Mimes and circus clowns are sad personae who are loved by their audiences. Marcel Carné’s The Children of Paradise, if you have had the patience to view it for 3 hours and 10 minutes, will most likely endear you to its characters and remain a film of which you will have fond memories for the rest of your life. Chances are that you will consider it as one of the finest French films ever made, better than any that Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, or Malle ever made.
The title itself could mislead a casual viewer—the film is
not about children, it is not about paradise or anything religious. The word “paradise”
in the title refers to the poorer sections of society who occupied the top tier
balconies (where the tickets cost the least). This garrulous section of the
audience could make or unmake stage actors in the 1820s, 1830s, or 1840s France.
The critical “children” in the film are adult theatre actors, whose careers are
entwined somewhat with the disposition of those who occupy the “paradise.” However, the film’s depth can be captured
when someone representing the poorer sections of society, among the hoi poloi sitting/standing in the
“paradise” ironically screams “Quiet! I
can’t hear the mime,” when the loud and enthusiastic audience is trying to
appreciate the wordless physical movements of pantomime. That is an example of
the depth and brilliance of the script/film.
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| Garance (Arletty) is suspected of pickpocketing in the Boulevard of Crime |
There are good reasons why one would love this black and
white masterpiece. At the lowest common dominator, it is another film about
love between the opposite sexes. It is also a multi-layered tragedy. It is a
film about the performing arts. But what makes it so different from other films
is not the subject of the film but the multifarious home truths (the class
conflicts, the duels, or a rag picker named Jericho—wailing about doom to the
Parisians just as Jeremiah of the Old Testament cried about the walls of
Jericho, a subtle parallelism which would only make sense when one realizes the
film was made when France was occupied by Nazi invaders) this cinematic work
offers an observant viewer in contrast to most other works of cinema.
Unlike most other films, the entire film The Children of Paradise is not about larger-than-life
heroes and heroines—it is on the contrary about misfits, the dregs of society,
the losers, the criminals, the murderers, the beggars, the homosexuals--insinuated
by two characters in the film, the criminal Larcenaire and Avril--and the
cheats. The tale might well be considered as fiction, but the characters were apparently
built on real colourful personalities in France, who lived there less than a
century before the film was made. The entire idea of the film was a creation
and joint collaboration of three brilliant minds—director Marcel Carné, scriptwriter Jacques Prévert, and actor and mime Jean-Louis
Barrault (who plays the mime, Baptiste, in the film). The film has proved to be
the zenith of individual achievement of all three gifted gentlemen and of the
lead actress in the movie, Arletty, in their respective areas of expertise.
Even the two comparably better characters Garance and Baptiste, may be lovers but have
their own flaws. Both prove to be losers and misfits in their own comparatively
honest lives amongst the more despicable low life brought to our attention in
the film.
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| Baptiste (Barrault) courts Garance (Arletty) |
The tale is simple—an attractive, street-smart, enigmatic
lady Garance (played by the delightful and magnetic Arletty) is wooed by four
gentlemen. One is an erratically-employed theatre actor named Frédérick with an
oversized ego and ambition, and who can charm ladies with sweet talk, but is
floored by the poise of Garance. The second gentleman is Baptiste, an unmarried
(at least “unmarried” for most part of the tale) mime actor with an honest and
a simple predisposition. The third gentleman is the criminal Lacenaire, who is
well educated and thus can write letter for the illiterate common folk, a
profession that is a mere front for his more sinister criminal activities. These
three who woo Garance have names linked to the real individuals whom the French
viewers could apparently recall even a century later. The fourth gentleman is an aristocrat Édouard comte
de Montray, a character again built around a real person Charles de Morny (Duke
of Morny) who made a fortune in sugar beet industry and improved his social
standing by marrying a Russian princess. In the movie, de Montray does win Garance’s
approval due to circumstances and and the power of his wealth rather than true
love amongst the four suitors. Édouard’s beautiful new spouse, Garance, improves
his social standing even further.
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| Baptiste (Barrault): Is he smiling or is he sad? |
While the tale appears simple, the film is not. The
elliptical tale is split into two parts. The first is called Boulevard of Crime and the second The Man in White. The two parts are
separated by a 6-year gap in the narrative. The fourth lover of Garance, comte de
Montray, who has a minor role in the first part, gets a prominent role in the
second. The second part’s title refers to Baptiste, one of the four lovers of
Garance, the mime, who wears white costumes and paints his face white while
performing, as clowns often do.
