Left Field Cinema

The Children of Paradise is the French Gone with the Wind made in 1945 it’s to French Poetic Realism what La Strada is to Italian Neorealism, a comedy about actors and thieves that comes years after the heights of the two movements and somewhat deconstructs them, creating the ultimate smorgasbord of love, loneliness, humour and magic. The acting brings it in most peoples eyes above Gone with the Wind.

Enfants du Paradis is set in the theatrical world of Paris circa 1827, this is scene for the first part ‘Boulevard of Crime’ named after the Paris neighbourhood where two theatres vie for public attention. Famous French actress Arletty plays Garance who’s being courted by Baptiste the mine, actor Frederick, thief Pierre and Edouard the aristocrat. She has flings with all but her freedom is overriding, only Baptiste’s love is pure.

Frederick is introduced first, dreaming of being a star actor he so happens to cross with Garance, who is arguably a bit of a prawn, exhibiting her physic on the streets. Baptiste’s intro is fitting, in disguise and full of charm, Pierre is rather sneakily introduced in between as well. Edouard is introduced at the end of the first ‘epoch’, the second half is called ‘The Man in White’ which picks the story up in 1834, but I can’t go further into plot, it’s an absolute labyrinth, I’ll say ingredients include jealously, regret, robbery, the last scene of the film personifying this epic of working class actors and their paradise.

Carne was given the biggest French film budget of the time, going balls out on the costumes and set design pays dividends in the film’s ability to age seamlessly over sixty plus years on. Arletty is an all round package, beauty, grace, allure, thought and embrace, the Hepburn before and after she leaves one with the sense that she’s tangible enough to hold her true love in whilst holding four lovers of her at arms length. The many scenes of courting and confession are done on simple sets, the acting is the real lush here.

Mentioned are the different methods of acting that really reflect the story, all the films breaks into theatrically are accompanied by great music and props, being a story set in Paris the city doesn’t play a part, its more the fact that the poor suburbs of the city are busy, winding and completely unique and in keeping with this story of a darker Paris, the majority of the scenes happen at night, the conflict continuing on into the night, all the players some that the ‘children of the theatre’, the only place of comfort, aspiration and ‘family’. The four males are based on eighteen hundred French personalities this giving writer Jacques Prevert a base to spout his natural poetry.

I saw it back on New Year’s Eve, it instantly struck me as my favourite non-English-speaking film, eleven months on I haven’t seen another of his films, simply unavailable on DVD here in Tas, I can’t say whether he has such the flair or talent as Renoir, Ophlus. If you move with the French poetic realism, I obviously recommend L’Atalante & Rules of the Game as a precursor double-feature. The following year Jean Cocteau really visually up showed all the poetic-realism directors with his adaptation of Beauty & the Beast, a fairytale that only lacks the story dynamics of Children of Paradise, which I think is the best screenplay one may ever read separate from the film. On its release Carne and the more famous Prevert had equal billing and so now, in time, we should all take advantage that Les Enfants du Paradis supposedly plays somewhere, every day in Paris.

Darcy S. McCallum