You have to give this film credit for being a plucky survivor. When it opened it was panned by critics, shunned by audiences, and then banned by the French government (inappropriate for pre-war audiences); during the war it was banned by the Nazis, and to add injury to insult: the negatives were destroyed by Allied bombing. A decade later it was reconstruct from various bits and pieces.I find it interesting that the film begins with a disclaimer; as if to excuse the French stereotypes. How very "French". The characters talk a lot, but say little; they do a lot, but accomplish little. Enough said? No matter what your Professor of Arts & Culture might say, this simply is *not* "one of the best movies ever made". Médiocre? Oui. Merveilleux? pas.

I just watched it, for free, not on Hulu Plus. It expires in 9 days. Apparently Hulu intended to offer it for free, but marketed it before it was ready. Ah, if only Life's timing were perfect. But then, we would all probably be doing something else.

On the homepage it had an intriguing picture and said "Watch Now".It didn't say "only for Hulu plus subscibers!!!You wasted my valuable time and disappointed me!For this reason I will never subscribe to Hulu Plus.

Great film, but yet again Hulu fails to give non-plus members even a legitimate sneak-peak. How do you advertise this on the front page, then link to 1.30mins of opening credits??
Get your act together, fellas.

The complete and under lack of understanding and disregard for the viewing public comes through loud and clear in this pitiful example of Hulu Marketing. I just finished spending a considerable effort to talk my friend in coming over and see this movie because it was advertised up front in HULU without mentioning the fact that the movie is only available to Hulu Subscribers.I was interested in the Critirion until this little class act. There was not enough in the sneak peek to determine whether the movie would be worth watching. That being the case I can only suspect that it is not or that the Marketers at Hulu could not be bothered to figure it out if it is or not.So I have come to a decision. The only way I will ever subscribe to Hulu is over my own dead body.

the hulu plus preview doesn't even get through the opening credits!

This is another one of those films that get mentioned a lot in film study texts, and favorite lists of famous reviewers. It's an enigma to me. Renoir set up his own production company and this was his first feature. That should explain how this thing ever saw the light of day, because if you were to take this back to a major studio as your final cut, you'd more than likely never work again. It reminds me a lot of a Three Stooges skit where nobody gets slapped. Only a handful of people could ever find anything interesting here, and I suspect a portion of those are just repeating what they heard somebody else say. When the film originally screened, one of the viewers tried to burn the theater down, a sentiment I was in touch with after having been bored silly by this rubbish. My conundrum is this... if I really loved this movie and thought it one of the best movies ever made, who could I share it with? My wife wouldn't sit through ten minutes of this. If I recommended it to my friends, I would hate to see the looks on their faces if they actually tried to watch it, let alone what they'd say about it. If it ever had any relevance, that time has long since passed. Basically, if you're not going to dissect this movie with your film appreciation prof. for a paper he's having you write, then skip it. One of the best? I didn't laugh, I didn't cry, I didn't care. There's a reason this thing didn't gross fifty dollars worldwide... it's terrible!