Children of Paradise (1945)
Director: Marcel Carné
Produced during the worrisome World War II period of German
occupation comes one of French cinema’s greatest motion pictures. Deemed “the French Gone with the Wind,” 1945’s Children of Paradise is an epic sized
drama set within the teaming populous of Paris’ theater scene about the
complications of overwhelming love that pains individuals in diverse ways. Technically
released as two separate films, a complication that was a result of its time,
the two are never meant to be viewed separately and serve merely as two parts
of one continuous feature. Produced at the tail end of World War II under
uniquely difficult conditions, the picture has come to be considered one of, if
not the, very best motion pictures ever produced in French cinematic history.
Children of Paradise
is a drama of four men’s pursuits to attain the love of a beautiful woman who
is romantically unobtainable, and its destructive results on each man, set to
the background of Paris’ performing arts scene, told in two parts. The first part
entitled “The Boulevard of Crime” sets the scene and introduced to us Garance
(Arletty), a woman of the streets of Paris, who finds her means of living
through her beauty and ability to attract men who will take care of her. Stricken
by her kindness and loveliness the mime Baptiste (Jean-Louis Barrault) becomes
utterly infatuated with her, only to be broken with the idea that she has had a
romantic history with one of his friends, actor Frederick (Pierre Brasseur).
Her relations with other men included serial criminal Lacencaire (Marcel
Herrand), who only wants her for his own, but when legal troubles find her Garance
uses the protection of the wealthy and power Count Edouard (Louise Salou) to
help protect her. The Count uses this opportunity to enjoy Garance’s company,
taking her to all the romantic far off place she ever wished to see, even
though she has noromantic feeling for
him.
The Second part, “The Man in White,” see the return of
Garance to Paris several years later. Frederick has become one Paris’ greatest
actors, Lacencaire one of the most notorious criminals in Paris, and Baptiste
the greatest mime performer in all the land. Garance secretly pines to return
to Baptiste, but cannot come to make her presence known as Baptiste had married
and had a child in her absence, hoping to move on from his own heartache. When
it becomes known Garance has returned to Paris each man, including the Count,
continue to vie for the beauty’s love and quarrel amongst each other only to reveal
that Baptiste is the man with whom she is having the secret, passionate affair.
The pain of this news helps drive Frederick to take on the greatest dramatic
role he has dreamt of playing, Othello. Meanwhile Lacenaire and the Count
become rivals, concluding in the murder of the Count. Baptiste’s wife, Nathalie
(Maria Casares), is shocked to discover her husband’s relationship, and it
becomes apparent that Baptiste has only been in love with Garance throughout
their marriage. Garance flees with Baptiste desperately taking pursuit of the
woman he loves only to forever lose her in the crowded theater district of
Paris’, presumed to never see each other again.
It is a film with such a sad and open ended conclusion that
leaves the audience wanting more. That is why this picture has gone on to
become one of the most beloved French film s of all time. It is a sad story
about passions that are shared, and yet go ultimately unfulfilled. The tragic,
open-ended finish makes for a far more poetic motion picture than any happy ending
where perhaps Baptiste and Garance would have gotten together and lived happily
ever after. This leaves far more to the imagination of how life would have
continued for both of these characters, thinking about how love, despite how
beautiful it was, was lost and will never be attained again. It is a sorrowful
conclusion that allows the imagination of the audience run wild with what might
have been, or what would be to come for our two lovers.
Produced during the troubled period of German occupation of
France, Children of Paradise was a
difficult picture to fashion, consisting of layers of interesting stories that
surround its assembly. German appointed administrations overseeing the French
cinematic industry restricted all feature films of the time to run no more than
90 minutes. This regulation caused the film’s producers and director, Marcel
Carne, to restructure the story in a way where it could be divided into two
pictures in order to share the entire tale without cutting it short. The idea
was to release the two features at the same time, making it necessary for
audiences to watch the first film in one theater and go to another theater to
conclude the story as theaters typically ran only one film for weeks at a time.
The vast external sets for the feature took place on a
quarter mile piece of road in Nice, France that due top natural causes was in a
state of disrepair. A decent share of the already small budget had to go to
repairing many of these structures external features to make it presentable for
the teaming crowd settings. Thousands of extras, many with particular costumes,
would be staged for these impressively large settings for a film produced in
the heart of war torn France. With the size of the production Children of Paradise gave a form of
employment to many members of the French Resistance sympathizers during this
trying time, allowing there to be a form of income and a front that did not attract
attention of the Vichy government ever on the hunt for those opposed to the
Nazis.
Supplies were always on short supply on set, including film
stock, which was being rationed. The film suffered from financial troubles
through much of its production. Many times production was halted, including
changes in production companies, actors, and even for the invasion of Normandy
and the liberation of France. In mid production some characters were in need of
reshoots due to recasting from actors that left production for purposes of
beginning other projects or fleeing the country as being aids to Nazis. Director
Marcel Carne feared that the war would somehow destroy his own film during
production, taking action to preserve multiple copies hidden in multiple locations
in order to assure the reels would last through the carnage and siege of French
towns and cities. With all these trials surrounding Children of Paradise it would be a miracle that it was ever
completed at all.
The film starred Aletty in the role that made her one of the
highest paid and most respected actresses in French history. Her aging beauty
as a 46 year-old, gave the film a sense of maturity and class. Jean-Louis
Barrault portrays the tragic Baptiste. Classically trained actors of stage,
screen, and even as a mime allowed this role and this film to be filled with
the complexities of a character torn by his love for Garance and everything
else he knew. These two along with co-stars Pierre Brasseur and Marcel Herrand
would all become best associated with their roles in Children of Paradise as each performance was unique and gripping.
The film, even though being released as technically two
features, would become the most popular French picture of 1945, eventually
seeing an international release in 1946. Universally acclaimed for its complex
look at romance and loss, critics at the time would praise the film, with even
the Motion Picture Academy nominating Children
of Paradise for an award for Best Original Screenplay for the year 1946.
With the passage of time Children
of Paradise would grow in its cinematic majesty. French and international
critics and historians continue to praise the feature as one of the finest
works ever to be produced by France. Some have come to call Children of Paradise “the French Gone with the Wind” due to its length
and its complex, tragic love story. It is unfair to compare these two works as the
two film though only six years apart in release, they are literally and
figuratively an ocean apart in context and subject matter. Rather these two features are perhaps meant
to be held in the highest honor for their respectful motion picture centers as
a testament for what artists can create for the screen.
For a motion picture produced under such difficult and ever
changing conditions, to have it come together as one the highest praised
features of all time remains a miraculous feat of French cinema. It is a
wonderful piece of classic filmmaking that is complex on a very simple level.
For fanatics of cinema history Children
of Paradise provides a unique look into a nation’s very best during very
uncertain times. Its historic value, both cinematically and contextually make
it a true treasure of the medium’s mythos.
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