Les Enfants du Paradis (PG)

Timeless classic of French cinema, available on Blu-ray and DVD from Monday 17th September.

Les Enfants du Paradis (PG) (This review on FilmJuice.com)

Voted ‘The best French film ever made’ by the French Film Academy, this stunningly restored edition of Les Enfants du Paradis (1945) is a sumptuous cinematic treat.  Garance, a courtesan and actress iconically played by Arletty, one of the great beauties of the twentieth century, is pursued by four very different yet equally amorous gents.

Principal among them and the only one for whom Garance has any reciprocal feeling, is the unappreciated but brilliant mime-artist Baptiste.  At their first meeting, the mime uses his performance skills to demonstrate Garance’s innocence when she is falsely accused of pickpocketing.  Their paths diverge however when Baptiste hesitates in wooing her, and they each settle for loveless relationships whilst longing that their paths might cross again.

Jean-Louis Barrault plays Baptiste, a character modelled on real life nineteenth century mime-artist Jean-Gaspard Deburau, whom Barrault had been fascinated by ever since hearing how he had beaten a street-boy to death for taunting him in front of his family.  The other male characters are largely also based on real people, such as intellectual criminal Pierre-François Lacenaire, who stakes his own claim to Garance’s heart.  The romance is a catalyst allowing these disparate characters to be explored in one story.

Director Marcel Carné is known for his affinity with the working classes, and though Les Enfants du Paradis is about the theatre, it is also about the paying masses on who’s dreams and fantasies actors and writers live.  The cheap-ticket holding common folk are even affectionately referred to as ‘the gods’, as their laughs and gasps at whatever drama unfolds on stage is acknowledged as the theatre’s true lifeblood.  The balconies where these ‘gods’ are seated were referred to colloquially as ‘paradis’, hence the actors are their dependent offspring.

The Oscar nominated script by Jacques Prévert is a soul-searching, despairing treasure-trove of wit and humour, with dazzling dialogue full of memory-branding lines.  The soft, abstract-shadow filled cinematography is an interesting contrast to the razor-sharp imagery that is in fashion today, and Maurice Thiriet’s fabulously restored score is a frenzy of orchestral emotion.

Many will likely be daunted at the prospect of an old black and white French film that runs over three hours and takes place largely in the confines of a theatre setting, but anyone who gives it a half a chance is sure to have their hearts won over.  It is unashamedly melodramatic but uproariously entertaining, not to mention technically dazzling and even something of a miracle, given that it was shot during the years of France’s Nazi occupation.

The anguish filled finale is every bit as much a sledgehammer to the heart as those of better known dark classics like The Third Man and Brazil.  At one point a character muses “Audiences want something new... novelty, what does that mean?”  Les Enfants du Paradis could be that something for present day audiences, a rediscovered relic of cinema from another time and place.

Blu-ray & DVD extras: Theatre, Love and War: Making Les Enfants du Paradis, Once Upon a Time... Les Enfants du Paradis, The Restoration, The Restoration - Before and After, Trailer

The Monk (15)

Out in UK cinemas tomorrow is French horror/drama The Monk (originally 'Le Moine').

The Monk (15) (This review on FilmJuice.com)

The Monk is the latest big screen adaptation of the classic gothic novel by Matthew Lewis. After being abandoned as a baby on the steps of a monastery in the 17th century, Ambrosio (Vincent Cassel) is raised as a monk and soon becomes renowned for his godly sermons and piety. As with all serious men of God, the Devil makes a beeline for him, relentlessly searching for a weakness.

Because Ambrosio was never exposed to the outside world, he has no experience of the perils and pleasures that those in his congregation must daily face and feel. This sets him up for a monstrous onslaught of temptations, thanks to the all too real influence of the Prince of Darkness himself. His troubles begin as a strange new face enters his life, in the form of Valerio, a soul who has suffered much and wants to withdraw from the world to be with God.

Cassel bottles up his usual angry energy, giving a brooding performance as the distant but intense Ambrosio. The supporting actors aren’t as strong, especially compared with this typically gripping turn by Cassel, but their efforts are plenty adequate to not be distracting.

