One of my all time favorites.

A Disappointing Continuation

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"Children of Paradise" would be an extraordinary achievement, even if it didn't break records in production. For one thing, it came out of nazi occupied France; the film saw fascist sympathisers working alongside French resistance operatives on screen. However, we don't require this historical footnote to understand the French film's legacy.It was the most expensive movie made in France up to that point, and one can really see the money up there on screen. The movie appears to have been shot on enormous sets. The effect of this is twofold; not only do we envision ourselves as standing among the characters in 1820s Paris, the design is ornate enough to produce an element of dreamlike whimsy, too.This is an extraordinary filmic achievement, and "Les enfants du paradis" perhaps offers an experience like no other. How they could create a living, breathing world, and yet still not stop you from appreciating the staging of it; how they could allow you to get lost in the "Boulevard of Crime", and then recognize their characters amongst the teeming masses.You may wonder, then, why I didn't give "Les enfants du paradis" a higher rating. The answer is, I'm afraid, that my modern-day attention span was just too taxed by the film; my attention seriously waned during the second half. I was impressed by the way the actors did not vanish amongst the labyrinthine sets; rather they seem perfectly at home there. I was less impressed by my general lack of interest in the story.

That "Les enfants du paradis" (1945) exists at all is remarkable for two reasons, basically a consequence of one thing, the war. Firstly, that it exists as a film that we can still watch and enjoy, and that it was made in the first place, let alone survive, is miraculous. But secondly, and just as importantly, it's remarkable that it exists as it is, vivacious, energetic, fun, interested in the art of filmmaking. In this respect it reminds me of Vigo, who made "L'Atalante" (1934) knowing he'd die sooner rather than later. The tragedy is tragic, the comedy is comic – everything works and it's impossible to think how cohesive the film is, considering it was made over several years. In other words, how amazing to have a film made in the bleakest of circumstances that still radiates with so much life. After the curtain literally opens the viewer is treated to three hours of the most amazing drama, comedy and visual filmmaking, as well as clever storytelling. We are thrown in the middle of a street, where everyone is giving a performance: Lemaître flirts, Lacaneire gives a monologue (underlined by Garance, who says listening to him is like watching a play), and Baptiste, while acting, witnesses a crime and gives a performance of it in mime. The blind man isn't really blind but merely acting, and later on the love Baptiste and Lemaître have for Garance becomes a play not only once but twice, the latter instance written by some rather ordinary bloke called William-something.It's ironic that I have previously tried to watch the film at least twice, being unable to continue beyond the first twenty minutes (the reasons for this might not be numerous but too domestic to bother you with). But having now watched the film in its entirety, its flow and rhythm makes the time fly. In this respect it's very much like other "longer" epics ("Shichinin no samurai", "Lawrence of Arabia") that are somehow condensed into a speck of time, or should we say timelessness. I can't wait to see it again, which leads to the one teeny-weeny problem we fans have, because —Shamefully the film has been treated with a terrible high definition transfer of the film, and luckily this has been well-documented. Pathé apparently created a 4K scan of the original nitrate negative in 2011 (the work performed at L'Imagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy) and then reconstructed and restored in Paris by Eclair Laboratories. But what we have on the Blu-ray is far from wonderful, and only makes one wonder what the 4K scan might have looked like before the terrible digital noise reduction that's only matched by other similar disasters done in DNR to great films ("Le samouraï" and "Madame De..." come to mind, the former also a Pathé resto). The Criterion Collection disk in Region A suffers from the exact same problems as the Second Sight in Region B. I hope we won't have to wait for a long time to get an edition of this film that it greatly deserves.

Shot during the German-occupation of France, Children Of Paradise is a film where its historical context feeds into its point and purpose. While on-screen it featured aristocrats concerned with love, on set the crew were hiding from the Nazis and concerned with their next meal. It's a surprise that their anxiety didn't transfer over onto the otherwise leisurely film. It's unusually long, especially as it's in two parts where the first ends rather anti-climatically. But its images are beautifully textured, especially in its simple but adventurous shooting. However, although the network of characters is great, I was never too invested in the protagonist or the theme. Instead, it's all about its lush bittersweet tone and that's exactly how its theme is treated. It's a good film to watch in reference to those it inspired.8/10

It's funny how the French have always kept on making makes like this throughout the years and still have a sort of monopoly on these type of movies this present day.It's a movie about one of the oldest and most eternal themes; love. It's not really an happy movie about love though and the movie is filled with characters who are all longing for their true love, while they due to the circumstances of life, are stuck with others. This theme and concept also raises a whole lot of other themes in the movie such as jealousy, envy and just blind hate.It's a really fine made movie, that also truly is beautiful looking. Once you start looking more into the movie you'll notice and appreciate more the movie its camera-work and also good quick style of editing, in which the French always have been pioneers at.It's a French period piece, so you can expect lots of god looking costumes and silly looking haircuts. It's all grand and also expensive looking, which is quite amazing actually, considering that this movie got made in Nazi-occupied France at the time. Must have also been one of the reasons why production for this movie lasted 18 months., which especially for those days was extremely long for any sort of movie.It's a movie that centers around its many characters, which means that the actors are given plenty of room to give some powerful and impressive performances. The movie does really feel like a Shakespeare play at times, also since Shakespeare's plays themselves play an actual role in the movie.The movie gets better as it more and more starts to progress. Caling this movie therefore overlong is a bit uncalled for, even though with its over 3 hours of running time it's still a long movie of course. The movie however is a two parter and I also wouldn't be surprised if these two parts also got shown separately at its initial release.9/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/