Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

"Aventure malgache" is a French documentary drama from over 70 years ago and the only reason it is somewhat known today is because of its director. Alfred Hitchcock shot this film during World War II and it's one of his very few French movies, so make sure you catch a set of subtitles when watching this. I have seen some Hitch, not even close to most of his works, but I thought there was nothing memorable about this one here. It's black-and-white and runs for slightly over half an hour. It can be a decent watch with people in a great interest in French history, resistance, etc. but I found none of the drama really that well done in here and I am actually glad to see that Hitchcock did not stretch this to a full feature drama film. Certainly one of his weakest projects, which is slightly disappointing as he made some of his classics already before this one, even if his great successes followed a bit later. With the exception of Paul Bonifas, the cast is not known at all either, many of them never appeared in film again. Not a good watch, not recommended.

As agitprop, as other reviews have noted, this one perhaps isn't the kind of Howard Hawks rabble-rouser one would have expected to be produced in the throes of war. It's also notably low-budget, with all the scenes being produced in cramped indoor sets that accommodate very little motion, either among the actors or with the camera.That said, there are some classic Hitch moments within. There's the theme of the double, the double-agent and the duel (and duality) between the two antagonists, one a veteran of Verdun and a prominent defense lawyer, and the other the chief of police and security for Vichy Madagascar. There's the moment when one of the resistance fighters, about to leave for England to join the French Army, is betrayed by his fiancée who either believes this will keep him with her or is getting revenge -- we never know -- slowly, slowly moves towards the phone to drop a dime on him (and our hero), and the phone slowly comes into focus in the foreground. And there's this odd narrative device of having the story told from backstage of a French theater troupe in London -- exactly why the lawyer ended up doing a theatrical performance, after having escaped the Vichy and been a producer of his own propaganda radio broadcasts, is completely unclear, but it may be Hitch's subtle way of using the artifice of the production values to his good advantage. Even if you don't speak French, it's fun picking out the classic rhythms of dialogue and editing pace common to Hitch. Compare, for instance, to the almost contemporaneous 'Lifeboat', which was another completely talky piece of wartime agitprop shot in incredibly close confines (literally so in the latter case). If you can't use the great horizons of the outdoors, use the claustrophobic to generate that sense of dread of being caught that must've been endemic to being part of a secret resistance.I wouldn't seek this out unless you're interested in the social history of propaganda, the French resistance, or unless you're looking for a research paper for film school on Hitch, but given its short running time it is hardly a waste of time.

The film is about the French controlled island of Madagascar. Once the French surrendered to Germany in 1940 and became their allies, their colonies around the globe were left to decide whether to go along with the Vichy government or throw in their lot with the British and continue to fight the Nazis. The film particularly follows one man on the island who is the head of the underground movement.This is a very odd film. During WWII, Alfred Hitchcock made two short propaganda films in French! Everyone speaks French and I wonder if Hitchcock himself understood the language. Considering how weak this short film is, I assume he didn't! Unlike most propaganda films, this film is way too talky and slow. Additionally, it's not exactly inspiring. There simply is no action or suspense and the film is amazingly uninspiring. All these factors led the British government to say "thanks but no thanks" to the director when he tried to help out with the war effort.FYI--I noticed one reviewer gave the short a 10. When I checked, I noticed that out of dozens and dozens of their reviews I perused, all had received 10s--every last one.

Hitchcock was working under wartime restrictions when he shot this French-language film in Britain and the limits imposed are apparent. How the director must have ached for a chance to give the audience his usual tourist's view of an exotic location, in this case Madagascar. Instead there are sets consisting of small rooms and one more sizable courtroom. The purpose was propaganda and it probably worked, although now of course it seems crass and dated. Nothing special about it, no Hitchcock touches or anything. It's fast-paced and tightly written movie urging the French to resist the occupation and showing them how it's done, while at the same time warning of the dangers involved. It's not really worth going out of one's way for except that it's a historical curiosity.