Les enfants du paradis [The Children of Paradise] (1945)

(Criterion Streaming, May 2020) I’m certainly aware of Les Enfants du paradis’s reputation as one of the finest French movies ever made, and I can almost see why it would earn such acclaim. But at a very lengthy three hours and ten minutes, it’s an ordeal more than a simple viewing. There’s a lot to like in the film’s recreation of the 1830s Parisian showbiz scene, what with its actors, producers, mimes and others interacting around a theatre dedicated to popular entertainment. But it takes a lot of patience (patience that I don’t have these days) to make it through the repetitive romantic entanglement of the plot (what with our heroine being pursued by no less than four ill-suited suitors.), the free-floating digressions and the very stylized presentation. The film does have a thick atmosphere, but it’s an atmosphere in which we’re stuck, and the fact that it’s being told everything without economy doesn’t help. I did start liking Les enfants du paradis better as it went on, although by the ending I was once again back to exasperation.