Les enfants du paradis / Children of Paradise (1945) – 3/5

Paradise lost (if they ever had it)

„Les enfants du paradis“ or „Children of Paradise“ is a French French-language film from the year 1945, so this one already had its 75th anniversary not too long ago. If you see the film’s high rating on imdb, you have one reason why this film is not yet forgotten and today I even had the chance to watch it on the big screen again and the fact that I am not in France where it is perhaps shown more often still makes this even more memorable. The room was nicely packed too and I was happy to see that. The film was supposed to be shown also earlier this month, but the first occasion got canceled, so today was maybe the only occasion unless they add another one. In any case, this was the 25th December, so this makes the pretty solid amount of audience members even more spectacular. On a regular day, not a holiday, there might have been even more in the room. But now, let’s get away a bit from the experience and instead look at the film at hand. Nobody can really be surprised that it is a black-and-white film of course as this movie is from the final year of World War II, that’s how old it is, but at the same time also nobody should really be surprised that it is not a silent movie anymore. Such it probably would have been if it had been from the final year of World War I. The director is Marcel Carné and he was not old at all when he made this, still under the age of 40. The writer is Jacques Prévert and he is probably more known nowadays than Carné, even if the latter has other fairly successful films in his body of work that are not forgotten altogether. Maybe Prévert is also more known for his music than for his writing, but this makes it an even more spectacular achievement that he (in his mid40s at that point) managed to get in at the Oscars for a screenplay. Look at today’s musicians and you will not find anybody who managed a similar achievement. I mean you constantly have actors become writers and also directors, but musicians turning into Oscar-nominated writers is quite a rarity, so I applaud Prévert for this achievement, especially because he was not even American, so this makes it an even bigger triumph. The fact that the win did not go to him can almost be overlooked in the face of this pretty unique achievement.

As for the cast, I cannot really say too much about the actors. The woman in the lead is Arletty and it was not extremely common back then to see performers go by one-word names. It is not too common today either despite the occasional Zendaya, but I must admit I don’t remember having come across Arletty in anything else. I see she did not launch her acting career at a particularly young age and this may be one reason why she is also closer to the age of 50 than to the age of 40 in this movie here. This also made it a bit strange for me as Jean-Louis Barreau or his character Baptiste was clearly younger than his love interest played by Arletty. Her name was Garance. I was also baffled to see how Baptiste had this really beautiful young woman with amazing hair that was crazy for him and he did not show too much interest in her. Okay, in the second half they got together and became parents, but the moment Garance entered the picture, he totally forgot about Nathalie again so quickly. I was 100% team Nathalie, maybe because Spanish actress María Casares resembled Marion Cotillard a little bit and I am a huge fan of her. Maybe this was one reason why I did not like the film that much. I mean I liked it, but given the aforementioned rating on imdb, I do think it is on the overrated side. I do not want to go into detail now on all the actors, but they all did a decent job I would say. I am also a bit confused because the cast list is not particularly in order and some people who had a solid amount of screen time, i.e. Key supporting players, are credited far behind the first mentions. Interestingly enough, you will also find the name Renoir here and Pierre is indeed part of the famous Renoir family. There may be at least two members of said family that are much more known than Pierre, including his father, the famous painter, but good for him that he managed a decent career nonetheless and appeared in this film here that is still seen three quarters of a century later and probably will also still be seen when it has its 100th anniversary.

You could almost say that this was two films in one. There is even an official ending after the first half and an opening sequence again for the second half that also summarizes the first half again and tells us the details of the ending especially. This ending came a bit out of nowhere when the female protagonist is all of a sudden in the middle of an investigation linked to a serious crime. She manages to get out of it because she has the business card of a really influential man and he gave it to her of course because he had much more than a business interest in her. I am still baffled by how all these men were crazy after her. I mean she was not hideous or something, but I had no clue why we had the massive amount of four people pursuing her in this film and some of them were even considerably younger as I stated already. Maybe it was her aura. However, the title can also be seen in a fairly ironic or sarcastic way because the end was not happy for anybody if you take a closer look. The female protagonist was at least only running away and her main love interest also did not have to face any major catastrophe, but if we look at the other men, then one was dead and another would go to jail for a long time because his ego probably could not stand the humiliation he received from the rich guy before that. The one who does get away nicely somehow is at least having his career as perhaps the country’s biggest actor, but he did not get the woman he was longing for, so also not a happy ending for him. The one she wants of course also has this woman that is now alone again and has a boy and the father is off chasing another woman 20 years or more her senior. That says it all. By the way, I decided to check out the really cute boy’s name and he was a bit of a scene stealer when he talked to the female protagonist on one occasion and almost begs her to not ruin his family. Well, it all comes down to his father then anyway. I was curious to see if the then child actor with the name of Belmon was still alive today, but sadly he also died over a decade ago already in his mid70s. So you can probably say for sure now that nobody from the cast here is still alive. Perhaps nobody from the crew either. Feel free to send me an email to correct me in case I am wrong.

Back to the movie: Overall, I enjoyed it, but I would not say it was great or anything. I had some issues with it for sure. One would be the central romance story of it all. It felt hard for me to believe not only that the guy finally got together and even started a family with the woman he had only feelings of friendship for, but also it made no sense to me that Garance was so crazy about him from a romantic perspective that she absolutely had to return every day and watch the man on stage while back then when it counted, she did not make any move at all to get together with him when he was absolutely crazy about her and not hiding his affections by any means. Their first meeting was also kinda interesting there when the woman is accused of having stolen an expensive watch it was I think. Quite a way to get in touch. Later on, they recognize each other again when spending an evening together in a restaurant or café or so. There was a physical conflict between the man and pretty much a henchman character, even if it is debatable if you can call the writer/criminal truly an antagonist. Deep into the second half, it feels as if the only real antagonist is the one who is very rich and who made sure between the two halves that Garance would not have to go to jail. This perception is difficult to maintain though when said fella is killed in cold blood by one of the other suitors.

By the way, there is also constant talk about duels and those were much more of a thing when this film was made or at least when it took place than they are now. Maybe a good thing that nowadays the worst is usually people just going outside and fighting with fists instead of firearms. On one occasion, we see that Baptiste also packs a nice punch. I must still say I did not find him particularly likable and I think he was meant to be seen as likable for the most part. I had this feeling not only because of what he did to the other woman, but also look how he treats a homeless guy out there on a few occasions and does not hide one bit that he finds the man really disgusting. I even thought that maybe the man would hurt Baptiste when they are close together in the final scene, but the actual consequence was that maybe the man was the reason Baptiste did not get to Garance in time. Why was she running anyway? Made little sense. However, if you see it like this, you can say that the bum hurt Baptiste. The closing credits roll in immediately afterwards and this implies that their separation there might even have been permanent. I still found it a very abrupt ending to be honest and it came out of nowhere. By the way, the version we watched last night was a Pathé restoration and this will surely help the film in getting shown throughout the next years. I find it also pretty cool how we see the new Pathé logo at the very start that indicates the restoration and then when the actual film begins, we see the old Pathé intro. Swell! Overall, I am glad I went and saw this film that I would call decent and worth it. It did not disappoint and with the problems I sometimes have with old(er) movies, I was glad that this one here managed to impress me at times. It was not a triumph, but both halves are worth seeing. I still don’t like the title too much, also the title for the second half. Apart from that, the movie gets a thumbs-up from me. Go check it out.