Children of Paradise

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Children of Paradise
Directed by Marcel Carné
Written by Jacques Prévert
Starring Arletty
Jean-Louis Barrault
Pierre Brasseur
Pierre Renoir
Produced by Raymond Borderie
Fred Orain
Distributed by
Release date March 9, 1945 (France)
November 15, 1946 (USA)
Runtime 190 min, 163 min (USA)
Language French
Budget
IMDb page
This article is about Children of Paradise, the film. For the psychedelic trance group, see Children of Paradise (band)

Les Enfants du Paradis (known as Children of Paradise in its English release) is a 1945 film by French director Marcel Carné. Made during the Nazi occupation, the film is set in Paris in 1828. To tell the story simply, it is the tale of a beautiful courtesan, Garance, and the four men who love her in their own ways: a mime, an actor, a criminal and an aristocrat. The film was voted "Best French Film of the Century" in a poll of 600 French critics and professionals in 1995.

Contents

Story

Baptiste the mime and Garance.
Enlarge
Baptiste the mime and Garance.

Children of Paradise is set in the theatrical world of Paris in 1828. The center of the action is the area around the Funambules theatre, also known as the Boulevard du Crime. The film revolves around a beautiful and charismatic courtesan, Garance (famously played by Arletty). Four men, Baptiste the mime, Frédérick Lemaître (Pierre Brasseur), an actor, Pierre Lacenaire (Marcel Herrand), a theif and Édouard de Montrayare, an aristocrat (Louis Salou) are in love with Garance (Arletty), and their intrigues drive the story. Garance is breifly enchanted by them all, but leaves them when they attempt to restrain her freedom. However, the only one whose love is pure, the mime Baptiste (Jean-Louis Barrault), is the one who suffers the most in pursuit of the unattainable Garance.

Historical conditions

The three hour film was extremely difficult to make due to theatrical constraints during the occupation. Noted critic Pauline Kael wrote "that the starving extras made away with some of the banquets before they could be photographed". Carné and Prevert hid some of the key reels of film from the occupying forces, hoping that Paris would be liberated by the time the film was completed.

The occupying Nazi administration in Vichy France imposed a maximum time limit of 90 minutes for feature films. As a result of this the film was split into its two parts - "Le Boulevard du crime" (The Boulevard of Crime) and "L'Homme blanc" (The White Man). The film debuted on March 9, 1945 in Paris at the Madeleine and Colisée thetarers.

Historical References

Other than Baptise, the three men courting Garance were all based on real French personalities of the 1800s. Frédérick Lemaître was an actual acclaimed actor on the boulevard of crime depicted in the film. Pierre Lacenaire was an infamous French criminal and le comte Édouard de Montray, was an actual aristocrat.

Influence

In the Centre Pompidou in Paris, there is a theater named after Arletty's character, the Salle Garance (Garance's Room).


Trivia

  • The Criterion DVD release featured the original trailer, which calls Children of Paradise the French answer to Gone With the Wind.
  • Pierre Renoir]] took the role of Jéricho (an informer) after Robert Le Vigan was arrested for being a Nazi collaborator. One of the scenes featuring Le Vigan appears in the film.

See also

External links

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