Editor Reviews:

Description:
One of the most-requested titles since home video first appeared" (Billboard), this popular, extraordinary French classic is now available on video--unabridged and fully restored to its original brilliance. Set in the theater district of early 19th-century Paris, Children of Paradise re-creates a glittering world of backstage life. Garance, a stunning and elusive courtesan, is loved by four men--the mime Debureau, the ambitious actor Lemaitre, the nihilistic villain Lacenaire, and the snobbish aristocrat Monteray. Prevert's screenplay has been called "the finest work...ever composed for the screen" (The Washington Post). Filmed during the Nazi Occupation, this sweeping romantic epic belongs triumphantly among the milestones of cinema. Children of Paradise

Amazon.com:
A tragic French epic considered a classic romantic film, Children of Paradise takes as its setting a theater troupe in Paris during the 19th century, but was actually filmed during the last years of World War II. In the troupe, a mime (Jean-Louis Barrault) falls in love with an actress in the company, but must vie for her affections with others, including a thief, an actor, and an influential count. When the actress is accused of theft, the mime exonerates her with a bravura performance for the prefect. Eventually, though, the actress must flee Paris under protection of the count after being mixed up in a crime with the thief, leaving the smitten mime heartbroken. In the intervening years, both become involved with others, the actress with the count and the mime with the daughter of the theater owner, eventually having a child. Both couples are unhappy, and although the mime rises above the poverty-stricken neighborhood where he has honed his trade and becomes wildly successful, he still pines away for the love of his life. Eventually the two lovers are meant to meet again, but their storybook ending may yet elude them. The film boasts a picaresque squalor drawn from the time in which it was set, highlighting the tenacious romance at its core. Children of Paradise has a melancholy feeling both authentic and immediate, a romance with moments of pure magic. --Robert Lane

Rating : - Children of Paradise
I have read so many conflicting things about "Children of Paradise," including that it is supposedly the greatest French film of all time. When I first watched it, I admit to being disappointed. It seemed a terribly dated piece of entertainment that had a couple of interesting performances and an interesting back story as to its filming. Bare bones, it is a story of a pantomime, Baptiste, who falls in love with Garance, an elegant woman, down on her luck at times, who seems to be every man's friend.

Being a modern and decidedly casual film goer - and certainly no critic, as my reviews would readily attest, I became impatient with what I felt were cartoonish characters and ridiculous theatrical scenes in front of a unbelievably enthusiastic audience. (Did they really find Baptiste's pantomime so sublime and swoon-worthy? I found it interesting for all of two, maybe five, seconds.)

However, I watched it a second time and found myself more wrapped up in the lives of the characters, the spectacle of the Funambules Theatre and its lively audiences, both the richly detailed interior and exterior sets, the exquisite photography during a duel scene.

For me, Arletty improves with a second viewing. I initially couldn't understand how all these men went gaga over this woman who in her forties didn't seem to look as good as a Deneuve in her fifties. There was one scene in which she was in a state of undress, her stooped, rounded shoulders almost grandmotherly, and you wonder how a man in his twenties might realistically be so infatuated with her as to risk everything. Watching her performance again, her Garance has a worldliness and a wisdom that perhaps one might find alluring.

Pierre Brasseur as actor - and sometimes soused buffoon - Frédérick LeMaître livens up every scene he is in, and María Casarès adds a touch of poignancy to her role as Baptiste's long-suffering wife.

What didn't improve for me is the character of Baptiste, played by Jean-Louis Barrault. I found his character to be so insipid and so immature that I couldn't understand why Garance would fall in love with him. He is a great pantomime, to be sure, but as a husband, a father, and a lover, he is feckless. Sure, he is supposed to be a little naïve in the beginning, but he does nothing to redeem himself in the end, making Garance's continued affection puzzling, to say the least, considering that she seems indeed so worldly and wise.

Perhaps a third viewing will make me reconsider.