Under the Roofs of Paris

Under the Roofs of Paris French Sous les toits de Paris is a 1930 French film directed by Ren Clair. The film was probably the earliest French example of a filmed musicalcomedy, although its often dark tone differentiates it from other instances of the genre. This was an early example of sound film in France, along with Prix de Beaut and LAge dOr. However, Under the Roofs of Paris was the first French production of the sound film era to achieve great international success.

The arrival of synchronised sound in the cinema in the late 1920s provoked mixed reactions among French filmmakers, and some of the masters of silent film technique were pessimistic about the impact it would have. In 1927, even before The Jazz Singer had been shown in Paris, Ren Clair wrote It is not without a shudder that one learns that some American manufacturers, among the most dangerous, see in the talking picture the entertainment of the future, and that they are already working to bring about this dreadful prophecy. Elsewhere he described the talking picture as a redoubtable monster, an unnatural creation, thanks to which the screen would become poor theatre, the theatre of the poor. It was therefore an irony that it was Clair who would produce the French cinemas first big international success with a sound picture in Sous les toits de Paris.Clair accepted the inevitability of the talking picture but at first retained very specific views about the way that sound should be integrated into film. He was reluctant to use dialogue or sound effects naturalistically, and maintained that the alternate use of the image of the subject and of the sound produced by it not their simultaneous use created the best effect. ........

Source: Wikipedia