Marcel Carne described his greatest work, Les enfants du paradis (The Children of Paradise), as a "tribute to the theatre," and the story breathes with the very life and soul of French theatrical tradition. Three of its characters are based on historical personages famous during the reign of Louis-Phillippe (two actors, the pantomimist, Debureau and the ambitious romantic actor, Frederick Lemaitre, and a debonair but ruthless criminal known as Lacenaire). Their meeting ground is Paris in the vicinity of the Theatre des Funambules, in the Boulevard du Temple, sometimes called the Boulevard du Crime because it was the scene for many unsolved thefts and murders. A quarter of a mile of street fronts, as well as the complete theater, were constructed at great cost.
The film, made during the Nazi occupation of Paris, took over two years to complete. Production was often deliberately sabotaged, or halted because actors had disappeared and had either to be found again or their roles re-cast. Some performers active in the Resistance arranged to have their scenes shot secretly.
The Nazis, anxious to keep film production active in France, were more than willing to cooperate. German films were not patronized by the French people, and the Nazis decided that making films in the French language was essential to the Occupation. Over 350 feature films were shot in occupied France, and the most ambitious of these was Les enfants du paradis, yet Carne contrived to slow up production, sometimes deliberately hiding key reels already shot from Nazi supervisors, waiting hopefully for the Germans to be forced to evacuate Paris before the film was premiered.
On March 9, 1945, Les enfants du paradis was finally presented in Paris, the first important movie premiere after the end of the Occupation. It was received with adoration by the public. Comprised of two parts, each of which is feature-length, the film's running time was originally 195 minutes. This shortened by 45 minutes when the picture was first shown in New York. Most of the edited film was later restored, and prints of Les enfants du paradis now run 188 minutes.
The genesis for the story occurred in Cannes during the second year of the Occupation when actor Jean-Louis Barrault met over lunch with director Carne and screenwriter Jacques Prevert. When Barrault learned that they were seeking a subject for filming, he suggested a story be written about Debureau, who had been France's greatest pantomimist. (In 1950, Sacha Guitry, forced into inactivity during the immediate postwar years, would create a play on this subject in verse.)
Carne and Prevert's fame was established by three fatalistic, romantic melodramas, Quai des brumes, Hotel du nord and Le jour se leve, generally considered to exemplify "poetic realism." Under the Occupation such films were banned, and they turned to a radically different style of period spectacle, first seen in the medieval fable Les visiteurs du soir. The scope of the movie envisioned by Carne, Prevert and Barrault was very wide. Its message – that the drama could only flourish where men are free – required a subtlety of interpretation that eluded the Nazi mind; otherwise they would never have authorized production of the film. The script is one of Prevert's finest, full of wit and aphorism; farce and tragedy are effortlessly combined. Carne's handling of both his all-star cast and the complex crowd scenes is masterly.
In French, "paradis" is the colloquial name for the gallery or second balcony in a theater, where common people sat and viewed a play, responding to it honestly and boisterously. The actors played to these gallery gods, hoping to win their favor, the actor himself thus being elevated to an Olympian status.
The French theatre at the time was as Dumas knew it, and as Balzac subsequently wrote about it. It was a theatre for the people, catering to their romantic and extravagant tastes. Mountebanks, clowns, and courtesans quickened its rich blood. Debureau, whose father was an actor, became the idol of his time, touching the emotions of his public with a few well-timed gestures. He rose to fame at the same time as Lemaitre captured the fancy of the nation. Their fates mingled with that of the daring criminal, Lacenaire. All three loved and were loved, however briefly, by Garance, the beautiful adventuress idolized as an actress. In the film she is presented as a woman who rejects those men who try to possess her. However, only when she learns that Debureau is the father of a young son does she abandon her hold on him, relinquishing him to his wife and child while she pursues a new chapter in her life, praying that it will lead her to ultimate freedom. Garance becomes a forerunner of this century's emancipated woman, a sophisticate knowing everything about living, and resisting all attempts to control her.
Had the Germans even guessed that in authorizing production of Les enfants du paradis, they were condoning the exploits of a woman like Garance, they would have withdrawn their approval of the film immediately. She symbolized the activating spirit of the Free French, a spirit of revolt and independence, a spirit that can never be broken or subjugated, as Hitler's generals soon learned.
Beautifully cast, with the triumphant Arletty as Garance, the picture also boasts the presence of Jean-Louis Barrault as Debureau. He was the finest pantomimist of his generation in the French theatre, and he simply transferred his special gifts to the role he was playing. Handsome Pierre Brasseur is an immaculate Lemaitre, and Marcel Herrand offered a stunning portrayal of the criminal. Lovely Maria Casares is very appealing as the wife of Debureau.
All in all, Les enfants du paradis, in spite of its large canvas, remains a very intimate study of the French theatre, inviting its audience not only to know and appreciate its people, but also acquainting them with the Free French spirit.
Release Date: 1945
Rating: Unrated
Starring: Jean Louis Barrault, Arletty, Pierre Brasseur, Marcel Herrand, Pierre Renoir, Fabien Loris, Louis Salou, Maria Cassares, Etienne Decroux, Jeanne Marken, Gaston Modot, Pierre Palau, Albert Remy, and Paul Frankeur
Director: Marcel Carne
Writer: Jacques Prevert
Source Citation: Bodeen, DeWitt. "Les Enfants du Paradis." International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. 4th ed. Vol. 1: Films. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. 375-378.
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