Children of Paradise

Les Enfants du Paradis, released as Children of Paradise in North America, is a 1945 French film directed by Marcel Carn. It was made during the German occupation of France during World War II. Set among the Parisian theatre scene of the 1820s and 30s, it tells the story of a beautiful courtesan, Garance, and the four men who love her in their own ways a mime artist, an actor, a criminal and an aristocrat.

As noted by one critic, in French, paradis is the colloquial name for the gallery or second balcony in a theater, where common people sat and viewed a play, responding to it honestly and boisterously. The actors played to these gallery gods, hoping to win their favour, the actor himself thus being elevated to an Olympian status. The film contains many shots of the audience hanging over the edge of these balconies which are similarly known as the gods in the British theatre, and screenwriter Jacques Prvert stated that the title refers to the actors ... and the audiences too, the goodnatured, workingclass audience. In British English, Les Enfants du Paradis translates better in context as The Children of the Gods than as The Children of Paradise.Children of Paradise is set in the theatrical world of Paris during the July Monarchy 183048, centred on the area around the Funambules theatre, situated on the Boulevard du Temple pejoratively referred to as the Boulevard du Crime. The film revolves around a beautiful and charismatic courtesan, Garance Arletty. Four men the mime Baptiste Debureau JeanLouis Barrault, the actor Frdrick Lematre Pierre Brasseur, the thief Pierre Franois Lacenaire Marcel Herrand, and the aristocrat douard de Montray Louis Salou are in love with Garance, and their intrigues drive the story forward. Garance is briefly intriguedinvolved with them all, but leaves them when they attempt to force her to love on their terms, rather than her own. The mime Baptiste is the one who suffers the most in pursuit of the unattainable Garance. ........

Source: Wikipedia