly played by wide-eyed Dita Parlo as the heroine and a fine support cast led by Armand Bour as the oppressed uncle, delicate Nadia Sabirskaia as his sickly daughter and brusque Pierre de Guingand as the overly ambitious department store owner.
However, despite Duvivier's fluidly inventive direction and marvelous production values (some of the scenes are staggering in their staging), the script tends to run off the rails. It has two climactic events that are hard to swallow, yet nonetheless the movie would be poorer without them.
Superbly photographed, the department store drama is engagingly played by wide-eyed Dita Parlo as the heroine and a fine support cast led by Armand Bour as the oppressed uncle, delicate Nadia Sabirskaia as his sickly daughter and brusque Pierre de Guingand as the overly ambitious department store owner.
However, despite Duvivier's fluidly inventive direction and marvelous production values (some of the scenes are staggering in their staging), the script tends to run off the rails. It has two climactic events that are hard to swallow, yet nonetheless the movie would be poorer without them.