Vaginal Realm

I watched only one film at the recently concluded 11th French Film Festival -- Les Enfants Du Paradis (The Children of Paradise) -- at the Shang Cineplex last June 18. Directed by Marcel Carné and written by Jacques Prévert, the movie stars Arletty in her career-defining role, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, Marcel Herrand, and Louis Salou.

The set and music is so rich and ambitious for a project filmed during the German occupation of France in World War II. The set's designer, Alexandre Trauner, and the Music Director Joseph Kosma, had to work in utmost secrecy during the project as they are both Jews. A real-life theater and a quarter-mile boulevard had to be constructed, and almost 1,800 extras were hired, most of which were also members of the Resistance during the war and uses acting as daycover. The film runs for a little over 3 hours, a violation of the German sanction that all films should only run for an hour an a half, thus it was cut into two installments --

Paradise in the title refers to the highest, farthest, and thus cheapest seats in the theater, the only seats the poor and working-class can afford. Set in the 1840s theater district in Paris ("Boulevard du Crime"), the story revolves a beautiful and free-spirited woman, Garance, with whom four men have fallen in love with. First is Baptiste, who aspires to be the best theater mime actor of his time (coincidentally played by Jean-Louis Barrault, who is the best mime actor of his time). He was lovestruck by Garance when she threw a flower his way when he defended her honor against a theft charge through his witty mime acting. The second time they met was at the Funambule, the mime theater where Baptiste works. Second is Frederic Lemaitre, a rather flamboyant and obnoxious actor with humble beginnings in the Funambule and shifted to spoken word theater because silence is torture to him. He was able to bed Garance when she invited him to her bed, but lost her when he tried to possess her indefinitely. Third is Lacenaire, a man criminal disguising as a gentleman and a scribe. His frustration as a playwright made him create a real-life drama by his own hands, while on the process committing crime to get him by. And the fourth is Count Edouard de Montray, an upper-class gentleman who showers Garance with all worldly possessions to grant him exclusive patronage of her. All men but Baptiste failed to capture Garance's heart, but ironically the two did not end up together for Garance's sense of love is so simple and destructive at the same time, she cannot seem to commit herself to one man once he tries to possess her.

The story is a contrast of sorts. From the "paradise" section of the theater to the exclusive box seats, the peasant Baptiste to the extravagant Count Edouard, and the beauty of love blossoming and love departing, the movie is a good rendition of love and life in fiction and in reality. The movie is dubbed as "the greatest French film ever made", and I'm not surprised.

And yeah, I actually think that Jean-Louis Barrault is gay.

Read an in-depth synopsis of the movie here.

Labels: movie reviews