Les Enfants du Paradis
FR 190m Dir: Marcel Carné
Original Screenplay
As is often the case, the title of this film is slightly lost in translation. In French, the 'paradise' refers to the elevated seats high up in the theatre, the only place that the poorer, working-class members of the audience could afford. In English, we refer to this as 'the gods' so the double meaning would work much better if it was translated as 'Children of the Gods'.
Set around a Parisian theatre in the 1820s and 30s, the film is the story of beautiful courtesan Garance (Arletty) who is loved by four different men in their own ways: mime artist Baptiste (Jean-Louis Barrault), actor Frédérick Lemaître (Pierre Brasseur), thief and failed writer Pierre-François Lacenaire (Marcel Herrand ) aristocrat Comte Édouard de Montray (Louis Salou).
The film feels a bit like a 19th-century novel, something like War and Peace with multiple characters and plotlines coming and going with one central focus. At times it has been called the French Gone with the Wind and there are some similarities between Scarlett O'Hara and Garance. This is a film about love and how complicated it can be and the tragedy it can bring.
The film is often considered the pinnacle of the French 'poetic realism' film movement. Everything is heightened and over the top yet at the same time, it captures the emotion and the drama beautifully. There are lots of scenes based at the theatre showing plays or mime shows and the film opens and closes with theatre curtains over the screen. There are occasional references in the dialogue to life being like a play and it felt to me like there was a bit of meta-commentary about film going on at the same time.
The cast are superb. Arletty has a certain alluring quality to her performance and the men are all superb in their roles. It was perhaps Marcel Lacenaire playing the thief Lacenaire who was most impressive. He's utterly despicable (with a hint of Dick Dastardly about him, in the best of ways) yet somehow you can understand why Garance finds him fascinating, something which as an actor must be really difficult to achieve.
The film is impressive in many ways including some amazing sets and sizeable crowd sequences. What's astounding is that this film was made during World War Two under the Vichy Government and then under Nazi occupation before finally being completed in a liberated France. The production had Nazi collaborators forced upon it yet at the same time director Marcel Carné ensured members of the resistance were employed as extras as a useful cover and he hid several Jewish members on the crew in his house. There were constant challenges with various interruptions due to the war, sets being destroyed, extras stealing the food because they were so hungry and one member of the supporting cast having to be replaced when he was executed for being a Nazi collaborator. It's incredible that the film was made at all, let alone for it to end up being regarded as one the best films France has ever made.
I have to say that a nearly eighty-year-old film that is three hours long and in French with English subtitles is not the most accessible film I've ever watched but I gradually settled into it over several sittings and found it fascinating and enjoyable. A remarkable film.
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