Les enfants du paradis / Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, 1945)
A big, bold film, which - given the time and place iin which it was made -necessarily has a bit of a sour taste. I'm sure one could relate it to its historical context, but I didn't see it... in fact it seems to generally avoid political context altogether, since it's two parts are set on either side of the July Revolution (and thus take place under two different regimes), but you would never know that from watching it.
There is a lot going on in this film, but mostly I'd boil it down to a romance (or four) and a meta narrative about the changes occuring in 19th century Paris in theater. The central romance, between Garance and Baptiste (and all the other ones, but those two connect them all and are the closest this film has to leads), doesn't really work for me. I have issues with both those characters in general, especially Baptiste. He's a typical tragic romantic (in all senses of the word) figure, and Garrault plays him so straight that he's just a pretty boring guy in a sea of infinitely more enjoyable/interesting characters... and his pantomime sucks. I recognize that this is not very constructive, but it's just mystifying to me that these could be considered good in any way... he''s like a second-rate, anachronistic Chaplin imitator and we're supposed to see him as some kind of visionary genius ? Clearly we are, because Carné spends a lot of time on those plays, and it's very much wasted as far as I'm concerned.
As for Garance... it kills me to say this, but I don't think Arletty is right for the role. There is the - admittedly highly subjective - issue of Arletty not being beautiful in the kind of way that would make men react to her the way they do here. She looks better in the second part actually, but everyone's already been in love with her for a decade at this point. Even if we go past that, Arletty's whole charm relies on her gouaille, a way of speaking that's very specific to early 20th century Paris and sounds completely out of place here : not just because it's the wrong era, but especially because it's the wrong class. It'd be like having Laurence Olivier playing a fisherman (except the other way around) : it just doesn't fit. I appreciate that this is probably not an issue for non-French speakers, but it's a pretty big one for me. She's obviously aware of it and tones it down significantly, but it's still there... and it's a shame too, because I think her performance is otherwise quite good, but I could never get past that basic barrier.
What I liked a lot more was the theater stuff. This is, I'm guessing, the whole reason the film takes place when it does : right around the time of the battle of Hernani, which is not a swords-and-canons kind of battle. Hernani was one of Hugo's first plays, and it caused a gigantic controversy at the time because it ignored classical versification and generally embraced romanticism, in opposition with the classicism that was dominant at the time (ie Greek-style tragedies). The conflict runs through this film as an undercurrent, especially through Frédérick Lemaître, played by a wonderfully hammy Pierre Brasseur, who's having a lot of fun, oozes charisma and really should have been the main character. He's a bit in-between, with his love of language (the main issue people had with Hernani was the language being too "trivial") and relative disdain for Baptiste, but Shakespeare was also seen as quite the populist, which was obviously unacceptable. This is where Prévert's influence is felt in the film (well, that and the witty dialogue), with both Baptiste and Frédrick set up as Hugo-esque heroes of popular art against the aristocratic and hypocritical (with his duels being just another manner of murder) Lacenaire.
This review is way too long (appropriate for a 3-hour film I suppose), especially since I'm going to land on this being underwhelming overall, with the most interesting/enjoyable part being buried by romances centered on character I had trouble with., but I'll end with an appreciation for Maria Casares as Baptiste's long-suffering wife, who reminded me of Olivia de Havilland in Gone With the Wind : a saintly, beautiful side character who ends up being the emotional heart of it all.
6/10
Possible nominations :
Supporting Actor - Pierre Brasseur
Supporting Actress - Maria Casares
Original Screenplay
Art Direction