Les belles de nuit

I have been puzzled by some of the other comments so I am adding one of my own. I think your reaction to this movie comes down to two words: fantasy and charm. It is a fantasy, and it has a very great deal of charm. If those appeals to you, you will enjoy this movie immensely as I did. If they don't, well the movie is so good you will probably still like it anyway.

I rated this film a 10 because I couldn't find a thing not to like. Gerard Philipe is charming (that word again) and appealing. All the women are gorgeous. The supporting cast is excellent. And since Phillip's character Claude is an aspiring composer there is a great deal of beautiful music in his dreams.

What I noticed especially about the film was how Clair kept inventing ways to keep the idea fresh. You might think that a movie which basically shows a man's dreams would fun out of steam pretty fast but Clair is clever enough to keep it fresh and entertaining. For example, Claude constantly says that all he wants to do is sleep--and given his dreams, who wouldn't--and his friends interpret this as expressing a desire to commit suicide! So the efforts of his friends to prevent his "suicide" throws a new wrinkle into the story.

My only complaint with the VHS version I saw were the English subtitles. First, they were in white, so that anytime they were in front of a white background you didn't know what the speaker was saying. And second, even though I don's speak French I am sure that the English subtitles came nowhere near doing justice to the original French dialog.

This is a worthy candidate for a Criterion DVD. An unhesitant 10 out of 10.

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.

The protagonist's situation is similar to Walter Mitty's, expect that his fantasies are not waking ones, but rather, occur when he drops off to sleep, and they don't always go the way he'd have them go. The device of dream narratives shows Clair's fidelity to his surrealist roots, especially during the dream debut of the main character's "opera". I was surprised at how low other users rated this film, but I guess it's in keeping with Maltin's opinion that Clair's films after WWII were not up to his prewar standards. Ignorance is bliss, I guess: I thought it was great! Perhaps the character development is somewhat superficial, but the film is funny and fast-paced, with good production values and appealing principals.

I'm so happy I was able to find this extremely obscure movie; it's adorable! If you've never seen the Woody Allen gem Midnight in Paris, don't keep reading my review of Beauties of the Night, since I'm going to spoil the surprise of that modern comedy.

You've probably never heard of this one, but if you're in the mood for something light and funny, or if you're suffering from insomnia, you'll really appreciate it. It's a comedy about a young composer, Gérard Philipe, who lives above a garage in a small town. All he wants to do is sleep, but the noises of the town and townspeople keep him awake. When he's finally able to doze off, he gets transported into an interesting, engaging dream. By day, he's an unknown, unimportant musician, but in his dreams, he's a revered opera composer who can get any woman he wants. Now here comes the spoiler alert, so if you haven't seen Midnight in Paris, I'm giving you one last chance to stop reading: In Gérard's dream, he talks with an older gentleman who says a paraphrase of, "Things were better in my day!" Instantly, Gérard finds himself in a different time period, hairstyle, and costume. This continues in dream after dream, until eventually Gérard winds up walking around with dinosaurs!

This movie is hilarious. It's stylized and funky, and of course it's over-the-top. That's the point! If you've gone without sleep, you're going to dream up some ridiculous things. If you're a composer consumed with a wish for your music to become famous, of course people in your dreams are going to start randomly singing. If it sounds cute to you, you'll like it. I have no idea if Woody Allen ever saw this obscure movie and wanted to tweak the storyline to change a composer into a writer and add in a bunch of artistic icons, but if he did, he owes a lot to writer-director Réne Clair. Ladies in particular will like this cute comedy, since the leading actor is so gorgeous and energetic. He didn't make many movies in his brief career, so treasure him while you can.

....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)