Sorry, just can't buy the two main characters.

Personally, I have to agree with your comments on Arletty's looks. In my opinion, Arletty, while hardly ugly, can barely be described as beautiful or enthralling. In fact, I found Nathalie far more attractive overall.

However, there are plenty of beautiful women, but Garance had something that very few other, if any, women possessed; a supreme confidence and aloofness that no one could take away from her. She is always smiling, always carefree, seemingly untouched by the things and people around her. Even when she becomes almost a property of the Count de Montray, she retains her supreme confidence, still unattainable, with the Count on his knees. Something like that can be very attractive and alluring to a man, more so than any sort of good looks.

As for Baptiste, I think its the pureness of his love, something Garance is unused to, that makes him so attractive to her. Not to mention overall, I thought he was a pretty good-looking guy (Garance commented on his beautiful eyes), a very gentle soul who could still defend her honor when necessary, and extremely talented. It was no surprise to me that he was sought after by more than one attractive women.

And of course, one has to question if Garance was ever truly in love with Baptiste at all. If she was, why did she leave him alone in the end, having probably ruined his family and perhaps even his career? And throughout the movie IMO Garance is painted as a creature who does not, and perhaps cannot, love anyone. Perhaps she only thought of Baptiste for he was the only man who ever turned down her charms and walked away from her, and after finally sleeping with him she no longer finds him so endearing.

I love film, but I too am left cold by this one. While visually beautiful, it doesn't engage me. This and The Three Godfathers I just don't get...

I disagree completely. Garance, thanks to Arletty's performance, is a more beautiful woman than just about any other in narrative cinema. And it is her very character, not her looks, that has the males of the story clamoring for her attentions.

And Baptiste is supposed to be a wispy little guy. I...don't see what the complaint is, here. Is there any evidence that his character is supposed to be something else?

I thought that Arlety was miscast as Garance. She was almost fifty years old. We are supposed to believe that she is extremely beautiful and that all these men are stricken by her beauty. It sure makes you have to suspend your disbelief. Someone should have told her that she was too old for the part. If it had been played by a young beauty I think the choices would ring truer. I thought she looked like everyone’s mother. I looked her age up after seeing the movie and I wasn’t surprised to find out that she was that old. Does anyone know why she was chosen for this part?

Considering that letting older actors play characters who are obviously younger has been common practice in many many movies and that right up to superb Brideshead Revisited made in the early eighties where most actors still are ten to twenty years older than in the book this is extremely odd criticism to level at one movie and a movie like Les Enfants du Paradis at that - one of the best ever.

Yeah, right, Arletty was nearly 50 and most likely not older than 30 as Garance and Punch-doll-headed Jean-Louis Barrault at 35 plays a très joli garcon of let's say 19-21, but you'll find so many instances of this in other movies that it seems quite ridiculous to pick out Les Enfants du Paradis to criticise for it.

Fine with me if you have difficulties with this way of doing it of itself but then speak of it generally.

Well for a middle-aged woman she looked lovely although I admit that I wasn't persuaded she was beauty personified. As to the actor playing Baptiste and the character of Baptiste - I found him adorable and thought the actor very handsome in an ethereal and vulnerable way.

Why problem make? When you no problem have, you don't want to make ...