Sa meilleure cliente (1932) User Reviews

She does not look her age!

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 22 August 2023]

Elvire Popesco , René Lefèvre and André Lefaur work wonders in this riotously funny comedy.

Lefèvre manages a beauty parlor ahead of its time; it's infant industry in this field and it's assembly-line work time, for the ladies -some of them old and ugly- are coming in droves ;to top it all,the boss passes his attractive lover off as his sixty-year-old mother , who supposedly underwent the treatment and thus is an excellent (but misleading) advertising for the enterprise.

Unfortunately ,one of the pretty customers falls in love with the boss and claims that she has sinned with him ; her father demands that he marry her and the future in-law must meet his so-called mother ....with whom ,of course ,he falls in love! He's a fifty-five widower and she's an attractive sixty-year old lady ; a complicated situation and lots of fun ! A good time is guaranteed for all.

Quite an interesting comedy, this one

[myriamlenys · 7/10 · 16 January 2024]

Two high-living lovers discover that they're deeply in debt. Then one of them has an idea : given that women are prepared to pay ridiculous sums in order to regain or prolong their good looks, why not open a beauty salon ? Now every good business needs a striking hook or origin story. Consequently the female half of the couple becomes a matron of respectable age, whose youthful beauty has been restored thanks to the magnificent treatments invented by her son...

"Sa meilleure cliente" is a funny though somewhat uneven comedy about the adventures of a pair of cheerfully amoral grifters. The first half of the movie, which is the half with the most ferocious satirical bite, is set in an expensive beauty salon. Now this beauty salon makes for a most striking environment, like a cross between a butcher's shop, a factory assembly line and a torture pit. The far-out aesthetics of the place are sure to interest viewers with a liking for science fiction or retrofuturism.

I happen to be a Belgian. A couple of years ago I attended a lecture by an expert, who told her audience that most beauty salons to be found in Belgium correspond to a template developed in France, during the interbellum. According to the lady in question, the beauty salon business went through a series of rapid developments in the 1920's and 1930's, when ever more products were invented or standardized, before settling into a definitive format just before the arrival of World War II. If this theory is correct - and to my untrained ears it sounded plausible enough - then this would mean that "Sa meilleure cliente" was a highly topical movie poking fun at a burgeoning industry.

Anyway, I think it is the first part of the movie which is the most likely to provide food for thought, for instance about societal expectations with regard to women's bodies and women's appearances.

"Sa meilleure cliente" features a vivacious performance by one of the grandes dames of the théâtre de boulevard, to wit Elvire Popesco. Mrs. Popesco (born in Romania as one Elvira Popescu) had a long and flourishing career in France, where her piquant accent was particularly appreciated.