Beldades nocturnas

....when France used to colonize (and civilize it)!When you know how that story ends ,such words make you wonder....

Gerard Philipe precisely plays a music teacher who 's dreaming his life away.His daydreaming takes him back to the French revolution -with all the usual clichés- ,to 1900 and to French Algeria .THe moral of this story is that you haven't got to travel far to find happiness cause it's always near you.

Two gorgeous ladies ,Gina Lollobrigida - he met the precedent year in the highly superior "Fanfan la Tulipe"- and Martine Carol give Philipe adequate support.

Probably inspired by "the secret life of Walter Mitty " (1947)

This is a brilliant Frech-Italian comedy by René Clair. Extremely innovative, it divides the leading character's life in two moments: when he is awaken and while he sleeps. The former is - pardon the pun - a nightmare, as he hates to teach music in the school or in private classes. Even that is not regarded as something to be respected and his neighbors think that he should have another job, such as a car mechanic. His dream of being a successful musician and composing an acknowledged opera is far from coming true. Therefore, he wants to sleep all the time, as in his dreams his life is as interesting as he wants: not only he is a successful musician but also he has the most beautiful lovers in many different moments of History. That is the most remarkable achievement of the film: the dreams are exactly how we dream - crazy, incoherent, changing suddenly from a situation to another completely different, full of altered references of events in our daily life. Besides that, Gérard Philipe and all the actors do a great job. Gina Lollobrigida is particularly beautiful as the orientalist-style Algerian girl named Leïla. The unrealistic scenario works quite well in order to increase the environment of fantasy. Hilarious situations happen while Claude travels through French imaginary history in his dreams. This film makes me want to check out other movies made by René Clair.

Beautiful, dreamy, magical, funny romp through the ages of French history, though the ending is predictable. *** out of 4.

A splendidly madcap yet romantic depiction of the lure of the dreamworld on a down-at-heel composer. All told with a lot of vim and vigor but it still ends up dragging a little, never really engages the emotions, and as usual with Clair, the songs are poor.

The recurring joke from progressively older and older historical figures about how things used to be better when they were young is brilliantly executed, and the representations of the slipping in and out of the dream world reminded me of Eternal Sunshine as much as anything else.

A little too random and hit and miss overall but it's still an amazing idea for a story, perfectly realized on the technical level, and lovely to look at.

It could remind Fellini. But it is special. For naivety, the trip across historical periods, for lovely eulogy of love and friendship, for delicat humor and for charme. Explanation - the genius of Rene Clair. The talent of Gerard Philipe. The art to create an entire world in seductive manner, with sweet game of cliches. . The plot. And...the magic. To create a dream atmosphere is always a challenge. In this case is an impressive victory. And premise for a lovely film.