Review of Les Enfants Du Paradis

Introduction

Made in France in the wake of German occupation during World War Two, Marcel Carne’s richly textured epic, set amongst the bawdy street carnivals and high-spirited theatres of early 19th Century Paris is an exuberant, multi-tiered love story packed with back-stage wit, passionate romance, sordid intrigue and timeless theatricality.

Video

“Newly Restored” it happily declares on the packaging of this Pathe ‘world cinema classics’ release, and the visual quality here is definitely a significant improvement on the last time I saw ‘Les Enfants’ on television. That said, clarity sometimes gives way to alternating purple back-lights and constantly wavering stock-types. That said, its hard to think how such an old print could be better remastered.

Audio

Just mono, but Dolby 5.1 is probably a tall order for a film made in the mid 40’s. It works well enough.

Features

Not much. But its nice to see to see the old-school trailer included in the package (and you thought new previews gave away the whole movie!) 25 chapter selects is ample.

Conclusion

Arletty plays Garance, a striking, independent beauty whose allure strikes the fancy of a disparate group of Parisian suitors: the actor Frederik, an ambitious Casanova who promises the impenetrable Garance both passion and poetry. The gentle Baptiste, an innocent, lovelorn mime whose timeless true-love and adoration appears to fall on deaf-ears. Pierre Francois Lacenaire, an egotistical, crooked sociopath whose dubious ‘friendship’ with Garance is reminiscent of her sordid, burlesque roots. They also share the same social-climbing ambition, albeit with wildly varying degrees of subtlety. Finally, there is Edouard de Montray, a charmless, conservative aristocrat who can secure Garance both wealth and security, if only she can continue to bury the passion she has concealed for so long.

‘Les Enfants Du Paradis’ (Children of Paradise) has been declared by many as the greatest work in the history of French cinema, but don’t let that put you off, this is a rich, joyous canvas unmissable for anyone with even a faint love of cinema. Its packed with impeccable performances and moving, insightful romance. Jean-Louis Barrault is unforgettable as the child-like Baptiste and Maria Casares is startling as Nathalie, the woman who will consume Baptiste at whatever cost to herself. At the top of the table, of course, is Arletty who plays Garance with a pitch-perfect grace and ambiguous complexity. Garance’s fickle ambivalence is cold comfort for her despairing, love-sick suitors, who design increasingly severe plans with which to supplant each-others affections.

I could go on for ever, but rather than bore you with that, why not treat yourself to a startling and enigmatic classic. You know when film buffs talk about the Golden Age of cinema long flushed down the toilet of trash and crass? Well, this is the kind of movie that actually gives them a reason for existing in the first place.