"L'enfants du paradis" is a remarkable film made in Nazi-occupied France, actually done in pieces over several years. Even if it had not been made under such difficult circumstances, it will still stand as a magnificent masterpiece. With a script by the poet Jacques Prevert and direction by Marcel Carne, it stars Arletty and Jean-Louis Barrault as its main characters, Garance and Baptiste Dubureau.
The story takes place on the Boulevard de Crime in 1840s France, a street teeming with people and theater of all kinds. A mime, Baptiste (Barrault) becomes obsessed with a street woman, Garance (Arletty), a mysterious creature who becomes the artistic muse of two men, Baptiste and Frederick LeMaitre (Pierre Brasseur). Shyness keeps Baptiste from becoming Garance's lover, and he loses her to LeMaitre and others. Meanwhile, Nathalie (Casares) loves Baptiste and isn't afraid to say so. Garance finally realizes that she is as much in love with Baptiste as he is with her, but now they are both ensconced in other lives. What will they do? "Les enfants du paradis" is a dark film, going from intimate two-person scenes to massive crowd scenes on the boulevard, taking us into the dark alleys of Paris and the after-hours crowd in bars to the theater rabble-rousers, and demonstrating the power of mime in performance. This is a world of hungry actors, crooks, hustlers, casual sex, and great art.
Only in France would a woman in her mid-forties be cast as a femme fatale - imagine Hollywood doing that in 1945. The Garbo-ish Arletty manages to be earthy and mysterious as Garance. The actress was not invited to the premiere of this film due to her fall from grace - she had a German officer as a lover during the war. In fact, she was arrested and spent time in a concentration camp, finally being put under house arrest. She did return triumphantly to film and worked until 1967, when blindness from an accident forced her to retire. She died in 1992 at the age of 94.
The thin, sensitive looking Jean-Louis Barrault gives an exquisite performance as Baptiste, a role based on the real-life mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau, who invented the character of Pierrot. So successful was Barrault's pantomime work that it revived interest in the art form in France and made it possible for Marcel Marceau to become hugely popular. Barrault's performance is still studied in mime schools today. A passionate man, Barrault actually hid members of the resistance on the set of "Les enfants du paradis." This film is long, it's talky, but it is fascinating and detailed in every aspect. A no-miss for both film and theater lovers.
The story takes place on the Boulevard de Crime in 1840s France, a street teeming with people and theater of all kinds. A mime, Baptiste (Barrault) becomes obsessed with a street woman, Garance (Arletty), a mysterious creature who becomes the artistic muse of two men, Baptiste and Frederick LeMaitre (Pierre Brasseur). Shyness keeps Baptiste from becoming Garance's lover, and he loses her to LeMaitre and others. Meanwhile, Nathalie (Casares) loves Baptiste and isn't afraid to say so. Garance finally realizes that she is as much in love with Baptiste as he is with her, but now they are both ensconced in other lives. What will they do? "Les enfants du paradis" is a dark film, going from intimate two-person scenes to massive crowd scenes on the boulevard, taking us into the dark alleys of Paris and the after-hours crowd in bars to the theater rabble-rousers, and demonstrating the power of mime in performance. This is a world of hungry actors, crooks, hustlers, casual sex, and great art.
Only in France would a woman in her mid-forties be cast as a femme fatale - imagine Hollywood doing that in 1945. The Garbo-ish Arletty manages to be earthy and mysterious as Garance. The actress was not invited to the premiere of this film due to her fall from grace - she had a German officer as a lover during the war. In fact, she was arrested and spent time in a concentration camp, finally being put under house arrest. She did return triumphantly to film and worked until 1967, when blindness from an accident forced her to retire. She died in 1992 at the age of 94.
The thin, sensitive looking Jean-Louis Barrault gives an exquisite performance as Baptiste, a role based on the real-life mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau, who invented the character of Pierrot. So successful was Barrault's pantomime work that it revived interest in the art form in France and made it possible for Marcel Marceau to become hugely popular. Barrault's performance is still studied in mime schools today. A passionate man, Barrault actually hid members of the resistance on the set of "Les enfants du paradis." This film is long, it's talky, but it is fascinating and detailed in every aspect. A no-miss for both film and theater lovers.