VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

jadavix "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.

kurosawakira That "Les enfants du paradis" (1945) exists at all is remarkable for two reasons, basically a consequence of one thing, the war. Firstly, that it exists as a film that we can still watch and enjoy, and that it was made in the first place, let alone survive, is miraculous. But secondly, and just as importantly, it's remarkable that it exists as it is, vivacious, energetic, fun, interested in the art of filmmaking. In this respect it reminds me of Vigo, who made "L'Atalante" (1934) knowing he'd die sooner rather than later. The tragedy is tragic, the comedy is comic – everything works and it's impossible to think how cohesive the film is, considering it was made over several years. In other words, how amazing to have a film made in the bleakest of circumstances that still radiates with so much life. After the curtain literally opens the viewer is treated to three hours of the most amazing drama, comedy and visual filmmaking, as well as clever storytelling. We are thrown in the middle of a street, where everyone is giving a performance: Lemaître flirts, Lacaneire gives a monologue (underlined by Garance, who says listening to him is like watching a play), and Baptiste, while acting, witnesses a crime and gives a performance of it in mime. The blind man isn't really blind but merely acting, and later on the love Baptiste and Lemaître have for Garance becomes a play not only once but twice, the latter instance written by some rather ordinary bloke called William-something.It's ironic that I have previously tried to watch the film at least twice, being unable to continue beyond the first twenty minutes (the reasons for this might not be numerous but too domestic to bother you with). But having now watched the film in its entirety, its flow and rhythm makes the time fly. In this respect it's very much like other "longer" epics ("Shichinin no samurai", "Lawrence of Arabia") that are somehow condensed into a speck of time, or should we say timelessness. I can't wait to see it again, which leads to the one teeny-weeny problem we fans have, because —Shamefully the film has been treated with a terrible high definition transfer of the film, and luckily this has been well-documented. Pathé apparently created a 4K scan of the original nitrate negative in 2011 (the work performed at L'Imagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy) and then reconstructed and restored in Paris by Eclair Laboratories. But what we have on the Blu-ray is far from wonderful, and only makes one wonder what the 4K scan might have looked like before the terrible digital noise reduction that's only matched by other similar disasters done in DNR to great films ("Le samouraï" and "Madame De..." come to mind, the former also a Pathé resto). The Criterion Collection disk in Region A suffers from the exact same problems as the Second Sight in Region B. I hope we won't have to wait for a long time to get an edition of this film that it greatly deserves.

blanche-2 "L'enfants du paradis" is a remarkable film made in Nazi-occupied France, actually done in pieces over several years. Even if it had not been made under such difficult circumstances, it will still stand as a magnificent masterpiece. With a script by the poet Jacques Prevert and direction by Marcel Carne, it stars Arletty and Jean-Louis Barrault as its main characters, Garance and Baptiste Dubureau.The story takes place on the Boulevard de Crime in 1840s France, a street teeming with people and theater of all kinds. A mime, Baptiste (Barrault) becomes obsessed with a street woman, Garance (Arletty), a mysterious creature who becomes the artistic muse of two men, Baptiste and Frederick LeMaitre (Pierre Brasseur). Shyness keeps Baptiste from becoming Garance's lover, and he loses her to LeMaitre and others. Meanwhile, Nathalie (Casares) loves Baptiste and isn't afraid to say so. Garance finally realizes that she is as much in love with Baptiste as he is with her, but now they are both ensconced in other lives. What will they do? "Les enfants du paradis" is a dark film, going from intimate two-person scenes to massive crowd scenes on the boulevard, taking us into the dark alleys of Paris and the after-hours crowd in bars to the theater rabble-rousers, and demonstrating the power of mime in performance. This is a world of hungry actors, crooks, hustlers, casual sex, and great art.Only in France would a woman in her mid-forties be cast as a femme fatale - imagine Hollywood doing that in 1945. The Garbo-ish Arletty manages to be earthy and mysterious as Garance. The actress was not invited to the premiere of this film due to her fall from grace - she had a German officer as a lover during the war. In fact, she was arrested and spent time in a concentration camp, finally being put under house arrest. She did return triumphantly to film and worked until 1967, when blindness from an accident forced her to retire. She died in 1992 at the age of 94.The thin, sensitive looking Jean-Louis Barrault gives an exquisite performance as Baptiste, a role based on the real-life mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau, who invented the character of Pierrot. So successful was Barrault's pantomime work that it revived interest in the art form in France and made it possible for Marcel Marceau to become hugely popular. Barrault's performance is still studied in mime schools today. A passionate man, Barrault actually hid members of the resistance on the set of "Les enfants du paradis." This film is long, it's talky, but it is fascinating and detailed in every aspect. A no-miss for both film and theater lovers.

lastliberal It is said to be the greatest French film ever made. That is was made in occupied France is amazing. That it was made with Jews being sought by Nazis, with resistance fighters and Nazi-collaborators side-by-side, and with starving stage hand that stole food before it was filmed, is also fascinating. That four of the main characters in the film are historically real adds to the charm.The film is long and contains many scenes, but they are unified as a whole to tell a comic tragedy of 19th Century Paris.We see a beautiful Garboesque woman, Arletty, who glides across the stage. We are mesmerized by Jean-Louis Barrault playing the mime Baptiste Debureau, who is seeking happiness, but loses out to a thief (Marcel Herrand), an actor (Pierre Brasseur), and an aristocrat (Louis Salou), who also seek her hand.The street scene where the mime saves Garance (Arletty) from a charge of theft is priceless - true artistry! When Lemaître (Brasseur) rewrote a play in progress, it was incomparable.The tragedy orchestrated by Lacenaire (Herrand), and the resulting infidelity and murder, was the act of a true lover.Director Marcel Carné and writer, ne poet, Jacques Prévert, give us a film that is dazzling and captivating. It is a mystery to me why it is not one of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. It truly is.Yes, it is over three hours, but the time is fleeting.