"Anyone who can resist its flamboyant charm deserves never to see Paris," wrote critic Andrew Sarris of CHILDREN OF PARADISE. It's been called France's answer to GONE WITH THE WIND, the greatest French film ever made, and an overrated bore. Filmed under a plethora of Nazi regulations with
a cast peppered with Resistance fighters, the making of this film is almost as interesting as the end result. What is especially fascinating is how Marxist screenwriter Prevert and director Carne were able to pull off a thinly disguised allegory of French resistance under the German occupation.
The story, which takes place in the Paris of the 1820s and 30s, is a complex tale of unrequited love, illicit affairs, jealousy, and romance revolving around the world of theater folk, criminals, and aristocrats. The "children of paradise" are the poor people who inhabit the topmost balconies of
the theaters along the Boulevard du Temple, and they are witness to the story of theater mime Baptiste (Barrault) and his true love Garance (Arletty). Along the way we are treated to delightful theater shows, duels, love amidst rain showers, and unfortunate misunderstandings with tragic
consequences.
Deliberately theatrical but nevertheless greatly indebted to French poetic realism, CHILDREN OF PARADISE is lovingly handled by director Carne. The entire film is crammed with incident and an intoxicating eye for detail. Trauner's art direction is one of his finest achievements and the music by
Kosma, Thiriet, and Mouque both onstage and off is a constant delight. Based on this one performance alone, gifted mime, comic and tragedian Barrault must take his place as one of the century's greatest actors. The raven-haired, fascinating Arletty, meanwhile, was the closest the French ever got
to creating their own Marlene Dietrich. Among a superior supporting cast, Brasseur, Herrand, Renoir, Casares, Marker, Salou, and Modot (as a "blind" beggar who can actually see) are particularly outstanding, and the end result is utterly beguiling cinema. leave a comment
