Not living in a major city,the opportunities to watch classic films on the big screen become limited,with it being possible for a few years to go by without one getting shown. Aware of the "Cinema Time Machine" screenings held at The Electric Cinema in Birmingham, (the oldest cinema in the UK) I have sadly missed out on all the showings, due to not wanting to miss the last train home. A fan of auteur Marcel Carne,I was taken aback when looking at the Electric's listings and finding that they were screening Carne's epic (which I've never seen before) at a good time. This led to me finally meeting the children of paradise.
View on the film:
Raising the curtain on the 18th century, auteur director Marcel Carné takes his graceful stylisation of Film Noir's Port of Shadows and Le Jour se Leve to a vast costume Drama canvas. Sending every man to the siren-call like beauty of Claire Reine, Carné & cinematographer Roger Hubert make her stand out like a mirage in each frame,with Carné continuing to expand on his distinctive tracking shots,that run across the bustling streets of Paris, (the largest sets,and most expensive French film ever at the time)and find Reine in the middle of the crowd. Stepping out onto the stage, Carné reveals a surprisingly humorous side,where the mines at the Funambules theatre are played with a delicate touch highlighting the quirks in Baptiste's on-stage performances.
Unveiled across the screen like an epic novel, the screenplay by regular Carné collaborator Jacques Prévert makes the 3 hour run time feel as light as a feather,by Prévert wisely focusing on the personal,rather than spectacle. Introducing Reine to four major lovers in her life, Prévert uses the figures to give the film four distinctive moods,as Baptiste's love twists from flirting Comedy to sweeping romance, Frédérick's jealousy spirals the title with a vengeful edge, Lacenaire's thieving glazing the brittle desire they each have for her and Count de Montray grips Reine with an unrelenting darkness. Made,but not landing until the Occupation was finally over, Prévert's poetic dialogue brilliantly goes behind the scenes of the stage,and radically connects the romantic tale with the allegorical,in each of the men having a possessive love,which surrounds Reine, until she drops each of them and gains (temporarily) liberty.
Shining as the cast member whose become the most entwined in Prévert and Carné's legacy, Arletty gives a mesmerising performance as Reine,whose given a sophistication Arletty that gives her an unshakeable allure. Finding Reine held back from looking at the stage for a number of years, Arletty elegantly conveys the heaviness from the passage of time,with Reine's reunions of former lovers losing the romantic innocence they each shared. Duelling for Reine's affections with Marcel Herrand's devilish charms as Lacenaire,the stern glance Louis Salou injects Montray,and the flamboyance Pierre Brasseur dresses Lemaitre in, Jean-Louis Barrault gives a magnetic performance as Baptiste,whose mime stage shows Barrault plays with incredible ease,and expressively casts desire across Baptiste face,from seeing Reine in the crowd of the children of paradise.
View on the film:
Raising the curtain on the 18th century, auteur director Marcel Carné takes his graceful stylisation of Film Noir's Port of Shadows and Le Jour se Leve to a vast costume Drama canvas. Sending every man to the siren-call like beauty of Claire Reine, Carné & cinematographer Roger Hubert make her stand out like a mirage in each frame,with Carné continuing to expand on his distinctive tracking shots,that run across the bustling streets of Paris, (the largest sets,and most expensive French film ever at the time)and find Reine in the middle of the crowd. Stepping out onto the stage, Carné reveals a surprisingly humorous side,where the mines at the Funambules theatre are played with a delicate touch highlighting the quirks in Baptiste's on-stage performances.
Unveiled across the screen like an epic novel, the screenplay by regular Carné collaborator Jacques Prévert makes the 3 hour run time feel as light as a feather,by Prévert wisely focusing on the personal,rather than spectacle. Introducing Reine to four major lovers in her life, Prévert uses the figures to give the film four distinctive moods,as Baptiste's love twists from flirting Comedy to sweeping romance, Frédérick's jealousy spirals the title with a vengeful edge, Lacenaire's thieving glazing the brittle desire they each have for her and Count de Montray grips Reine with an unrelenting darkness. Made,but not landing until the Occupation was finally over, Prévert's poetic dialogue brilliantly goes behind the scenes of the stage,and radically connects the romantic tale with the allegorical,in each of the men having a possessive love,which surrounds Reine, until she drops each of them and gains (temporarily) liberty.
Shining as the cast member whose become the most entwined in Prévert and Carné's legacy, Arletty gives a mesmerising performance as Reine,whose given a sophistication Arletty that gives her an unshakeable allure. Finding Reine held back from looking at the stage for a number of years, Arletty elegantly conveys the heaviness from the passage of time,with Reine's reunions of former lovers losing the romantic innocence they each shared. Duelling for Reine's affections with Marcel Herrand's devilish charms as Lacenaire,the stern glance Louis Salou injects Montray,and the flamboyance Pierre Brasseur dresses Lemaitre in, Jean-Louis Barrault gives a magnetic performance as Baptiste,whose mime stage shows Barrault plays with incredible ease,and expressively casts desire across Baptiste face,from seeing Reine in the crowd of the children of paradise.