Les Enfants du paradis 1945

Les Enfants du paradis (Children of Paradise) is a three-hour romantic drama by Marcel Carné and the writer Jacques Prévert, set in the popular theatres of the Boulevard du Crime in 1830s Paris. Four men love the same woman, Garance, played by Arletty: a mime, an actor, a criminal and an aristocrat. Each loves her differently and each loses her in his own way. The film was shot in 1943 and 1944, during the German occupation, with huge sets, rationed materials and members of the crew working in hiding. It opened in March 1945, months after the Liberation of Paris. French critics have repeatedly voted it the greatest French film ever made, and it is the best answer to anyone who thinks old films are slow.

Four men and Garance

The title refers to "le paradis", the cheapest seats at the top of the theatre, where the noisy working-class audience sat. The story moves between the stage, the street and the rooms behind them.

Baptiste Deburau, played by Jean-Louis Barrault, is a mime at the Théâtre des Funambules. He first sees Garance on the boulevard, when he clears her of a theft by miming what really happened, and he loves her from that moment, too shyly to act on it. Frédérick Lemaître, played by Pierre Brasseur, is an ambitious actor who seduces her without fuss. Lacenaire, played by Marcel Herrand, is a writer of public letters and a thief and murderer who sees in her a fellow outsider. The Count Édouard de Montray, played by Louis Salou, offers her wealth and protection.

Baptiste, Frédérick and Lacenaire were real people of the period. Prévert used their names and reputations freely.

Two parts, years apart

The first part, Le Boulevard du Crime, shows how they all meet and how Garance slips away from Baptiste. The second, L'Homme blanc, takes place several years later. Baptiste is now a famous mime, married to Nathalie (María Casares), who has loved him from the start. Frédérick is the star of the boulevard theatre. Garance comes back to Paris as the count's mistress, and everything starts again. The ending, in the crowd of a carnival on the boulevard, is one of the most celebrated in cinema.

Made under the Occupation

The film was produced by Pathé and shot at the Victorine studios in Nice and in Paris. The designer Alexandre Trauner and the composer Joseph Kosma, both Jewish, worked in hiding while colleagues fronted for them on the set; their contributions are fully acknowledged today. Production was interrupted several times, sets were damaged by storms, and the Allied landings in 1944 forced further delays. Some actors were later accused of collaboration; Arletty herself was imprisoned after the Liberation because of her affair with a German officer.

Carné and his producers deliberately slowed down the work in the last months, so that the film would be released in a free France.

Barrault's mime

Barrault, a stage actor trained in mime by Étienne Decroux, gives Baptiste a white face, slow gestures and a vulnerability that makes him the soul of the film. His pantomimes on stage, in the white costume of Pierrot, are as moving as anything that is spoken. Brasseur plays the opposite: loud, vain, funny, delighted with himself, and also wounded.

Arletty was in her forties during the shoot and plays Garance with an ironic calm, as a woman who refuses to belong to anyone. Some viewers find her distant. That distance is the point.

Is it too long?

No. At about 190 minutes it moves faster than many films half its length, because Prévert's dialogue is witty and every scene changes the situation. Watch it in two sittings if you like; it was released that way in some cinemas.

Carné's earlier Le Quai des brumes shows the same team in a darker mode. For other films of the period, see the best French films of the 1940s and our 100 best French films, where this film holds first place.