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LE MILLION 189
deserves the strictest censure. This is the monotonous appearance at intervals throughout the film of two ostensibly English characters, who sit on the roof of Michel's and Prosper's studio and are supposed to be watching the film as the audience sees it. They accompany their absurd behaviour with an equally fatuous running commentary, explaining with laboured boredom precisely what is obvious to any moderately intelligent person on the screen. As a device for securing international appeal the idea is crude, for the film has already achieved this by its direction, and it will be apparent that this spasmodic punctuation is not only unconvincing but does its best to destroy an otherwise excellent continuity.
While I fully appreciate the motives underlying the trick of hanging a thin veil of gauze between the players and the background, so as to bring the former into relief and thus heighten the fantastic quality of the film, I do not particularly care for the effect. Admittedly, the unreal atmosphere created in this way is in accord with the general feeling of the whole, but at the same time it gives the sets an appearance reminiscent of painted backcloths which is far from pleasing. Moreover, the acting itself, if such it is to be called, is not above reproach, but this is perhaps a fault of minor importance under such cleverness of direction.
It is not without significance that the work of Rene Clair is best appreciated outside its country of origin, especially in all parts of Germany, because his satire