The first part, Boulevard
of Crime, does deal with criminals as the title suggests. Lacenaire (Marcel
Herrand), one of the four lovers of Garance, is a criminal, who passes off as a
letter writer. The character of the Lacenaire was developed by director Carné and scriptwriter Prévert based on the life
and times of a real criminal, who was guillotined in France earlier. Jericho, a rag picker, one of the first faces
you see in the film, is a common thief with no morals. Blind beggars collecting
alms on the street prove to be petty criminals who can see quite well when indoors.
Even Garance, a relatively honest character frustrates men who pay to see a nude
beauty, only to see her nude body from neck upwards, sitting in a barrel of
water. The film subtly suggests the bisexuality of Baptiste and the
homosexuality of Lacenaire but nothing is explicit in sexual terms. This was
probably because of the constant scrutiny of the Nazis on what the filmmakers
were up to and what they could be allowed to do. As the original Baptiste, the famous
mime/actor Jean-Gaspard Deburau, who was also
popularly called Baptiste, was appreciated by the Germans, any film with a
character named and resembling the original mime had no problem getting the
approval of the occupying army. But any
film exceeding 90 minutes could not get their approval. Hence, the filmmakers
made it in two parts. One can possibly blame the Nazis today for the length of
the film but for some every bit of the film is a delight, especially if you are
aware of the history of the making of the film.
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| Barrault as Baptiste, the Man in White, the toast of those who occupy the Paradise |
Unlike the first part, the second, The Man in White, involves duels and killings. The dramatic words
of Lacenaire “I will spill torrents of
blood to give you rivers of diamond,” as he woos Garance in Part I of the
film becomes chillingly real in Part II. Part II focuses more on the attraction and
love between Garance and Baptiste. While in Part I, Baptiste was struggling for
recognition from his audiences, in Part II the mime is the toast of theatre-goers.
Similarly, Frédérick Lemaître (based on a real actor called Lemaître) who was an unemployed actor in
the early part of Part I evolves into a well-established and a spendthrift actor
in Part II.
There are many aspects of filming that one admires in The Children of Paradise. However, the
most prominent one relates to the clever and loaded dialogues. To Lacenaire’s
dramatic words “I will spill torrents of
blood to give you rivers of diamond,” Garance coolly replies “I would settle for less.” Later when Édouard comte de Montray woos her
with the words “You are much to lovely to
be truly loved,” Garance’s loaded riposte is “Not only are you rich, but you want to be loved as if you are poor.” That is Prévert
at his best.
One loves the film as one watches it but that pleasure is
enhanced when you know the conditions under which the film was made. The filming
of this classic can be admired on various counts. The opening shot with crowds (extras)
thronging the “Boulevard of Crime” involved a set that gives the viewer an
illusion of depth when special effects had not come into vogue in cinema. Then
that elaborate set was destroyed halfway by an accidental fire and had to be
rebuilt.
The unusual conditions included the fact that resistance
fighters, pro-Nazis, and Jews contributed to the filmmaking under the watchful
eyes of the Nazis. Materials required for the filming were in short supply. Lacenaire’s
negative character could only be included in the film as the film as the film
was sold as one revolving around Baptiste, since the Nazis were admirers of Deburau,
the original real Baptiste. If that was not all, during the filming the actor
who originally played Jericho was exposed as a Nazi-collaborator and executed.
Another actor replaced him and the scenes were reshot. Ironically, the enigmatic
Arletty who played Garance was herself imprisoned after the filming concluded for
having a relationship with a Nazi officer and thus could not attend the
premiere of the film.
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| Garance (Arletty) frustrating men in the 'Boulevard of Crime' |
While it is true that the film is a great testament for the
individual capabilities of Carné,
Prévert, and Barrault, one
cannot forget The Children of Paradise today mainly because of the charm exuded by
Arletty on screen, an actress who was once a model for Ingres, the famous neoclassical
painter.
Ingres chose well.
P.S. The Children of Paradise is one of the author’s top 100 films.
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