Los Angeles Times

A transforma­tive ride with ‘Children’

- kenneth.turan@latimes.com KENNETH TURAN FILM CRITIC

To see Marcel Carné’s “Children of Paradise” under any circumstan­ces is to be transporte­d and transforme­d by cinema. To see it in the version showing at Laemmle’s Royal in West Los Angeles and Playhouse 7 in Pasadena is, if possible, even more special.

Written by Carné’s frequent collaborat­or Jacques Prévert, this 1945 film is more than the acme of a style known as poetic realism, it is often considered to be the greatest French film ever made.

Called by critic James Agee “close to perfection ... guaranteed to make you very happily drunk,” it is also the title I most often cite when asked to pick an alltime personal favorite.

Because of its legendary status, “Children of Paradise” (“Les enfants du paradis” in the original French) became the first motion picture to benefit from a 4K digital restoratio­n of its original negative. Though digital prints can seem overly precise, this one is truly warm and welcoming, and to luxuriate in the film’s 3-hour, 10-minute length is to experience this masterpiec­e as it hasn’t been experience­d since the day it opened.

Set in the teeming environs of 1830s Paris, the “Paradise” title refers to those who inhabit the highest balconies (and the cheapest seats) in the myriad theaters of that city’s Boulevard du Crime (the nickname of Boulevard du Temple). These spectators are the equivalent of Shakespear­e’s groundling­s, those whose love of theatrical spectacle is in inverse proportion to their ability to pay for it.

Although the film has much to say about the world of theater, it is not about performanc­e but rather the exaltation­s and mortificat­ions of romantic love. Bursting with life and spirit, the film explores love both requited and unreturned, passionate and cool.

Its visual richness and splendid dialogue, when added to the humanity and complexity of its relationsh­ips, makes this one of the few films that has the durability and emotional texture of a great 19th century novel. As a piece of romantic/dramatic cinema, its peers are few, its superiors simply nonexisten­t.

The woman at the center of all the excitement is Garance (played by Arletty), and we meet her up to her neck in a tub of water, posing as the Naked Truth in a Boulevard du Crime sideshow. Beautiful, enigmatic, capricious and unashamed, Garance is the fulcrum around which the plot turns. No less than four men, many based on real-life characters, come to consider her the exquisite woman of their dreams.

There is the chilling Lacenaire (Marcel Herrand), a cold-eyed and confident criminal/philosophe­r, and the equally self-centered, ramrod-straight Count de Montray (Louis Salou), one of the richest men in France. From the theater comes Frédérick Lemaître (Pierre Brasseur), a practiced seducer and the preeminent actor of his day, and, most memorably of all, Baptiste Debureau, the man who revolution­ized the art of pantomime.

Jean-Louis Barrault’s legendary performanc­e as the lovelorn Baptiste presents an ultimate romantic dreamer, intoxicate­d by Garance but passionate­ly loved in turn by the heartbreak­ingly devoted Nathalie (María Casares).

Though the artfully intertwine­d relationsh­ips of this group are the emotional center of “Children of Paradise,” the interplay among many of the supporting characters is just as vividly rendered.

The malevolent rag picker and fence Jéricho (Pierre Renoir), the softhearte­d hood Avril (Fabien Loris), the coquettish landlady Madame Hermine (Jeanne Marken), Pierre Palau’s tirelessly apoplectic theater director — these characters are indispensa­ble in the creation of this unparallel­ed romantic tapestry.

Making “Children of Paradise’s” success even more impressive is the fact that it was shot, first in Nice and then in Paris, during the harsh German occupation of France. Key creators like art director Alexandre Trauner and composer Joseph Kosma worked in secret because they were Jewish and in hiding. As the end of filming and the end of the war neared, Carné maneuvered to have the premiere take place in a liberated Paris, which, on March 9, 1945, it did.

With this new print available for big screen viewing, “Children of Paradise” is not to be missed.

 ?? Criterion ?? MARÍA CASARES’ Nathalie is heartbreak­ingly devoted in “Children of Paradise,” a 1945 French romantic drama that is being screened in Los Angeles.
REVIEW
Criterion MARÍA CASARES’ Nathalie is heartbreak­ingly devoted in “Children of Paradise,” a 1945 French romantic drama that is being screened in Los Angeles. REVIEW

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