Children Of Paradise (Criterion Collection) (1945) On Blu-Ray

Actor:         Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, Pierre Renoir, Marcel Herrand
Director:     Marcel Carne
Genre:        Foreign Video - French
Year:           1945
Studio:       Criterion Collection
Length:       190
Released:   September 18, 2012
Rating:        Not Rated (MPAA Rating)
Format:       Blu-Ray
Misc:           Black & White
Language:   French
Subtitles  :  English

DESCRIPTION:

Poetic realism reached sublime heights with Children of Paradise (Les enfants du paradis), widely considered one of the greatest French films of all time. This nimble depiction of nineteenth-century Paris’s theatrical demimonde, filmed during World War II, follows a mysterious woman (The Pearls of the Crown’s Arletty) loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a street mime (La ronde’s Jean-Louis Barrault, in a longing-suffused performance for the ages). With sensitivity and dramatic élan, director Marcel Carné (Port of Shadows) and screenwriter Jacques Prévert (Le jour se lève) resurrect a world teeming with hucksters and aristocrats, thieves and courtesans, pimps and seers. Thanks to a major new restoration, this iconic classic looks and sounds richer and more detailed than ever.