UNDER THE ROOFS OF PARIS Movie Review

Sous les Toits de Paris

In a teeming, tenement quarter of Paris, a street singer and his best friend both court a charming young girl. Complications ensue, but they don't get in the way of friendship. From this simple wisp of a plot, René Clair created this enchanting and inventive early film musical, which suggested new possibilities for the creative use of sound in filmmaking. Clair had been one of the most vocal enemies of the idea of introducing sound to movies, but when it came, he decided that movies needn't simply be endless dialogue accompanied by static images. Clair stood convention on its head immediately with sequences like an argument that takes place behind a glass door, which, of course, renders the arguers amusingly silent, even in this all-new world of movie sound. Camera movements were accompanied by music and sound effects that complemented and commented on the motion, while overall dialogue was sparse. Songs and music provided most of the commentary, like a comic and satirical Greek chorus. Clair developed many of his innovations with sound still further in his next films, the ingenious A Nous la Liberié and his great, incomparably delightful Le Million.

NEXT STOP … The Italian Straw Hat, A Nous la Liberté, L'Atalante

1929 95m/B FR Albert Prejean, Pola Illery, Gaston Modot, Edmond T. Greville; D: Rene Clair; W: Rene Clair; C: Georges Perinal. M: Armand Bernard. VHS VYY, NOS, CAB