Fresh
To luxuriate in the film's 3-hour, 10-minute length is to experience this masterpiece as it hasn't been experienced since the day it opened.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Children of Paradise
AT LAST! The Celebrated French Film.
1945 · 3h 10m · Not Rated
Drama, Romance
Directed by
Marcel Carné
Overview
In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.
Director and cast
- Marcel Carné Director
- Arletty as Claire Reine, dite Garance
- Jean-Louis Barrault as Baptiste Debureau
- Pierre Brasseur as Frédérick Lemaître
- Marcel Herrand as Pierre-François Lacenaire
- María Casares as Nathalie
- Louis Salou as Édouard comte de Montray
- Pierre Renoir as Jericho
- Jane Marken as Mme Hermine
- Gaston Modot as Fil de Soie
- Fabien Loris as Avril
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
98%
Tomatometer
Fresh
Shot in 1943 during World War II, Children of Paradise overcame so many seemingly impossible obstacles that today the film seems enchanted.
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
Fresh
If you give this movie time to work on you, the elements that seem overly artificial or impossibly distant from our own time fade into insignificance, and you're left with a complicated and wonderful romantic drama that's full of surprises.
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
Fresh
Before French cinema reinvented itself with jump cuts and cool bobs, Marcel Carne's 19th-century backstage drama was the epitome of good taste: a sumptuous spread of genteel sparring and epic heartache.
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
Fresh
Marcel Carne's towering intimate epic of early 19th-century love and the lives of performers, often heralded as the greatest French film of all time.
Melissa Anderson, Village Voice
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