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Comedy drama

Champagne

Year
1928
Length
105 minBFI National Archive restoration presentation Version sources ↓

A wealthy young woman’s father pretends to lose his fortune, forcing her to test whether independence and romance survive without inherited ease.

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Language
English
FunnyRomantic Great first watch · Easy Comedy drama
A shallow glass bowl distorts a pink and green chequered pattern, with the title curving across the glass.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

What to expect

Hitchcock treats privilege as a visual toy, experimenting with subjective images, comic reversals, and the instability of appearances. Betty Balfour’s energy keeps the lesson from becoming merely punitive.

How to ease in

Take the bankruptcy as a contrivance, then watch what changes when money no longer removes practical consequences. The film’s playful style matters more than strict realism.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes class prejudice, manipulative parenting, sexual threat, alcohol, a staged financial crisis, and period gender attitudes.
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The champagne glass makes the world look distorted before the plot does. I enjoy how quickly luxury becomes an angle of view rather than a stable fact.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

Version map

BFI National Archive restoration presentation 105 min 105 minutes is attached only to the named BFI National Archive restoration presentation. No unsupported cut, score, territory, frame rate, source element, or restoration detail is inferred. Source: British Film Institute — Champagne Runtime reference · Checked 2026-08-21

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