Les Enfants du Paradis, released as Children of Paradise in North America, is a 1945 French film directed by Marcel Carné. It was made during the German occupation of France during World War II. Set among the Parisian theatre scene of the 1820s and 30s, it tells the story of a beautiful courtesan, Garance, and the four men who love her in their own ways: a mime artist, an actor, a criminal and an aristocrat.
Absolute classic of French cinema was filmed for 18 months full German occupation with the participation of a first-rate cast integrating its leading quartet Arletty (which was enshrined in the role of Garance), Maria Casares (Nathalie), Pierre Brasseur (as actor Frédérick Lemaître) and Jean Louis Barrault (like Pierrot Jean-Gaspard Deburau), it was in fact Barrault who suggested Carné and Prévert history Deburau Jean-Gaspard, who had been the greatest nineteenth-century French mime .3
Described by its director as "Tribute to the theater", mixing business and poetically real people with the world of tables, the binomial Carne-Prevert aims to reveal the human condition. The film has been seen as a risky act of sabotage against the occupation. In the film, the mob refuge in the theater hopes to occupy the less expensive tiers of paradise (upper balcony), they are "The kids (or creature) Paradise" and the actors play to them trying to win approval.
The action takes place in 1828 on the Boulevard of Crime (nickname of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris for the number of crimes that took place in the plays of the many theaters of the street) and is inspired by real people, there Happen Garance unrequited love and mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau loved by Garance Nathalie while the love bandit Lacenaire, the actor Frederik Count Montrey.
It premiered in 1946 in the United States and Jacques Prévert was nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay. That same year the film won a special mention at the Venice Film Festival.
Its original duration is 3 hours and 25 minutes divided into two parts or seasons: Le Boulevard du crime and L'Homme blanc.
It was filmed in black and white in the Pathé and Victorine studios in Nice from 1943 to 1944.
Clasificación [ CM DVD 00561] Disponible en DVD, 4 Piso BJB)