Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise) (1945)

Director: Marcel Carné
Starring: Léonie Marie Julie Battait (“Arlette”), Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, Marcel Herrand, Pierre Renoir, and Maria Casares

What happens:

Set during the July Monarchy (1830-1848), Les Enfants du Paradis opens in Paris on the “Boulevard of Crime,” a street featuring theatrical shows of all types. A beautiful and unattainable courtesan and actress, Garance (Arletty), is pursued by four men: a mime (Barrault), an actor (Brassuer), a thief/playwright (Herrand), and a theatre-loving aristocrat (Renoir). Over the course of a few years, Garance woos and falls in love with the mime Baptiste, but must forsake their relationship after she is arrested for a crime she did not commit — and uses her connection with the aristocrat, Édouard de Montray, to escape imprisonment. Baptiste, once a lowly mime and the bane of his father’s existence, later becomes a famous clown and marries his theatre co-star, Nathalie (Casares), much to the chagrin of Garance. After being discovered with Baptiste by Nathalie, Garance flees, and Baptiste chases after Garance in the Carnival crowd. He loses sight of her, and in the final shot of the film, he is surrounded and swallowed by the crowd of people, still reaching for Garance.

Why it matters:

The film is three hours long and presented in two parts, but please don’t let that deter you from watching it in its entirety. Barrault and Arletty adopt naturalistic acting styles, and the phenomenal sets and detailed costumes bring a layer of authenticity to the film. And there are more hilarious insults about actors and theatre staff than I could have ever hoped for. One of the most incredible scenes in the film is the pantomime Baptiste performs detailing his perspective of how a man’s watch is stolen. If you’re a student of clowning or pantomime, this is a film to put on your inspiration list.

Even more than this standing as one of France’s most brilliant films, it was produced in a time of intense cultural upheaval. Shot during the German occupation of France in WWII, Les Enfants du Paradis helped hide many French Resistance agents among the film’s 1,800 extras. At the start of principal photography, the production encountered many serious setbacks, one of which involved the Nazis forbidding the producer, André Paulvé, from working on the film for three months because of his distant Jewish ancestry. One of the actors who played the thief Jéricho (Robert Le Vigan) was sentenced to death by the Resistance after it was revealed that he collaborated with the Nazis during the film’s production.

This film isn’t just about a woman who is loved by four men; it’s about how the theatre affects our relationships with one another, particularly actors, dancers, and clowns. Our art can save people, entrance them, and make them fall in love (whether with us or our art is a different story). And though this is a French film, it aligns its characters with stock characters of the Italian Commedia dell’Arte: Garance with Columbine, Baptiste with Pierrot, Lemaître with Harlequin, Lacenaire with Pantaloon, and de Montray with the innamorato. I promise this film does not disappoint.

This film is featured in Part I of “Theatre in Film”. See below for the others in Part I.

• 42nd Street (1933)
• Stage Door (1937)
• All About Eve (1950)
• Limelight (1952)

*Banner image from Les Enfants du Paradis. Copyright © 1945 Pathé.