Wow! Such a good movie.

Beautiful, moving film.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

"Children of Paradise" would be an extraordinary achievement, even if it didn't break records in production. For one thing, it came out of nazi occupied France; the film saw fascist sympathisers working alongside French resistance operatives on screen. However, we don't require this historical footnote to understand the French film's legacy.It was the most expensive movie made in France up to that point, and one can really see the money up there on screen. The movie appears to have been shot on enormous sets. The effect of this is twofold; not only do we envision ourselves as standing among the characters in 1820s Paris, the design is ornate enough to produce an element of dreamlike whimsy, too.This is an extraordinary filmic achievement, and "Les enfants du paradis" perhaps offers an experience like no other. How they could create a living, breathing world, and yet still not stop you from appreciating the staging of it; how they could allow you to get lost in the "Boulevard of Crime", and then recognize their characters amongst the teeming masses.You may wonder, then, why I didn't give "Les enfants du paradis" a higher rating. The answer is, I'm afraid, that my modern-day attention span was just too taxed by the film; my attention seriously waned during the second half. I was impressed by the way the actors did not vanish amongst the labyrinthine sets; rather they seem perfectly at home there. I was less impressed by my general lack of interest in the story.

Marcel Carne definitely a lot of philosophizing, But the philosophy of life in the poetic realism of the "fatalistic" description of characters is inevitable. CHILDREN OF PARADISE is a very ambitious movie about the life masquerade. The world of theater is full of mysterious truths, secrets, intrigue and illusion.The story of the passions in the Parisian theaters. Theaters are alive no matter what. The protagonists are fatherless and poor, in other words they are ideal. To favor the beautiful courtesan fight four men. Each in their own way. Mime, actor, villain or aristocrats. The lady was long ago chose only what any of them do not know.Philosophy drama is never completely clear. Wandering through the net, woven of love, hate and jealousy is hard to unravel. Dialogues are elegant and poetic. The reasons are futile. Destiny is already predetermined.Jean-Louis Barrault as Baptiste Deburau is magical and unreal in its scenes of pantomime. The character who is more fascinated by a woman, but life in general. This is the main reason for his beloved courtesan will not become part of it. Arletty as Claire "Garance" Reine in the role of an intriguing woman who skillfully hiding their own secrets, because life does not give her enough freedom so that its secrets become reality. Pierre Brasseur as Frédérick Lemaître is extravagant, conceited and selfish actor. The initiator of its environmental role sadness.This film was made between silence and speech. Where one stops the other starts. Scenery and the atmosphere in the false silence are magical. However, sometimes one must speak out. Words are vulnerable but strong. I think this movie should everyone look.

From the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die this was a distinctive title for a French film, and while watching it I remembered the most memorable scene shown in the documentary The Story of Film: an Odyssey, so there was good reason to watch it. Basically actress and woman-about-town Claire Reine, who calls herself Garance (Arletty) has numerous men falling at her feet and in love with her, including the significant ill-fated relationship with theatre mime Jean-Baptiste Debureau (Jean-Louis Barrault), and also pretentious actor Frédérick Lemaîtr (Pierre Brasseur), conniving thief Pierre François Lacenaire (Marcel Herrand) and Count Eduard of Montray (Louis Salou). Baptiste has his own dilemma as well, as actress Nathalie (María Casarès) is in love with him, it was when Garance was accused of stealing a watch that she and he met, and Count Eduard protects her when she may have been arrested for the crime of Lacenaire. Years of separation for them, the real loving couple end up in relationships with the people they do not truly love, Baptiste with Nathalie who have a baby son together and goes on to become famous for his mime acting, and Garance with the Count and wants to find her true lover again. The couple do manage to spend a night together, even after Nathalie's attempt to sabotage their meeting by sending her child to foil it, while Count Eduard is discovered murdered, he was killed by Lacenaire. In the end Baptiste is separated from his love again after disappearing in the crowd who are running to escape an attack, and Garrance is forced to leave town in a carriage, completely oblivious to the fact that the Count is dead. Also starring Pierre Renoir as Jéricho the old clothes, Etienne Decroux as Anselme Debureau and Fabien Loris as Avril – Lacenaire's assistant. The acting, particularly from Arletty as the woman caught in a web of relationships and Barrault as the actor who is brilliantly expressive and funny with his silent act, I will confess that it was hard to follow all of what was going on, but that memorable scene of the comedy mime actor describing in silence the mistaken theft of the watch is fantastic, and there are other good moments, overall it is elegant classic period drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay. Very good!

