CHILDREN OF PARADISE Movie Review

Les Enfants du Paradis

If you're ever asked to provide proof that movies can indeed weave a spell unlike any other medium—unlike literature, unlike painting, unlike music, and yet containing elements of all of them—then consider a single screening of Marcel Carné's incomparable cinematic dream, Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis). A complex but crisply told love story set in the romantic back streets of Paris in the early 19th century, Children of Paradise is the ultimate answer to those who would insist that art is irrelevant to daily life; it's a film in which art—performance, commitment, theatricality—are inseparable from our minute-by-minute interactions with each other. During the movie's three hours, the huge cast of characters—actors, criminals, and lovers—mesh with their surroundings in such a thrillingly detailed way that their world seems absolutely real; the film is perhaps better described as a work of faith than as a work of fiction. Filmed during the Nazi occupation of France, much of Children of Paradise was filmed clandestinely, with the threat of arrest by secret police constantly in the minds of cast and crew, many of whom were Resistance members. And what a cast and crew; Jean-Louis Barrault, Arletty, Pierre Brasseur, Maria Casarés, and Marcel Herrand are among the stars, and the physically astounding production was designed by Alexander Trauner, Lucien Barsacq, and Raymond Gabutti. Jacques Prévert's screenplay was nominated for an Oscar in 1946.

NEXT STOP … Les Visiteurs du Soir, Le Jour Se Lève, Carnival in Flanders

1944 188m/B FR Jean-Louis Barrault, Arletty, Pierre Brasseur, Maria Casares, Albert Remy, Leon Larive, Marcel Herrand, Pierre Renoir, Jeanne Marken, Gaston Modot; D: Marcel Carne; W: Jacques Prevert; C: Roger Hubert; M: Maurice Thiriet, Joseph Kosma. Nominations: Academy Awards '46: Best Original Screenplay. VHS, LV HMV, CRC, FCT