Children of Paradise - Criterion Collection

Rating:
Summary: The Children of Paradise - A French Masterpiece.
Review: Les Enfants Du Paradis was voted as number 1 French film of the
20th Century. In some quarters it is known as France's "Gone With The Wind" a reference to the films overall quality and greatness - although its content is totally different.
Criterion give this film the restoration and packaging it so richly deserves, as are the voice overs telling us the fascinating background of this movie.
Despite being filmed in black & white, Director Marcel Carne's opening shots of the Boulevarde du Crime in 1840's Paris with its maze of pedestrians and street performers all intermingled,
reminded me of Luhrman's Moulin Rouge.
Les Enfants Du Paradis was made during the Occupation years of 1943 to 1945, when dialoge was heavily censored, and actors writers et al of Jewish descent were forced to flee Paris from the Gestapo. Despite all this undercurrent, the film was complted without the Germans knowing and released at wars end to a joyous international audience.
The film is set in Funamble Theatre, Paris and tells the story of the lives and loves of the cast headed by reknown Paris mime artiste Jean Louis Barrault, who plays Baptiste, a mime street performer who falls in love with an actress named Garrance, beautifully played by Arletty. Other notables in the cast are Pierre Brasseur and Pierre Renoir.
My favourite moment of the film is when Baptiste and Garrance first meet. He is performing to the street throng in the aptly named Boulevarde du Crime, and she is watching him.
Suddenly, a man standing next to Garrance, accuses her of stealing his pocket watch. The police are called and the situation is looking her until Baptiste mimes for the police what really happened and Garrance is saved. Very Funny and cheeky, and magical all at the same time.
Les Enfants Du Paradis is three hours long spread over two DVD's.
The first half is different in style to the second, but the continuity of superb acting performances and stylish direction sustains it -and us - all the way through.A truly wondrous film.


Rating:
Summary: I Proposed to My Wife During the Intermission of This Film!
Review: See it and find out why. But-- see it!

Rating:
Summary: Goes Nowhere
Review: I loved The Rules of the Game and The A'tlante, but this "Great French Film" left me cold. The characters are cardboard. The female lead is too old for four young men to fall in love with. Yes, she's smooth and smarter than her suiters, but what 50 year old couldn't outsmart a twenty something.

What's with the French thing about life being absurd. If you had to put up with French Socialists, then maybe you would give up hope. With a national GNP growth rate of about 1% for thirty years, you'd think life was absurd too. Take your mimes and do not watch this tiresome film that basically goes nowhere.

Rating:
Summary: Shut up! We can't hear the pantomime!
Review: A-la Moulin Rouge, this film takes you the viewer into a second setting. Instead of you sitting on your couch watching the events unfolding before you, you actually are on your couch in a theater watching a play of the film. Sound confusing, this wasn't even the hard part about it.

I didn't like so many items of this film. First, there was too much of a break between the two discs. Six years passed between the first disc and the second, and it is difficult to pick up where this film begins. I think this was the hardest part for me in this film. After trying hard through black and white photography and in French with subtitles, I finally began to understand what all of these characters were about, but then the second disc begins and I have no clue what is happening anymore. It is almost as if I need to start back on square one.

Another part that infuriated me was the tone of the first and second disc. I really felt the creators should have just put the entire 3 hours 10 minutes on one disc ... I mean we all made it through Titanic didn't we?!? Instead, our emotions are toyed with more than Santa on Christmas. In the first disc all of our characters are brought together by love and happiness. It is that initial feeling of love that sparks that glimmer in the eye of our characters. As we begin to fall in love with them one by one, we are immediately torn away from them with a much darker and sinister second disc. On this disc there are duels, deaths, and even adultery. I suppose the director was hoping to show that while love is "a many splendid thing ... it may lift you up where you belong", it is cruelly followed by people that cannot handle love, and therefore use techniques like revenge and murder to triumph where they could not before.

There was so much about this film that I didn't like that I could literally spend days going into it all. Instead, I am going to end it with this thought ... If you are going to create a love story, instead of having a hexagon love shape, instead have two people. It may give the viewers a chance to actually fall in love with the characters and see the point that you are trying to make.

The best film from France ... "rubbish" I say ... I think I heard a "hogwash" from the back. Whatever you do avoid this film at all costs!

Grade: * out of *****

Rating:
Summary: The most popular French film of all time
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This film remains the most popular and arguably the best French Film ever made. It has been called the French "Gone With the Wind" and was made during the German occupation which was an amazing feat in itself. The film was nominated for the best original screenplay Academy Award.® It was originally relased in France with the title, Les Enfants du Paradis.

The film, set in 1820's Paris follows the relationship of a mime named Baptiste and an actress named Claire and ending of their relationship. Several years later, Claire tries to start over with him.

The movie is over 3 hours long and was released in two parts which is also how the film is presented in this two disc set. The film was very well photographed and the lighting of the sets is incredible.

The DVD has good special features also. Disc 1 contains part one of the film along with optional audio commentary of the film by Brian Stonehill. There is also a restoration demonstration and an introduction to the film presented by Terry Gilliam.

Disc 2 contains part two of the film with optional audio commentary by Charles Affron. There is also a theatrical trailer for the US release, filmographies of director Marcel Carné and writer Jacques Prévert. There are production stills, a summary of the film written by Jacques Prévert, and Alexandre Trauner's production design.

Rating:
Summary: L'amour, c'est simple!
Review: 'Oh Garance! Tu ne m'aime pas!' Is just about the saddest line ever spoken in cinema.

Four characters, (loosely based on historical French figures) vye for the eye of the beautiful and serene Garance. The four stereotypical male character types that have continuously made great cinema over the last century. The cold millionaire aristocrat, the genius criminal, the amiable noble adventurous lover and finally our tragic hero, the romantic artist. Each seek her in their own way, yet each selfishly encroaches her formidable freedom with their tragic flaws. The romantic needs her exlusively and needs her unconditional love, the aristocratic will only ever see her as an object, he will never 'love as a poor man'. The lover is too full of dramatic hyperbole for her truthful sensibility and the criminal can never love, for his dark humour and excessive intelligence can not grasp its simplicity. For it is true, 'L'amour, c'est simple.' but it is also tragical and farcical. This film does justice to this fact on a grand and beautiful scale and certainly deserves its plaudits as one of the top ten best films of all time.

Rating:
Summary: **
Review: Marcel Carne's masterpiece set in the theater district of early 19th century Paris has been restored to its original brilliance.

Filmed during the Nazi occupation of France, it is ripe with visual beauty and reality.