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Select media
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Stills must not be reproduced, copied or downloaded in any way.
Film details
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Featuring
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Director
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Country
France
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Year
1945
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Genres
Romance Drama
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Type
Film
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Category
Fiction
Alternative titles
- Funambule Alternative French
- Children of Paradise Alternative
Introduction
“Moving effortlessly from farce to tragedy, from delicate love scenes to outrageous buffoonery, Les Enfants remains the finest filmic achievement of Carné and Prévert, its impact scarcely dimmed by the years.”
Roy Armes, French Cinema, 1985
Based on a highly literate script by poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert, which draws on real-life figures of the 1820s and 1830s, Marcel Carné’s film is a lavish Dickensian drama set among the actors, criminals and aristocrats that orbit around a theatre on Paris’s so-called ‘Boulevard du Crime’.
Four men love the courtesan Garance (Arletty), most tragically the mime Baptiste Debureau (Jean-Louis Barrault), and their romantic intrigues play out in a backstage milieu lovingly recreated by set designer Alexandre Trauner. Trauner had worked with Carné on his classic series of 1930s ‘poetic realist’ dramas – including Drole de Drame (1937) and Hôtel du Nord(1938) – but as a Jew he was forced to work in secrecy on perhaps his grandest achievement. In 1995, the film was voted the greatest French film ever made by 600 industry professionals.
For a vibrant recreation of the stage world in Paris in the 1890s, the heyday of the Moulin Rouge, see Jean Renoir’s French Cancan (1955).
Cast & Credits
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Cast
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Garance
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Baptiste Debureau
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Frederick Lemaitre
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Jericho, old clothes man
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Natalie
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Fil de Soie, blind beggar
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Avril, Lacenaire's assistant
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director of 'Funambules'
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stage manager of 'Funambules'
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Anselme Debureau
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Madame Hermine
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Marie
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policeman
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Arab attendant of Turkish bath
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director of 'Grand Theatre'
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George, the first dandy
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police inspector
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Scarpia Barrigni
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Celestin
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first author
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second author
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Count Edouard de Monteray
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Pierre-François Lacenaire
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[stage doorman of 'Funambules']
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[second dandy]
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[debt collector]
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[first pretty girl]
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[second pretty girl]
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[stage doorman of 'Grand Theatre']
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[third author]
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[ticket seller]
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[little Baptiste]
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[Iago]
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[third dandy]
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[bearded woman]
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[policeman]
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Credits
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Direction:
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Director/A film by
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Artistic Assistant [Director]
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Technical Assistant [Director]
Production:
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Production Company
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Presents
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A film Pathé
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[Producer]
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Production Executive
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Production Manager
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Production Supervisor
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Filmed at
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Filmed at
Writing:
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Screenplay/Dialogues
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Technical Decoupage
Photography:
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Cinematography
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Camera Operator
Stills:
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[Still Photographs]
Editing:
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Editor
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[Assistant editor]
Design:
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Art Director
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Art Director
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Art Director (Collabor. in clandestity)
Costumes:
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Costumes by
Make-up:
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[Make-up]
Film processing:
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Processing
Music:
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Music by
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Music (Collaboration in clandestinity)
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Music Performed by
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Music Conducted by
Choreography:
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Pantomimes [Music] by
Sound:
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Sound Engineer
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[Sound]
Subtitles:
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[Subtitles, Restoration]
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English Subtitles [Re-release]
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The Greatest Films of All Time 2012
Ranked 73rd in the critics’ poll