Children of Paradise

Les Enfants du Paradis, French drama, colour, 1945, by Michel Carné, Language: French, Subtitles: Hungarian, 189'

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SCREENINGS

09.04. 16:00
French Institute

Directed by Marcel Carné
Screenplay by Jacques Prévert
Director of photography: Roger Hubert
Music by Maurice Thiriet
Cast: Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, Pierre Renoir, María Casares, Gaston Modot
Production: Société Nouvelle Pathé Cinéma

József Kozma, otherwise Joseph Kosma, who graduated from the Budapest conservatoire as a student of Leó Weiner, overhauled the genre of French chanson. If one had to find aparallel to what he did with this very French genre (besides restructuring thecouplet/refrain), one could say that he brought Kurt Weill into the genre, and that atmosphere evident in the film Children of Paradise: life-affirming emotions capable of overcoming all tragedies and troubles, that plaintive-sweetness that still defines French chanson to this day. And with this we can also say a lot about the film Children of Paradise by Marcel Carné (also director of Port of Shadows, another great French classic), in which there are appearances by such ancient theatrical figures as Pierrot, the weeping-laughing clown. It is a poetic film because Kosma’s regular scriptwriter and author of the screenplay Jacques Prévert was also an acclaimed poet.