Children of Paradise (1945)

Cast

• Arletty Claire Reine, dite Garance
• Jean-Louis Barrault Baptiste Debureau
• Pierre Brasseur Frédérick Lemaître
• Marcel Herrand Pierre-François Lacenaire
• María Casares Nathalie
• Louis Salou Édouard comte de Montray
• Pierre Renoir Jericho
• Jane Marken Mme Hermine
• Gaston Modot Fil de Soie
• Fabien Loris Avril
• Marcel Pérès Le directeur des Funambules
• Etienne Decroux Anselme Debureau
• Marcelle Monthil Marie
• Louis Florencie Le gendarme des 'Adrets'
• Habib Benglia L'employé des bains turcs
• Rognoni Le directeur du Grand Théâtre
• Jacques Castelot Georges
• Paul Frankeur L'inspecteur de police
• Albert Rémy Scarpia Barrigni
• Robert Dhéry Célestin

Crew

Director

Marcel Carné

Director of Photography

Roger Hubert

Director of Photography

Marc Fossard

Editor

Henri Rust

Editor

Madeleine Bonin

Original Music Composer

Maurice Thiriet

Producer

Raymond Borderie

Producer

Fred Orain

Screenplay

Jacques Prévert

Details

Revenue

$1,457

IMDb

tt0037674

TMDB

2457

Keywords

• anarchist
• black and white
• count
• false accusations
• hoodlum
• love
• mime
• murder
• pantomime
• thief

Videos

• Michael Peyser on CHILDREN OF PARADISE Featurette
• Three Reasons: Children of Paradise Featurette
• Children of Paradise - U.S. Re-Release Trailer Trailer

Reviews

CinemaSerf · ★ 7 · 2024-05-16

Told in two acts with a curtain rising on both sections, this is quite a stylish, lavish even, and entertaining tale of a lady of the streets. "Garance" (Arletty) who sometimes uses her real name of "Claire Reine" is actually quite a decent woman who is wrongfully accused of pickpocketing in a busy market. Fortunately, the mime artist "Baptiste" comes to her rescue and quickly falls hook, line and sinker for the beautiful and charismatic woman. His problem is that she has no lack of suitors, and over the next three hours or so we are introduced to the lively and foppish "Lemaître" (Pierre Brasseur); the even more flamboyant but roguish "Lacenaire" (Marcel Herrand) and the aloof and sterile, but very wealthy "Comte de Montray" (Louis Salou). The plot itself isn't especially remarkable. A woman in the flushes of youth and attractiveness being sought after by a diverse collection of men. What makes this stand out is the marvellously applied mixture of heavily scored theatrical and cinematic styles. It's a love story and an adventure. How might things pan out for her as she ages, though? As her outward beauty begins to fade? Will any of them (or anyone else) still want her? Will she want them? The characters are quite roundly developed as director Marcel Carné takes his time to illustrate not just the persona of the heroine, but also those of her suitors whilst offering us a critique of a society in general that in early 19th century France mixed opulence with poverty, violence with tenderness. By using the different genres of theatre performances, Carné creatively provides us with a more subtle conduit between her series of trials and tribulations that allows us to tap into themes of culture and religion as well as human nature in many of it's guises. Arletty is on great form, as is Brasseur and given it was made just as the Nazi occupation was coming to it's own denouement, is quite an astonishingly artistic achievement that shows a nation with a healthy and defiant confidence in it's own identity and credentials.

Similar movies

• The Return (2006)
• The Kid (1921)
• Killer's Kiss (1955)
• Last Hit (2026)
• Gorillas in the Mist (1988)
• The Last Night (2019)
• Bloody Land (1976)
• They Were Four (1977)
• Cloaks over Barbed Wire (1977)
• Road to Your Heart (2014)
• Threesome (2014)
• Wild Awakening (2016)