The Children of Paradise

Synopsis

First time: Paris , 1828. In the crowd on Boulevard du Crime , the mime Baptiste Deburau , by his silent testimony, saves Garance an unjust charge of theft. This one, free and audacious woman, intimidates Baptiste who does not dare to declare to him his love. Baptiste himself is discreetly loved by Nathalie, the daughter of the Director of the Theater des Funambules , where he plays pantomime. Seduced on the boulevard by a promising young actor, Frédérick LemaîtreGarance has a brief affair with him while remaining secretly in love with Baptiste. Committed to the Funambules, Garance seduces a wealthy society, the Comte de Montray, who assures him of his protection in case of need. Victim of one of his associates, the mobster Pierre François Lacenaire , Garance is unfairly accused of complicity in an attempted robbery by the latter and is forced to seek the intervention of the Comte de Montray.

Second period: A few years later, Baptiste is married to Nathalie with whom he had a baby boy. He met with great success on the boulevards where he made pantomime a recognized and popular art. Frederick also acceded to fame and dream to interpret Othello from Shakespeare . Garance, who became the Count’s mistress, returned to Paris and attends incognito to all the performances of Baptiste. One evening, when he arrives in the hotel of the Comte de Montray, Lacenaire is driven out by the count. Feeling humiliated, he swears revenge. Some time away, in the foyer of the theater where Frédérick finally plays Othellohe humiliates the count by publicly discovering Baptiste and Garance entwined behind a curtain. But this vengeance is not enough for him: he assassinates the Comte de Montray the next morning. Finally, after their first and only night of love, Garance, who does not want to destroy the happiness of Nathalie and her little boy, goes away, to the despair of Baptiste.

Technical sheet

Distribution

Production

Given the historical period, The Children of Paradise is exceptional. It is indeed one of the rare superproductions realized during the German occupation. Many interruptions due to rationing of film and power cuts have considerably lengthened the time of shooting and hampered the production of this film ⁵ .

Scenario

The story is based on a gallery of characters that really existed ( Deburau , Frédérick Lemaître , Lacenaire ), or inspired by real characters (a rich aristocrat assistant, according to chronicles of the time, at all performances Deburau a Minister of Foreign Affairs of Louis Philippe and the Duke of Morny , the half-brother of Napoleon III , possible models of the character of the Comte de Montray), are totally imaginary. Moreover the character of Jericho is one of the main characters of the pantomime Chand of clothes ^{[ref. necessary]} created in 1842 by Deburau (which Jericho / Renoir reproaches Deburau / Barrault in the film).

Shooting

The film was shot during the Second World War , first in the studios of the Victorine in Nice , then in Paris in the Studios Francœur ⁶ and the theater Déjazet . Several participants who were Jewish, contributed to the film in hiding, like Alexandre Trauner and Joseph Kosma , mentioned in the credits under cover of a pseudonym ^7 , 8 .

The film marks Carne’s first collaboration with the painter and costume designer Mayo , who will continue his collaboration with the director on many films thereafter ( The Doors of the Night , The Flower of the Age , Juliette or The Key of the Dreams , Thérèse Raquin and Les Tricheurs ). This friend of Prevert begins his work very early with the team to get the best of characters and scenario. The fabrics provided by Jeanne Lanvin also allow working in very favorable terms given the context of the occupation ⁹ .

This shoot was briefly interrupted by the events of the Liberation . Robert Le Vigan , which ironically had to take the role of the informant Jericho, had to flee because of its cooperation with the occupying German ¹⁰ . The actor, who, according to Marcel Carné, had shot only one scene, was replaced by Pierre Renoir .

Analysis

The film, opened and closed by curtains, is also an mise en abyme of the representation, declining the world of the spectacle of then, dealing with the fair, the pantomime, the mime , the comedy , the melodrama , the tragedy , carnival … The summit is reached with the representation in the film of the Auberge des Adrets , authentic melodrama, telling the adventures of a bandit Robert Macaire .

Reception

Arletty is the star of the film, but on opening night, it is absent because she was arrested Oct. 20, 1944 ^11 , 12 for having an affair with a German ⁵ .

The film was a great public success with 4.7 million viewers in France ¹³ .

Restoration and recovery

The film, restored in high definition in 2011, is released in theaters in the United States in March 2012 and in France in October 2012 ¹⁴ . On this occasion, the Cinémathèque française isdevoting an exhibition to film ⁵ .

Around the film

Documentaries

This film was the subject of a documentary Once Upon a Time: The Children of Paradise by Marcel Carné, directed in 2009 by Serge July , Marie Génin and Julie Bonan ¹⁵ .

Arletty, a culpable passion , French biographical television movie co-written and directed by Arnaud Sélignac , aired in 2015. This TV movie tells the love story between the French actress Arletty and the German officer Hans Jürgen Soehring during the occupation of France by Germany. This TV film also evokes the filming Children of Paradise at the same time ¹⁶ .

Reposts and citations

Can be heard on several occasions, the famous line , ” It’s so simple, love ,” said by Arletty, which was inserted into the musical montage Home Movies ( 2 ^e part) of the composer Carlos D’Alessio dedicated to cinema ( Home Movies album preceded by the themes of the movie India Song , 1 CD The Song of the World LDX 274864, 1987 ).

The replica of Pierre Brasseur “Ah, you smiled! Do not say no, you smiled. Ah, that’s wonderful! Life is Beautiful! and you are like her … so beautiful, you are so beautiful too … ” , is used in the piece of Antibo, Southern Shores , which is in fact a cover of a song by Claude François ^{[ref. necessary]} .

We find there the beginning of a poem by Jacques Prévert which will appear in Paroles : “I am as I am”, sung by Garance.

The excerpt from the dialogue where Louis Salou says: “Can you tell my friend how you are currently exercising your talents? And Marcel Herrand answers: “since it interests you, I finish, finally I put the last hand, to a quite exciting thing, and that will make noise …” is used at the beginning of the song Extra Mile of the group Deluxe on the album The Deluxe Family Show .

Anecdotes

The film shows the backstage of the theater, paying tribute to it, and is also dedicated to the modest people who will perch at the top, at the cheapest places, in the henhouse … paradise ! “This is the preferred public Prévert, the real public, who responds, who participates” writes Carole Aurouet in Jacques Prévert, portrait of a life ¹⁷ .

The stolen pendulum mentioned in the film “Today, the spoons, yesterday, a clock” refers to the one stolen by Lacenaire at the showcase of the Parisian watchmaker Richond : it was January 4, 1835 around 9 pm shoplifting Sieur Richond, watchmaker, rue Richelieu, 108 as related by memories of the Criminal ¹⁸ .

Arletty interrupts filming for a second abortion. Pregnant her lover, the officer in the Luftwaffe Hans Jürgen Soehring , she decides on this operation without informing ¹⁹ .

Distinctions

• 1947 : Nomination for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay .
• 1990 : Designated during the show The most beautiful night of the cinema as best film of the period 1945-1960 and more beautiful French film since the speaking ²⁰ .
• 1995 : The Children of Paradise was voted the best French film of all time by critics on the occasion of the centenary of cinema ²¹ .
• The film has been classified as World Heritage by UNESCO ⁶ .

Exposure

• ” The Children of Paradise , the exhibition”, at the French Cinémathèque from October 24, 2012 to January 27, 2013 ²²

Notes and references