Les Enfants Du Paradis Details

The most courageous and elegant act of defiance in cinema history, this beautiful tale of Parisian popular theatre in the early 19th century was shot under the very noses of the Gestapo towards the end of the Second World War. Determined to premiere the picture in a liberated France, director Marcel Carné tolerated all manner of delays, including the absence of cast members sent on missions for the Resistance. On the surface, the film is a tale of unrequited love, but it is in fact a tribute to the indomitable spirit of Free France, as personified by Garance, the legendary actress who resists all attempts to possess her. The message was tarnished slightly by postwar revelations that Arletty (who played Garance) had taken Nazi lovers.

A magnificent evocation of a place and a period, this thoroughly enjoyable epic melodrama is flawed only by its lack of human warmth and of a real theme. It remains nevertheless one of the cinema's most memorable films.