Denise, an orphaned girl, moves to Paris where she hopes to find work at her uncle's store. But the glamorous department store 'Aux Bonheur des Dames' across the street crushes all the little businesses around. She finds a position there.
Directed by Julien Duvivier
IMDB
N/A
Letterboxd
3.6 / 5
Cast
Dita Parlo
Denise
Ginette Maddie
Clara
Andrée Brabant
Pauline
Nadia Sibirskaïa
Geneviève Baudu
Germaine Rouer
Mme Desforges
Pierre de Guingand
Octave Mouret
Fabien Haziza
Colomban
Fernand Mailly
Sébastien Jouve
René Donnio
Deloche
Albert Bras
Bourdoncle
Adolphe Candé
le Baron Hartmann
Simone Bourday
Crew
Julien Duvivier
Director
Armand Thirard
Director of Photography
Christian-Jaque
Set Designer
Émile Zola
Novel
Popular Reviews
3 reviews
Wyatt
6.0★ · 01/19/26
Au Bonheur des Dames, which is French for The Ladies Boner, follows the struggle between a small business competing with the 1920’s French version of Walmart. This giant department store straight up looks like something big and brutal and dystopian out of Blade Runner, there to swallow up every other business impeding on “progress.”
What I thought would be a near hundred year old cautionary tale of big business turned out to be about the futility of small businesses! Our main character is the niece of a small business owner really feeling the squeeze by the megastore, she gets a job at the megastore after her uncle tells her he can’t support her. ** Spoiler alert for a 1930 French film you probs won’t watch:* Her uncle goes postal, tries to murder the megastore manger, shoots up the megastore, then gets run over and fucking dies. She witnesses all of this, the manager gets fired because bad publicity, AND SHE FEELS BAD FOR HIM AND GETS WITH HIM! Honestly, it was a really impressive sequence I can’t put into words at this time how upset I was by that ending! WTF did Denise want her old aas uncle to do? Just get a new job? I just watched No Other Choice* and I think Park Chan-Wook would say yes but I genuinely believe sir u clé had no other choice. So, fuck Denise for that.
I don’t watch a lot of silent films but this one was shockingly enjoyable. Had some pretty dope shots and editing and whatever the lingo. Watched for free on YouTube so the ads really made that 2nd act slow. Here’s the link if you want to watch: youtu.be/xNFmCjse_uw?si=4XD4-mBXnIR-xP9Z
Watched for a class!
Au Bonheur des Dames, which is French for The Ladies Boner, follows the struggle between a small business competing with the 1920’s French version of Walmart. This giant department store straight up looks like something big and brutal and dystopian out of Blade Runner, there to swallow up every other business impeding on “progress.”
What I thought would be a near hundred year old cautionary tale of big business turned out to be about the futility of small businesses! Our main character is the niece of a small business owner really feeling the squeeze by the megastore, she gets a job at the megastore after her uncle tells her he can’t support her. ** Spoiler alert for a 1930 French film you probs won’t watch:* Her uncle goes postal, tries to murder the megastore manger, shoots up the megastore, then gets run over and fucking dies. She witnesses all of this, the manager gets fired because bad publicity, AND SHE FEELS BAD FOR HIM AND GETS WITH HIM! Honestly, it was a really impressive sequence I can’t put into words at this time how upset I was by that ending! WTF did Denise want her old aas uncle to do? Just get a new job? I just watched No Other Choice* and I think Park Chan-Wook would say yes but I genuinely believe sir u clé had no other choice. So, fuck Denise for that.
I don’t watch a lot of silent films but this one was shockingly enjoyable. Had some pretty dope shots and editing and whatever the lingo. Watched for free on YouTube so the ads really made that 2nd act slow. Here’s the link if you want to watch: youtu.be/xNFmCjse_uw?si=4XD4-mBXnIR-xP9Z
