1945 - CHILDREN OF PARADISE, classic French film on the big screen

Children of Paradise considered the greatest French film ever made is on some sort of 80th anniversary tour courtesy of Criterion.  I viewed it at a revival theater on a large screen with an almost full house.

The film is a favorite of serious film scholars and buffs.  It was filmed in what was then called the classic French film tradition none of this new wave jump cut stuff.  Directed by Marcel Carne and just as importantly written by Jacques Prévert a poet and screenwriter who at this time was a major collaborator with Carne.

This film was a large scale production which was amazingly filmed over a two year period during the German occupation of France during World War II.  

 

The story is a simple one, four men love an enigmatic woman in the 1800's. Set in the world of theater with most of the focus on a performance artist who is a talented and popular mime.  In fact there are two extended sequences where he does his prancing mime thing.

Children of Paradise is considered the pinnacle of "romantic fatalism."  The performances are at a high caliber and the dialog certainly has a very poetic quality to it even after being translated with subtitles. 

The running time is an epic 190 minutes.