Love is made of cruel irony, but as sweet as a pearl of honey … feelings never imitate, never deviate, though the shortest way between two hearts is never straight. Love can take many disguises, always commands and never compromises. Love is the true master of our ill-fated lives, and when it perishes through jealousy survives, for the flame of hate in an indecent symmetry, is only the rotten fruit falling from love's tree ~~~~~~~~~~ Love is a theater when only hearts can talk, love is a tightrope on which only souls can walk ... when guided by their feelings' purity, or a friendly smile haunting for eternity. Born from a surprising encounter, an innocent flower or an eternal thunder, love is the ultimate soul-player, its sources are infinite and damages definite, it erases in one instant all the life's meanings, and paints the truest words with the most painful feelings. What a glorious portrait that love is, floating in the air like an innocent breeze ... but roaring like the most ferocious storm, when it takes its deepest, sincerest form ~~~~~~ There was once a pretty flower, smelling like the most hypnotic power, her name was Garance, a lady whose first glance, melted your heart or tore it apart. There was Frederick Le Maitre aka the Master Fredrick, the greatest actor who knew every trick, as an actor, he was not just the one but the only one, but as an actor, he was also both anyone and everyone. His life was a never-ending play, a game he'd got to win anyway, except for Garance, beautiful Garance, who belonged to anyone and everyone, and "when a woman belongs to no one, jealousy belongs to everyone". Now to Lacenaire, incarnation of fear, anger and frustration in his heart he nourishes, and everything he touches he inevitably tarnishes, more than anyone, the society he loathes, and he turns the words like he slits the throats, with an immaculate ruthlessness and a flawless precision, he's only distracted by one blinding vision, the only light of beauty in the ugliness of France, the one and only, the beautiful Garance. But only one word with Garance could rhyme, it was the silence, the silence of the mime. It was Baptiste who was given the rose, the true meaning of love, he finally knows, he can't get Garance off his mind, a treasure he'll never, never, ever find. But love is made of cruel irony, the most priceless treasures can be bought with money, bought when she needed one person to count … on, and she found De Montray, the Count, who rhymed Garance with the word 'Providence' through one of these cruel ironies of fate, but Garance knew the way was never straight ~~~~~~ And here begins the glorious tragedy, of the purest soul of silent comedy, and Garance, romantic, joyful and street-wise, in the French masterpiece "Children of Paradise" ~~~~~~ They belong to the lowest class of French society, they are as young as the new romantic century, for their bodies' comfort hardly matters, they sat on the highest spot of popular theaters, whose unlikely name was "Paradise", the place from which the greatest laughs rise, costing less than a worthless dime, even covering the 'noise' of the pantomime. Always sincere and never silly, these are the hearts pounding of Vox Populi, real people who don't need words so the passion can touch their sensitive chords ... that's entertainment in its pure simplicity, that's entertainment in its simple purity. Theatre is love, it's the velvet glove, on the hand of life, that can carry a knife ~~~~~~~~ One could kill you in your deepest core, love was a play with no encore, and everyday was an eternal premiere, maybe written by the villainous Lacenaire. Or life was an eternal self-parody, where you could make a star out of anybody ... or it might be a tragic pantomime, a bleeding heart for an timeless time ... or did it need all the excess, when love was simply a need to possess, a need to be, to win, to conquer, to find the eternal question's eternal answer, an answer that desperately shut its name ... love is anything and never the same, one victory for a thousand defeats, one little smile emerging from the streets. Baptiste won that smile, in the theater of reality, and relived its loss as an eternal tragedy, stage was the theater of a never ending mourning, a cruel and painfully silent feeling … and even a beautiful family, or the true love of poor Nathalie couldn't erase one simple night's remembrance, the one that rhymed with the beautiful Garance ~~~~~~ Spectacular, stellar, than life bigger and love stronger, epic, frenetic, noisy and rowdy, witty and wise … this is the inner beauty of "Children of Paradise", prodigious, glorious, sumptuous, miraculous, this is a miracle like only Cinema could have provided, an epic tale in two parts divided : "Boulevard of Crime" where the flower meets the Mime, and "The Man in White" or the finale of the fight. One of the most endearing cinematic romances, served by a colorful gallery of magnificent performances, on every level it reaches perfection, delightful experience of a poetry in motion, Garance, Frederick, Baptiste or Lacenaire, with immortal lines from Jacques Prevert, open your hearts' doors … like "Paris is small for those who share ... so great a passion as ours." It's Marcel Carne's epic of passion, call it "Gone with the Wind", the French Version, that speaks to the heart and defies the reason, in every world's part and in any season ~~~~~~ The Greatest Film ever made in France … the most universally emotional romance … the love story of Baptiste and Garance … that I salute with a respectful reverence. And now that I used up all my prose … the big curtain I can finally close ~~~~