Taking a guess, it was de-grained, restored to death, then re-grained. It looks smeary and unnatural.

And check out those ugly grid lines!

Interpolation still shows under the layer of false grain.

Now, compare to Autour de la Fin du Monde (1930). There’s a clarity that comes through the softness when the picture is left alone:

Too bad it’s out of sync:

La fin du monde (1931) was processed by Gaumont, Eclair, and FPA France. This version is also available from Kino.