This is an extremely well made film full of wonderful performances and great direction. The problem is, explaining exactly why I enjoyed it isn't all that easy--much of due to the rather unconventional plot.The film begins in 1936. A very ordinary and unassuming looking man named Pigoil is being interrogated by the police about a murder he apparently committed. The rest of the film consists mostly of events from the last half year that led to this killing.Pigoil and his friends work at a theater in Paris that has seen better days. They put on a variety show but the show is abruptly cut short when an evil fascist mobster takes over the place and shuts it down--leaving everyone out of work. After months of looking for jobs, Pigoil is so frustrated that he decides he and his out of work friends will just squat--take over the empty theater and stage a revival. There is A LOT more to the film--including several key subplots just too complicated to explain in the review. Oddly, however, late in the film it suddenly becomes, briefly, a slightly surreal song and dance number--like you'd find in a 1940s musical! But, once again, there is SO MUCH to this film that it's just one you need to see for yourself.Some might no enjoy the film's somewhat episodic style or not understand the historical context for the movie. After all, today few would realize that France and much of Europe (and even the US) were experiencing fascist nationalistic movements. And, at the same time, Communists were also making in-roads with the masses--very much like the crap that was going on in Nazi Germany at the time--just not as organized or militant.Overall, this is a cute and well-made film--one you will enjoy if you just give it a chance--it sneaks up on you!

I voted for 6 because the film was overloaded. Too many characters and subplots - especially those with the French mafia sometimes called "apaches", were somewhat complicated and puzzling - not meaning that some other,especially those with communists and fascists were'not at least somewhat naive and clumsy. I recommend this film because there is very good music inside - type of waltz, nice decoration of the sets with an exact theater of the 30s Belle Epoque. As for the externals, all the way long we see Paris with all those rainy-wet pavements, an eternal snow, always a heavy rain, it's picturesque attics looking to the sky, it's old buildings terraces viewing the Tour Eiffel and as we approach to the end, some scenes luxurious as they are, evoke Paris rich and fancy apartments at the "quartiers chic" as they are called. The scenes of the music-hall are according to the typical tradition of French cabaret, enough satisfying as they recall Lido, Follies Bergeres, Moulin Rouge cabarets. The singing also refers to top french singers - Edith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier, Charles Trenet. A very satisfying role and performance, is of Pigoil's - music-hall manager, son - a young boy who plays the accordion in the streets of Paris trying to earn some money with which buys some sausages as a supper offered to his father's lonely drinking - caused by his wife's cruel abandonment for the music-hall tenor. I think this film to it's whole, was not bad directed, with a nice Parisian atmosphere. It will make you surely spend two relaxing and pleasant hours.

When i heard that the director from " Les Choristes" was releasing a new movie i thought it was a must see. And i was definitely right! the music is very good, the photography and the costumes are excellent and the actors too.Nora Arnezeder came as a big surprise to me, this unknown girl who has such a great voice, she was very good, and, of course, Gerard Jugnot, the great Monsieur Mathieu from " Les Choristes" was amazing again. The thing i most liked about the movie is that it keeps you entertained from beginning to end, you really want to keep watching and you never get bored. The songs take you to the 1930's as well as the scenarios.This movie is beautiful and definitely must be watched, it will definitely entertain you and you will enjoy good french cinema.

I may have seen one of the last musical hall revivals in London a few years ago on The Strand—it was full of tinny song and dance that made you tap your feet and long for the good old days of vaudeville and innocence. The telly has pretty much killed that simple pleasure, but Paris 36, a melodramatic story of the revival of a Chansonia in northern Paris, 1936, revives the joy of ensemble acting and dancing, original music, and the intrigue so much a part of the lively arts when they become business and pleasure.Three Parisians undertake saving a music hall in their section of Paris called Faubourg using the talents of a star-crossed couple supplying the on and off stage romance. The intrigue is much less than Cabaret's; the nostalgia is more than Cinema Paradiso's; it's all more Moulin Rouge than Amelie. The songs are fetching, made especially for the film, and the plot is pure cliché right down to the lecherous businessman and cute ingénue.The background is unmistakably fascist versus socialist, owners battling workers for a depression-era slim slice of the economic pie and soul. Paris 36 risks it all with formulaic intrigue and predictable denouement. Yet throughout is a good cheer, a bel canto breeziness that draws you in to song, dance, history, and politics, never too heavy, light enough to make you wish that music hall still stood on The Strand.