Child of Paradise: Marcel Carné and the Golden Age of French Cinema (Harvard Film Studies)

Marcel Carné symbolizes the period, approximately 1930-1945, when French cinema recaptured the creative vitality and prestige it had relinquished almost completely to the American film industry. The first critical biography of this director of classic films, including the epic historical romance __Les Enfants du paradis__ (Children of Paradise), relates the saga of Carné’s meteoric rise in the 1930s and his decline from critical grace after the war. Between 1937 and 1945 Carné directed a number of works that are now part of France’s cultural patrimony, most notably __Le Quai des Brumes__ (1938), __LeJour se lève__ (1939), __Les Visiteurs du soir__ (1942), and the best known, __Les Enfants du paradis__ (1945). The artistic merit of these films is widely acknowledged; their significance, however, is not solely aesthetic. To know Carné and his films is to know how cinematic art responded to social and political events — to the period of French history that witnessed the Popular Front, the Front’s demise, the fall of France, and the Occupation. Edward Baron Turk discloses the incongruities between the director’s aesthetic of poetic realism and his professed leftist sympathies; he situates Carné’s questionable stance and activities during the Occupation within the broader context of an artist’s ethical responsibilities in times of war; and he examines the ramifications of Carné’s censure during the postwar purges for the director’s subsequent fortunes. Turk’s use of the psychoanalytic concepts of androgyny, masochism, fetishism, and primal scene allows us to understand more clearly how Carné thought and worked. Turk also addresses the representations and maskings of homosexuality in Carné’s films and the extent to which they have colored film history’s often ambivalent assessments of the director. The centerpiece of the book is an extended analysis of what is arguably the most famous and beloved of all French films, __Les Enfants du paradis__, scripted by the poet-screenwriter Jacques Prévert. The book draws on unpublished correspondence from, among others, Jean Cocteau, François Truffaut, and Simone Signoret, and on interviews by the author with Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Mme. Jacques Prévert, Pierre Prévert, Claude Renoir, Alexander Trauner, Truffaut, and Carné himself. This portrait of Carné thus becomes the portrait of an age, a great age in the history of French cinema, albeit a tragic age in the history of France.

Marcel Carné symbolizes the period, approximately 1930-1945, when French cinema recaptured the creative vitality and prestige it had relinquished almost completely to the American film industry. The first critical biography of this director of classic films, including the epic historical romance Les Enfants du paradis (Children of Paradise), relates the saga of Carné’s meteoric rise in the 1930s and his decline from critical grace after the war.

Between 1937 and 1945 Carné directed a number of works that are now part of France’s cultural patrimony, most notably Le Quai des Brumes (1938), LeJour se lève (1939), Les Visiteurs du soir (1942), and the best known, Les Enfants du paradis (1945). The artistic merit of these films is widely acknowledged; their significance, however, is not solely aesthetic. To know Carné and his films is to know how cinematic art responded to social and political events — to the period of French history that witnessed the Popular Front, the Front’s demise, the fall of France, and the Occupation. Edward Baron Turk discloses the incongruities between the director’s aesthetic of poetic realism and his professed leftist sympathies; he situates Carné’s questionable stance and activities during the Occupation within the broader context of an artist’s ethical responsibilities in times of war; and he examines the ramifications of Carné’s censure during the postwar purges for the director’s subsequent fortunes. Turk’s use of the psychoanalytic concepts of androgyny, masochism, fetishism, and primal scene allows us to understand more clearly how Carné thought and worked. Turk also addresses the representations and maskings of homosexuality in Carné’s films and the extent to which they have colored film history’s often ambivalent assessments of the director. The centerpiece of the book is an extended analysis of what is arguably the most famous and beloved of all French films, Les Enfants du paradis, scripted by the poet-screenwriter Jacques Prévert.

The book draws on unpublished correspondence from, among others, Jean Cocteau, François Truffaut, and Simone Signoret, and on interviews by the author with Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Mme. Jacques Prévert, Pierre Prévert, Claude Renoir, Alexander Trauner, Truffaut, and Carné himself. This portrait of Carné thus becomes the portrait of an age, a great age in the history of French cinema, albeit a tragic age in the history of France.

