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List Price: $29.95Amazon.com's Price: $14.49 You Save: $15.46 (52%)Prices subject to change.
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780780023093
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 0780023099
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: May 16, 2000
Running Time: 81 minutes
Sales Rank: 10841
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: 1931
Editorial Review:
Description:
An impoverished artist discovers he has purchased a winning lottery ticket at the very moment his creditors come to collect. The only problem is, the ticket is in the pocket of his coat. . . which he left at his girlfriend's apartment. . . who gave the coat to a man hiding from the police. . . who sells the coat to an opera singer who uses it during a performance. By turns charming and inventive, René Clair's lyrical masterpiece had a profound impact on not only the Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin, but on the American Musical as a whole.
Amazon.com:
Welcome back one of the treasures of international cinema. In 1929-30, when Hollywood was stymied by the arrival of talkies, a Frenchman named René Clair set about reinventing the movies for the world of sound. Rather than enslave his camera--and imagination--to a microphone in a potted palm, Clair embraced sound as a liberating new dimension of the motion picture. His effervescent comedy-musical-romance Le Million doesn't just feature a witty commingling of dialogue and song--it's a jeu d'esprit in which every movement, every cut, every sound effect (or absence thereof) contributes to a lilting rhythm.
The plot is precisely as airy and as farcically complicated as it needs to be. Suffice it to say that there's this threadbare jacket with a winning lottery ticket in the pocket. It becomes separated from its starving-artist owner and leads him and numerous others a merry chase over the roofs of Paris, through the urban underworld, and onto the very stage of the Opera. You'll wonder more than once whether the Marx Brothers were taking notes.
For no good reason whatsoever, Le Million remained out of circulation for decades, except for a few bleary dupe videos. Now we have a crystal-clear DVD that does full justice to Lazare Meerson's ethereal settings, Georges Périnal's luminous camerawork, the enchanting beauty of leading lady Annabella, and René Clair's world-class comedy masterpiece. There shall be dancing in the streets. --Richard T. Jameson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - A Delightful Movie
The premier edition of the prestigious "Sight and Sound" critics poll of the all-time Top Ten movies came out in 1952 (and every 10 years thereafter another poll is issued). Coming in a tie for 10th place was Rene Clair's "Le Million". That poll was a bit heavy with silent movies (6 of the 12) and a couple of relatively obscure "sound" pictures ("Louisiana Story" and "Le Jour se Leve"); make that three obscure sound pictures if you want to include "Le Million". I've generally been impressed with ... Read More
Rating:  - NOT AS GREAT AS EVERYONE SAYS!
I rented this movie thinking it would be awesome, from all the rave reviews it got on Amazon. But it's really just a pretty average comedy. It's about this starving artist who can't pay his bills, and then all of a sudden he wins a lottrey and wins a 1,000,000 florets (francs?) But his girlfriend gave away the jacket his lottery ticket is in. and the whole rest of the movie is about them trying to get the ticket back. And there are songs that are okay and some okay opera numbers. There's nothing wrong ... Read More
Rating: - Light-hearted, sweet, clever and funny; an early sound musical by René Clair
Seventy-five years old, and René Clair's Le Million remains one of the most delightful, ebullient and amusing of movies. It's even more interesting if you take the time to read the insert in the Criterion case before you watch the film.
Michel (René Lefevre), a poor artist, shares a garret with his best friend, Prosper. Michel's girl friend, Beatrice (Annabella), lives across the hall. Then Michel discovers he has won the lottery with a prize of one million Dutch florins. But where did he ... Read More
Rating: - Le Million
At the dawn of sound, director René Clair brought us this delicious farcical concoction, imbued with a spirited, joyously romantic flavor only the French can produce. It is unalloyed fun to watch the cast of kooks-able performers all-run circles around each other while occasionally bursting into song. The sequence in which Michel and Company make a grab for the coat during a stage performance of "La Boheme," is a highlight. Fresh and timeless.
Rating: - A Majestic Musical
One of the most majestic compositions of comedy and musical ever shown in a film. Absolutely hilarious even for today's standards. An explosive plot that builds suspense and romance until the films climatic end. A certain classic!
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