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| An irresistible original French poster for the second part of Marcel Carné's then two-parter Children of Paradise |
A pantomime and a beautiful actress fall in love in dashing Paris of 1827, but he is not the only one infatuated with her, - in fact she gets three additional suitors and soon finds herself in a terrible jam as a result of this.
Children of Paradise is written by Oscar-nominated Jacques Prévert (Adieu Léonard (1943)) and directed by French master filmmaker Marcel Carné (La Marie du Port (1950)), and the four suitors are all based on actual 1820s and 1830s French personalities. The title refers to the theater, where the children are understood to be the actors, and the paradise, or the gods, which some have suggested would have been a better English translation of the French title, are the rough, loud, good-natured working class audiences in the theater's second balcony, whose veneration the actors sought as that of gods.
Children of Paradise is a completely masterful film, which is rich on intellect, stimulating, at times sharp and at times funny dialog, formidable sets, scenes and photography (by Roger Hubert (Der Meineidbauer/The Perjurer/Die Sunderin vom Fernerhof (1959)) and Philipppe Agostini (Topaze (1951))). Its uniformly brilliant cast give deep-seated life to the rich characters: Arletty (The Longest Day (1962)) as Claire Reine; Louis Salou (The Lovers of Verona/Les Amants de Vérone (1949)) as the Count; Marcel Herrand (Young Love/Une Histoire d'Amour (1951)) as Lacenaire; Pierre Brasseur (Dirty Hands/Les Mains Sales (1951)) as Frédérick Lemaître; and Jean-Louis Barrault (I Accuse/J'accuse! (1938)) as Baptiste the mime.
Children of Paradise is a painful and wise treatment of the nature of love and its mystery. It is made with a genuine and infectious love for the filmmaking process and the theater.
Related post:
Marcel Carné: Top 10: Best French movies
Cost: Reportedly around 60 mil. francs
Box office: Reportedly around 41 mil. francs - France only
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[Children of Paradise premiered 9 March (Paris) and runs 190 minutes. The film was made during the German occupation of France during WWII, making the endeavor extremely difficult and dangerous: Its set designer and composer were Jews working in secret on the film, always in mortal danger. A producer was forced from the production due to Jewish ancestry; the length was combated by the French Vichy government, and a crucial part of financing, the Italian co-producer, fell away as the Allied conquered Sicily in 1943. Huge sets were mounted in Nice, including a quarter-mile long 'Boulevard du Temple', which was damaged by a storm and had to be rebuilt. Shooting also took place in Paris and in Pathé's Val-de-Marne studios. The film's budget was reportedly unmatched in French film at the time. It required several hundred extras, who willingly turned out for filming, but in outdoor market scenes, the food laid out would often disappear, simply because the extras were war-famished. Actor Robert Le Vigand, who plays the informer-thief, was sentenced to death by the Resistance for Nazi collaboration at the time of Paris' liberation in August 1944. He fled and was replaced. Arletty was also arrested for collaboration shortly after the film's release and spent a short time in jail, based on a short affair she had with a German officer. Production lasted an extremely long two years, with Carné working hard to keep the film from release until after the liberation of France, when he wanted it to appeal to the rebuilding of the country's dignity. He fought to have it released as one long film, and succeeded, with ticket prizes doubled. Another new invention by Carné was the opportunity to reserve seats in advance. Almost 5 mil. paid admission in France alone, where it became the 2nd biggest movie of 1945, behind La Cage aux Rossignols, a school-drama. Whether the very costly film became profitable with releases in other countries, in which it continued to work its way over the next several years, is not known. It has enjoyed acclaim and several re-releases (including a 2012 US re-release in which it grossed 36k $ in 2 theaters in 3 weeks) and a 2012 4K-restored Blu-ray release. It was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, but lost to Muriel Box and Sydney Box for The Seventh Veil. It also won a critics' award at the 1946 Venice International Film Festival and is recognized by Roger Ebert and just about every other serious film scholar as a great film. Children of Paradise is fresh at 97 % with a 9.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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