Sous les toits de Paris (1930) - film review

In a working class district of Paris in 1930, a young man named Albert makes a modest living as a street singer.  One day, he meets an attractive young Rumanian woman, Pola, and instantly falls in love with her.  Pola is equally taken with Albert and agrees to move into his cramped lodgings, although this is partly to escape the attentions of another avid admirer, the villainous Fred.  When the police discover stolen goods in his room, Albert is arrested and sent to prison.  He is cleared and released several days later, only to learn that Pola has switched her attentions to his best friend, Louis...

In common with many of his contemporaries of the late 1920s, director René Clair was apprehensive over the transition from silent to sound cinema, and this is apparent in his first sound film, Sous les toit de Paris.  Although the film has a number of scenes with recorded dialogue, it is essentially a silent film to which sound elements have been added in a rather tentative and somewhat piecemeal fashion.  If the sound were taken away completely, the film would probably be just as effective in telling its story, although it would undoubtedly lose some of its charm.   

Notwithstanding its overly cautious use of sound, Sous les toits de Paris is a beguiling film that deserves its status as a classic of French cinema.  In its day, it was hugely popular – in fact, one of the most successful French films of the 1930s.  Through its realistic sets and inspired photography, its sympathetic working class heroes and melodious street songs, it evokes not just its era, but something about the very essence of Paris.  

There is an aura of romance and optimism, of youth and gaiety, that pervades Sous les toits de Paris, perhaps more intensely than any other film of this era.  The characters we see are poor, ordinary folk living humdrum lives in drab living quarters, but Clair brings a striking sense of poetry to this milieu.  His very distinctive style, which achieves an effortless marriage of romanticism and naturalism, presages the poetic realist trend that would prevail in French cinema throughout the decade to come.  There has probably been no filmmaker in the history of cinema who has captured the true spirit of Paris, the City of Lights, more vividly in his films than René Clair.

The credits for Sous les toits de Paris includes an impressive set of luminaries who should be known to any serious French film enthusiast. Playing the part of Albert’s friend Louis is a young Edmond T. Gréville, just before he embarked his own highly successful filmmaking career.   Clair’s assistant director on this film was none other than Georges Lacombe, who would also become a notable film director, as would his editor René Le Hénaff.

© James Travers 2008

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