gavin6942 The theatrical life of a beautiful courtesan (Arletty) and the four men who love her: the mime Baptiste Debureau (Jean-Louis Barrault), the actor Frédérick Lemaître (Pierre Brasseur), the thief Pierre François Lacenaire (Marcel Herrand), and the aristocrat Édouard de Montray (Louis Salou).This film is often called the French "Gone With the Wind". That seems really insulting. While the comparison makes sense in vague terms -- both are long, epic stories about a woman with multiple loves -- to compare this artistic vision to the Civil War melodrama is unfair. One clearly is better than the other. (Hint: The French one.) What is most incredible about this film is its creation during the Nazi occupation. How is it possible they were able to get such a great film, and such a large production, done while being oppressed? Apparently resistance fighters worked on the set, too, which seems worthy of a documentary or two.

richard-1787 Yes, I know this movie is considered by many to be one of the finest ever made. Nor do I have any intention of questioning its quality as film art.But I did not enjoy it.Yes, the scenes in the Théâtre des funambules on stage are magical. J. L. Barrault is wonderful as the mime. It's only when he speaks, in a highly theatrical and unnatural fashion, that I wanted to turn the sound off.And yes, I realize that this movie is about actors, and that the theme of reality vs. artificiality is big. But that conceit wears out quickly for me, and too often I was reminded of Blue Angel and the strange actors in that movie. Portraying the theater as a world of weirdos doesn't hold my attention for long. I just could not get caught up in this story.And then the end! I checked twice to make sure that my DVD player hadn't missed a segment. No, I don't expect a movie to wrap up all the loose ends. But this movie just stops. Everyone's life is ruined, true, so what's left to do? I don't know, but I would have liked at least a little sense of resolution with at least one theme.I'll take Le jour se lève or Quai des brumes any day over this. It really did not hold me.

Framescourer An epic investigation of the blurred lines between life and the performance space, Les Enfants du Paradis is almost surmised within its first shot. Garance earns a dubious living allowing men to come and look at her naked. Yet the men can't quite see her - she sits in a barrel of water. All the while she looks at herself - her face - in a mirror. This unmediated self-examination whilst being risqué but not absolutely honest with others is examined across a handful of characters, beginning with a blind beggar who is not blind and finishing with an entire population adopting the character of one individual.It is also the nature of art - that in order to examine people one must take recourse to what might seem an unnatural technique. This is clear in the acting and mime of the two stages of the neighbouring theatres and underlined in the persistent transgression of the fourth wall. Most clearly and simply the two celebrated actors cover their faces with paint-as-mask to achieve greatness - white for the mime, black for Otello.The performances are powerful, if mannered for the time, with the exception of Arletty as Garance who manages to be arch and seductive but warm, haughty and fragile all at the same time, an unrepeatable modern performance. Though long, the film feels like it ought to be longer. 7/10

blanche-2 "L'enfants du paradis" is a remarkable film made in Nazi-occupied France, actually done in pieces over several years. Even if it had not been made under such difficult circumstances, it will still stand as a magnificent masterpiece. With a script by the poet Jacques Prevert and direction by Marcel Carne, it stars Arletty and Jean-Louis Barrault as its main characters, Garance and Baptiste Dubureau.The story takes place on the Boulevard de Crime in 1840s France, a street teeming with people and theater of all kinds. A mime, Baptiste (Barrault) becomes obsessed with a street woman, Garance (Arletty), a mysterious creature who becomes the artistic muse of two men, Baptiste and Frederick LeMaitre (Pierre Brasseur). Shyness keeps Baptiste from becoming Garance's lover, and he loses her to LeMaitre and others. Meanwhile, Nathalie (Casares) loves Baptiste and isn't afraid to say so. Garance finally realizes that she is as much in love with Baptiste as he is with her, but now they are both ensconced in other lives. What will they do? "Les enfants du paradis" is a dark film, going from intimate two-person scenes to massive crowd scenes on the boulevard, taking us into the dark alleys of Paris and the after-hours crowd in bars to the theater rabble-rousers, and demonstrating the power of mime in performance. This is a world of hungry actors, crooks, hustlers, casual sex, and great art.Only in France would a woman in her mid-forties be cast as a femme fatale - imagine Hollywood doing that in 1945. The Garbo-ish Arletty manages to be earthy and mysterious as Garance. The actress was not invited to the premiere of this film due to her fall from grace - she had a German officer as a lover during the war. In fact, she was arrested and spent time in a concentration camp, finally being put under house arrest. She did return triumphantly to film and worked until 1967, when blindness from an accident forced her to retire. She died in 1992 at the age of 94.The thin, sensitive looking Jean-Louis Barrault gives an exquisite performance as Baptiste, a role based on the real-life mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau, who invented the character of Pierrot. So successful was Barrault's pantomime work that it revived interest in the art form in France and made it possible for Marcel Marceau to become hugely popular. Barrault's performance is still studied in mime schools today. A passionate man, Barrault actually hid members of the resistance on the set of "Les enfants du paradis." This film is long, it's talky, but it is fascinating and detailed in every aspect. A no-miss for both film and theater lovers.