Critic Reviews

A gleaming hunk of French period schmaltz expertly rendered by director Christophe Barratier.

Paris 36 has a beguilingly authentic sound and offers a blend of impassioned sentiment and harsh, even brutal grit

The film is deliberately old-fashioned in its approach; the story line is resolutely linear and the production values are deluxe. It all makes for a fairly enjoyable, if schematic, backstage extravaganza.

It's pleasant and amusing. If I had seen it before I was born, I would have loved it.

The nicest that can be said of this unapologetically schmaltzy, and not unenjoyable, affair is that it is the best 1936 musical made in 2009.

Barratier directs with a jaunty artifice more typically seen on stage, but with the exception of Arnezeder, his cast turns theatricality to its advantage. They're offering us a sunny fantasy during a cloudy time, and seem well aware that we're unlikely to resist.

Politics and art come together in predictable, moderately enjoyable fashion in Paris 36.

Hopelessly amateurish, the troupe is saved by a remarkably pretty young blonde called Douce with a sweet soprano to match her angel face. The gifted, unknown actress-singer who plays her, Nora Arnezeder, also saves the movie, which would otherwise blur into a mass of droopy, mustached, big-honkered Gallic character actors.

Schematically scripted tale revels in its multiple story arcs, but shows signs of battle fatigue in the later reels.

The overstuffed film lumbers across clichés of the heart and of history until it reaches a big, tune-filled climax that isn't worth the wait.