Les Enfants du paradis (1945)

Made during the Nazi occupation of France, Marcel Carne’s romantic epic of the 19th-century theatre world is a life-affirming tribute to love, Paris and the stage.

Based on a highly literate script by poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert, which draws on real-life figures of the 1820s and 1830s, Marcel Carné’s film is a lavish Dickensian drama set among the actors, criminals and aristocrats that orbit around a theatre on Paris’s so-called ‘Boulevard du Crime’.

Four men love the courtesan Garance (Arletty), most tragically the mime Baptiste Debureau (Jean-Louis Barrault), and their romantic intrigues play out in a backstage milieu lovingly recreated by set designer Alexandre Trauner. Trauner had worked with Carné on his classic series of 1930s ‘poetic realist’ dramas – including Drole de Drame (1937) and Hôtel du Nord(1938) – but as a Jew he was forced to work in secrecy on perhaps his grandest achievement. In 1995, the film was voted the greatest French film ever made by 600 industry professionals.

1945 France
Directed by
Marcel Carné
Produced by
André Paulvé
Written by
Jacques Prévert
Featuring
Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur
Running time
189 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Les Enfants du paradis

Critics

Alberto Anile
Italy
Ariel Baska
USA
Maria Bonsanti
Italy
Josephine Botting
UK
Rick Burin
UK
Dan Callahan
USA
Tom Charity
Canada/UK
Jonathan Coe
UK
Victor Courgeon
France
Mark Feeney
USA
Kim Haery
South Korea
Ivan Kozlenko
Ukraine
Amir Labaki
Brazil
Elena Lazic
UK
Eric Le Roy
France
Michael Newton
Netherlands
Eva Orbanz
Germany
Imogen Sara Smith
USA
Kenneth Turan
USA
Casper Tybjerg
Denmark
Anthony Wall
UK

Directors

Geoff Dunbar
UK
Bart Layton
UK
Gary Oldman

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