Children of Paradise [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Marcel Carne Marcel Carne

Overview

Even in 1945, Marcel Carné's Children of Paradise was regarded as an old-fashioned film. Set in the Parisian theatrical world of the 1840s, Jacques Prévert's screenplay concerns four men in love with the mysterious Garance (Arletty). Each loves Garance in his own fashion, but only the intentions of sensitive mime-actor Deburau (Jean-Louis Barrault) are entirely honorable; as a result, it is he who suffers most, hurdling one obstacle after another in pursuit of an evidently unattainable goal. In the stylized fashion of 19th-century French drama, many grand passions are spent during the film's totally absorbing 195 minutes. The film was produced under overwhelmingly difficult circumstances during the Nazi occupation of France, and many of the participants/creators were members of the Maquis, so the movie's existence itself is somewhat miraculous. Children of Paradise has gone on to become one of the great romantic classics of international cinema.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/18/2012
UPC:	0715515098311
Original Release:	1945
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[monaural]
Language:	English
Time:	3:10:00
Sales rank:	11,043

Special Features

Audio commentary by film scholars Brian Stonehill and Charles Affron; Video introduction by director Terry Gilliam; Restoration demostration; U.S. trailer; Once upon a time: "Children of Paradise" a 2009 documentary on the making of the film; New visual essay on the design of Children of Paradise by film writer Paul Ryan; The birth of "Children of Paradise," a 1967 Rob Houver film documentary featuring interviews with director Marcel Carné; actors Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, and Pierre Brasseur; production designer Alexandre Trauner and others

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Arletty	Garance
Jean-Louis Barrault	Baptiste Debureau
Pierre Brasseur	Frederick Lemaitre
Marcel Herrand	Pierre-Francois Lacenaire
Louis Salou	Edouard de Monteray
Maria Casares	Nathalie
Pierre Renoir	Jericho
Fabien Loris	Avril
Etienne Decroux	Anselme Debureau
Jane Marken	Mme. Hermine
Leon Larive	Stage Doorman, `Funambules'
Pierre Palov	Stage Manager, `Funambules'
Marcel Peres	Director, `Funambules'
Albert Remy	Scarpia Barrigni
Gaston Modot	Fil de Sole
Jacques Castelot	George
Jean Gold	Second Dandy
Guy Favieres	Debt Collector
Paul Frankeur	Police Inspector
Lucienne Vigier	First Pretty Girl
Cynette Quero	Second Pretty Girl
Gustave Hamilton	Stage Doorman, `Grand Theatre'
Rognoni	Director, `Grand Theatre'
Auguste Boverio	First Author
Paul Demange	Second Author
Jean Diener	Third Author
Louis Florencie	Policeman
Marcelle Monthil	Marie
Robert Dhery	Celestin
Lucien Walter	Ticket Seller
Jean-Pierre Delmon	Little Baptiste
Raphael Patorni	Another Dandy
Jean Lanier	Iago
Habib Benglia	Arab Attendant
Pierre Palau	Director
Jean Carmet	Actor
Louis Salon	Actor
George Mouque	Composer
Maurice Thiriet	Composer
Joseph Kosma	Composer

Technical Credits

Jacques Prevert

Marcel Carne	Director
Jacques Prevert	Screenwriter
Fred Orain	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Shooting secretly over a two-year period during the German Occupation of France, director Marcel Carné and writer Jacques Prévert produced their grandest masterwork. In the 19th century Paris theater world, life and performance become interchangeable, as the complex romantic entanglements of Arletty's inscrutable Garance with superficial actor Frederick, a wealthy count, and especially Jean-Louis Barrault's sensitive mime Baptiste become fodder for the masses crowding the "Street of Crimes" and the theater's uppermost balcony. Structured as two intricate "acts" complete with curtains rising and falling, the film reveals the creative power of idealized love in Baptiste's exquisite mimes of his fateful passion for Garance, even as the ebb and flow of human behavior thwarts that ideal. Magnificently recreating the period and its tradition of popular entertainment, Les Enfants du Paradis was released to international postwar acclaim for its spectacular beauty and excellent acting, while Prévert's intelligent script was nominated for a screenplay Oscar. Even as Carné fell out of artistic favor after the 1940s, Les Enfants du Paradis's glorious visuals transcended its association with the maligned French "Tradition of Quality," maintaining its legacy as Carné and Prévert's crowning achievement.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola