The Clairvoyant Zoopraxiscope

Watched Un jour se leve (Daybreak) (Marcel Carne) recently, felt often as if I had just taken a slow-acting anaesthetic that, before it sent you off to sleep, distorted your perceptions. I kept thinking, as I watched Jean Gabin and Arletty, 'Those people are really feeling emotions. Christ! Pass the guacamole!' And then there would be a swooping, bizarre camera angle--which has by now of course been updated, outdone--but still!--that would make me feel almost dizzy on my futon, and then another one. And then there it would be: well-written dialogue (Prevert), tastefully executed facial expressions that nevertheless bore the mark of the advent of talking films, and a unified plot structure. Lordy. Wha' happen'?