Les Enfants du Paradis DVD Review

★★★★★

Les Enfants du Paradis is a film by Marcel Carné that was made semi-underground during the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1945. His crew and cast ranged from members of the French resistance to Nazi collaborators, all united by a need to find paid work in a time of war. It was been a big influence on a diverse range of artists including Terry Gilliam, Bob Dylan, Tom Robbins, Marianne Faithfull, Monte Hellman and very likely Federico Fellini.

It is basically two films that work together, both set in the 1830s: This structure was dictated by the Nazi administration of France, which would only allow the production of 90-minute films. Carné hoped to have it shown as a single film anyway.

Each has its own opening credits sequence, but these are basically the same. In Part 1, subtitled “Boulevard of Crime,” a young actor, Frédérick Lemaître, meets Garance, a beautiful woman who works in a carnival show. He becomes automatically enamoured with Garance but she fights off his advances. Garance goes to see Pierre-François Lacenaire, who works as a scribe to hide his criminal dealings. Soon after they meet, Garance is accused of stealing a watch—actually Lacenaire’s crime. She is only saved from the police by a mime working in the Funanbles, Baptiste, yet another man who has fallen for her. She falls for Baptiste in return. He works is way up to become the star of the pantomime, whilst Garance meets a count, who also falls in love with her and makes her his mistress for seven years. Many of the main characters were based on real Paris people (Lacenaire was also the inspiration for Crime and Punishment).

The second film, subtitled “The Man in White,” is set about seven years after part one, when Garance returns to Paris. She meets again with Frédérick, who has left the Funanbles to try to be a great actor. He becomes the star of the Grand Theatre, where he wants to perform in Shakespeare’s plays and other top roles. Baptiste is still the star of the pantomine. It takes a much darker turn than even part one.

It is probably the most famous example of French poetic realism from the 30s and 40s, and forms a bridge between German expressionism and film noir (even though it post-dates some film noir in time)—although it was later bashed by the French New Wave filmmakers, who dismissed many of these earlier filmmakers, with the exception of the Anarchistic Jean Vigo and more classical Jean Renoir (who’s brother stars in Paradis). The New Wave filmmakers said they disliked Les Enfants du Paradis’s artifice, but this is exactly what some other filmmakers have praised about it. The acting is theatrical—but it’s a film about theatre people, and largely set in a theatre. In fact, it begins and ends with a curtain opening and closing (something Baz Luhrmann has appropriated in homage). It may have the best sets ever made for a film: humongous and elaborate, making it the most expensive French film made up to that point. It’s both a love story and a crime story, with a dreamlike and surreal quality making it really special. It was marketed like a French Gone with The Wind but isn’t as sappy as that film and obviously a much stranger film.

The title is a reference to the nosebleed seats in the theatre, which are christened “Paradis”. The actor plays to these galley gods and if he wins them over he is elevated to an Olympian status. The film contains a lot of shots of the audience hanging from the balcony and their boisterous behaviour.

Many critics, including this one, feel it’s one of the best French films ever made. It’s an amazing, sprawling, very multi-layered piece of filmmaking. It also has perhaps my favourite ending of a film ever as well. It has also been naturally adapted to the stage a few times both successfully and unsuccessfully. The famous film critic Pauline Kael once called it “a film poem on the natures and varieties of love-sacred and profane, selfless and possessive” and in a way that sums it up.

Ian Schultz

Rating: PG
Re-Release DVD/BD Date: 17th September 2012(UK)
Directed by: Marcel Carné
Cast:Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, Pierre Renoir
Pre-Order/Buy:Les Enfants Du Paradis – The Restored Edition (Limited Edition Packaging) On Blu-ray/ (2 discs, limited edition packaging) On DVD] [1945]