
Review
Les Enfants du Paradis
Time Out says
The year is 1840, the location Paris, and a world-class mime (Jean-Louis Barrault’s Baptiste) and a Shakespearean virtuoso (Pierre Brasseur’s Lamaître) find art imitating life and vice versa as they discover that no onstage drama can contend with the pain of reality. Prévert’s busily sculpted screenplay overflows with glorious bons mots, wry references and saucy allusions, and there’s a mad genius to the way it switches from madcap flippancy to yearning sincerity. A segment concerning Lamaître in the film’s second half has him clowning on stage, tearing up a staid stage mystery with his improvisations. Then, soon after, he’s seen watching Baptiste on stage: ‘He’s marvellous,’ he says, his honesty cutting straight to the bone. But Carné’s camera records rather than amplifies the emotions: you can’t help but wonder what magic a René Clair, a Max Ophüls or a Jean Renoir would have found in this material. Its clamorous closing shot – which suggests, but doesn’t show, tragedy – is one of the greatest in all cinema.
Release Details
- Duration:187 mins
Cast and crew
- Director:Marcel Carné
- Screenwriter:Jacques Prévert
- Cast:
- Pierre Brasseur
- Arletty
- Jean-Louis Barrault
- Marcel Herrand
- Maria Casarès
- Louis Salou
- Pierre Renoir
- Fabien Loris
- Jane Marken
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