Drama · Romance
French (Les Enfants du Paradis)
1945 · Directed by Marcel Carné · 190 min
Paris, the 1820s and 1830s. A street of cheap theatres, pickpockets and fairground acts becomes the stage for a free-spirited woman and the men who love her: a shy mime, a vain actor, a poet-criminal and a wealthy aristocrat. A long, romantic film about love, performance and illusion.
Why it matters in cinema history
A defining film of French poetic realism and a symbol of French cinema's recovery at the Liberation. It reached audiences in March 1945, only months after Paris was freed.
Watch with intention
Watch it as a film about audiences: who is watching whom, and how performing changes what people feel.
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