Marcel Carné symbolizes the period, approximately 1930-1945, when French cinema recaptured the creative vitality and prestige it had relinquished almost completely to the American film industry. The first critical biography of this director of classic films, including the epic historical romance Les Enfants du paradis (Children of Paradise), relates the saga of Carné's meteoric rise in the 1930s and his decline from critical grace after the war. Between 1937 and 1945 Carné directed a number of works that are now part of France's cultural patrimony, most notably Le Quai des Brumes (1938), LeJour se lève (1939), Les Visiteurs du soir (1942), and the best known, Les Enfants du paradis (1945). The artistic merit of these films is widely acknowledged; their significance, however, is not solely aesthetic. To know Carné and his films is to know how cinematic art responded to social and political events - to the period of French history that witnessed the Popular Front, the Front's demise, the fall of France, and the Occupation. Edward Baron Turk discloses the incongruities between the director's aesthetic of poetic realism and his professed leftist sympathies; he situates Carné's questionable stance and activities during the Occupation within the broader context of an artist's ethical responsibilities in times of war; and he examines the ramifications of Carné's censure during the postwar purges for the director's subsequent fortunes. Turk's use of the psychoanalytic concepts of androgyny, masochism, fetishism, and primal scene allows us to understand more clearly how Carné thought and worked. Turk also addresses the representations and maskings of homosexuality in Carné's films and the extent to which they have coloured film history's often ambivalent assessments of the director. The centerpiece of the book is an extended analysis of what is arguably the most famous and beloved of all French films, Les Enfants du paradis, scripted by the poet-screenwriter Jacques Prévert. The book draws on unpublished correspondence from, among others, Jean Cocteau, François Truffaut, and Simone Signoret, and on interviews by the author with Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Mme. Jacques Prévert, Pierre Prévert, Claude Renoir, Alexander Trauner, Truffaut, and Carné himself. This portrait of Carné thus becomes the portrait of an age, a great age in the history of French cinema, albeit a tragic age in the history of France Marcel Carne symbolizes the period, approximately 1930-1945, when French cinema recaptured the creative vitality and prestige it had relinquished almost completely to the American film industry. The first critical biography of this director of classic films, including the epic historical romance "Les Enfants du paradis" (Children of Paradise), relates the saga of Carne s meteoric rise in the 1930s and his decline from critical grace after the war. Between 1937 and 1945 Carne directed a number of works that are now part of France s cultural patrimony, most notably "Le Quai des Brumes" (1938), "LeJour se leve" (1939), "Les Visiteurs du soir" (1942), and the best known, "Les Enfants du paradis" (1945). The artistic merit of these films is widely acknowledged; their significance, however, is not solely aesthetic. To know Carne and his films is to know how cinematic art responded to social and political events to the period of French history that witnessed the Popular Front, the Front s demise, the fall of France, and the Occupation. Edward Baron Turk discloses the incongruities between the director s aesthetic of poetic realism and his professed leftist sympathies; he situates Carne s questionable stance and activities during the Occupation within the broader context of an artist s ethical responsibilities in times of war; and he examines the ramifications of Carne s censure during the postwar purges for the director s subsequent fortunes. Turk s use of the psychoanalytic concepts of androgyny, masochism, fetishism, and primal scene allows us to understand more clearly how Carne thought and worked. Turk also addresses the representations and maskings of homosexuality in Carne s films and the extent to which they have colored film history s often ambivalent assessments of the director. The centerpiece of the book is an extended analysis of what is arguably the most famous and beloved of all French films, "Les Enfants du paradis," scripted by the poet-screenwriter Jacques Prevert. The book draws on unpublished correspondence from, among others, Jean Cocteau, Francois Truffaut, and Simone Signoret, and on interviews by the author with Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Mme. Jacques Prevert, Pierre Prevert, Claude Renoir, Alexander Trauner, Truffaut, and Carne himself. This portrait of Carne thus becomes the portrait of an age, a great age in the history of French cinema, albeit a tragic age in the history of France. Contents Acknowledgments Prologue: Fortune and Critics’ Eyes PART I. The Novice CHAPTER 1. Intimations of Eden CHAPTER 2. Monsieur Feyder’s Protégé CHAPTER 3. Carné and Jacques Prévert CHAPTER 4. Framing an Identity PART II. The Young Master CHAPTER 5. The Popular Front CHAPTER 6. Poetic Realism CHAPTER 7. “Atmosphere, Atmosphere” CHAPTER 8. Strange Defeat PART III. The Monumentmaker CHAPTER 9. The Occupation CHAPTER 10. The Design of Children of Paradise CHAPTER 11. Politics and Theater in Children of Paradise CHAPTER 12. Androgyny, Masochism, and Children of Paradise CHAPTER 13. Primal Scenes from Children of Paradise PART IV. The Outsider CHAPTER 14. In the Afterglow of Triumph CHAPTER 15. Carné sans Prévert CHAPTER 16. Carné and the New Wave CHAPTER 17. Persistence of Vision Epilogue: A Filmmaker of Sadness Filmography. Bibliographical Note. Notes. Credits. Index Filmography Bibliographical Note Notes Credits Index Marcel Carne flourished as a film director in the period 1930-45, when French cinema recaptured the prestige it had almost completely lost to Hollywood. This biography draws on correspondence and interviews from, among others, Cocteau, Truffaut, Simone Signoret, Claude Renoir and Carne himself. Traces the career of the influential French director and uses psychoanalytical concepts to analyze his major films