Marking director Dominik Moll’s most ambitious project to date, The Monk offers a dark and oppressive vision of 17th century France. Fans of the book might be sorry to see that some of the more visceral thrills found in its pages have been replaced by a more subtle style of horror, one that creeps under the skin and leaves you feeling uneasy. Moll brings out the elements of the subject matter that provoke thoughts of real life horrors, things impossible to portray on screen; unseen terrors which we all must face. That isn’t to say that the film doesn’t provide thrills for the horror movie fan, it’s just that the focus is more on the impact that Ambrosio’s testing has on his character.

Alberto Iglesias scores The Monk with a bombastic and almost over the top soundtrack, full of ominous choral cues and Church-like echoes amping the eeriness. Patrick Blossier’s cinematography makes striking use of contrast, giving most of the film a dim and slightly sepia look, only turning the colour and brightness to eleven for a series of dream sequences. These could have done with a more creative effort from Moll as one would think that Ambrosio’s subconscious would be the perfect canvas on which to further highlight how far removed his impression of reality is from that of others.

The Monk is a haunting portrait of a tragically flawed character; a well-intentioned man who finds out the hard way that his faith wasn’t so strong after all. The film never pretends that evil isn’t a genuine power, a refreshing concept these days and one that disturbs with great precision. Go into this expecting to have your mind toyed with, as well as your emotions.

La Grande Illusion (U)

This influential French classic is out on DVD and Blu-ray next week, and currently on re-release in cinemas.

La Grande Illusion (U) (This review on FilmJuice.com)

La Grande Illusion, the undisputed masterpiece by pioneering French filmmaker Jean Renoir, looks better now than it ever has thanks to a breathtaking restoration. Famously an inspiration to future directing giants including Orson Welles and Martin Scorsese, in 75 years La Grande Illusion has lost none of its ability to move and surprise.

Based on true accounts of the First World War, including Renoir’s personal recollections, the story sees Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay), Lieutenant Marechal (Jean Gabin) and Jewish banker Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio) captured behind enemy lines by the aristocratic Captain von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim). They are put in a POW camp, and after an escape attempt are remanded at a maximum security fortress, under Rauffenstein’s command.

The colourful and contrasting characters that populate the story help make every scene gripping and entertaining. The great von Stroheim’s authoritative presence is as palpable as ever, and Fresnay brings an air of pure courage to the memorable Boeldieu. Little Early Peters who played the adorable Lotte towards the end of the film, sadly never saw the finished product, having died tragically from flu only weeks before the premiere.

Upon release in 1937 the film was considered a controversial and subversive indictment of war, prompting Joseph Goebbels to refer to Renoir as ‘Cinematic Public Enemy Number One’. Although eventually banned in Italy, La Grande Illusion was so well received at the Venice Film Festival that a new award called the Grand Jury Prize was devised and bestowed upon it, to avoid giving it the Mussolini Prize!

What sets the film apart from most war films is the way in which soldiers from both sides are presented with equal sympathy. French and Germans alike are portrayed as dutiful patriots, all too aware of the absurdity and human cost of the great conflict in which they find themselves. The gentlemanly friendship between the well-mannered but fearless Boeldieu and the weary Rauffenstein, painfully highlights the tragedy of would-be comrades cruelly pitted against each other by a seemingly endless war.

From his brilliantly choreographed camerawork to his intricate building of tension and character, Renoir’s cinematic influence has echoed throughout the 20th Century. When even the genius behind Citizen Kane calls a film the greatest ever made, there’s no taking it lightly! To this day La Grande Illusion is an innovative and essential classic, making the opportunity to revisit or discover it for the first time, unmissable.

Blu-ray extras: La Petite Marchande d’Allumettes from Jean Renoir (short film), Trailers: 1937 & 1958 (introduced by Jean Renoir), Francoise Giroud remembers shooting the film, Introduction by Ginette Vincendeau, Success and controversy, John Truby talks about La Grande Illusion, Restoring La Grande Illusion, The story of the original negative.