I've seen this movie once, years ago.....

Yes, mine too, especially Baptiste's wife's monolog (de facto: Baptiste and Garance are present, but almost in a virtual fashion only.) Infinitely sad in a very human way. There,s no melodrama here: you can feel the emotion very tangibly and the terrible sadness of a mother who had complete trust in her husband but most of all, in him as the father of the little boy whom she loved very dearly and whose joy to rejoin his father for a sunday's family celebration is about to be crushed in one of these life tragedies that leave a permanent scar in one's life. Tragedies like the one about to unfold after the movie's end are commonplace, but have rarely been. depicted on the big screen with such purity and authenticity.

It's the impression of genuine characters, situations and emotions that the impeccable actors manage to deliver with rare talent and spot-on intensity (never veering into over-the-board tones or insistence, which is the plight of so many melodramas) which makes "Les enfants du paradis" such an immortal masterpiece.

I count myself quite fortunate that French is my first language, because it must be difficult to perceive how completely perfect and true to life the mother's final sentences to her husband are at the end: what never fails to move me as a father myself is how so completely perfect and blissful the happiness of bringing such joy be into a little child's life really feels like when such a long-planned, much expected family outing happens. Moments of simple albeit absolute happiness such as these, both for a parent and for child(ren), are often so rare and therefore so precious that a caring parent would'nt want to miss it for all the riches if the world. And it's what is at stake there that is so perfectly conveyed in Nathalie's lines. I saw the translation and I'm afraid something important is lost. As usual, of course, as even the best translations go, and that's why I can only wish that a viewer not fluent in the original language could feel what is meant as delivered! So much is there, and the actors are so brilliant it ought to be mentioned. Movies like this one make someone keep faith in the relevance of cinema in life.

The same has been true for me with English movies for a long time, although my mastery of English has reached a point where I think I can say that I can "feel" pretty much all the nuances of the language now when I watch a movie of the same caliber, league and type as LEDP, such as let's say Casablanca, All About Eve or To Kill a Mockingbird. That is, movies dealing with the things of the heart in a universal manner. It's taken more than 40 years to reach a point where I can safely say that I believe I'm now able to share the whole range of the nuances one finds in the actors' lines in said movies. It brings so much more delight in watching movies than to be able to circumvent the need for verdions or subtitles !

And certainly worth the sustained and considerable efforts one must invest into learning, I mean, really learning another language. There's one thing I'll admit, though, for the benefit of those who don't understand French but are trying to,, and who feel desperate at trying to decipher "Les enfants du paradis" in its original version...French is more difficult, considerably more difficult than English, Still, I realize that a movie such as LEDP is the perfect one to learn and perfect one's apprenticeship for many reasons. Its plot and its characters are so universal,and the acting is so incredibly perfect that it can be an ideal vehicle for people studying Frebch as a second language. I'm quite convinced that as one watches the movie again and again over the course of the several years it usually takes to master a Romance language such as French, the reward of improving oneself is likely to be easily found in "getting" the complex (quite so) emotions conveyed by the various characters. And the movie is so rich in such emotions that just like this film has a high repeated viewing potential, it can bring an almost endless world of duscoveries and realizations as one's mastery of French progresses. The almost perfect learning tool!




- But you can't have her again as costume designer, Mr. Hitchcock!
- Really, Peggy? Give me Head!