"Children in Paradise" is carnival from beginning to end. The beginning of the film is a carnival, and the end of the film is a carnival. At the beginning, the mime actor Baptiste met the glamorous beauty Garance Garance in the carnival. At the end, Baptiste lost Garance in the crowd.
This is not to say that this movie is a tragedy, it is just a game played by the director. In the director's film works, "Children in Paradise" and "Fog Pier" are at two extremes, the former is free and easy, the latter is worried, the former treats life as a game, and the latter treats life as a tragedy.
As a game, parting is not fate, and death is not the end. When in the movie Lacenaire killed Edward Comte Édouard, the bourgeois high-ranking city servant, he never thought of running away. He stayed there, waiting for the police to catch him. In other words, this is not the first time he has been arrested, and the murder is not the first. This time he was especially calm, because he had never been so happy.
Garance left him, and he found three people. Frédérick, who was looking for him first, found that this improviser, swinger, game master, and cynicism was so selfless. He easily divided him a lot of money and moved him to continue writing the script. The two people talked about wine and poems all night long, and the friendship between them was completed. Frédérick likes Garance, just like he likes any woman. People laugh at me too crazy, I laugh at others and don’t look away. He is jealous of the love between Baptiste and Garance, the love and torture between each other, but he rejoices when he turns this jealousy into an experience of acting.
I found Baptiste, a superb mime actor, an affectionate poet, a serious moralist, and a man in charge. He didn't get Garance, but he suffered immensely. The serious lifestyle harmed him, and he didn't have the guts to be as crazy as Frédérick. In the end he took that step regardless of his family, but Garance, who was once carefree, already understood family responsibilities.
They owned Garance, but they didn't change her.
He found Edward Édouard, a wealthy businessman who possessed Garance, and found that he was indispensable and extremely vulgar, turning a watery girl into a vicissitudes of life. Moreover, without giving him a cent, he coaxed him away. He thought of how happy he and Garance were. He felt that he had to do the most exciting thing again.
That is to kill Édouard and save Garance. She does not belong to anyone, this free soul should be free again.
In this movie, in addition to Edward, there is another person who does not understand the spirit of the game at all. That was Natalie who eventually owned Baptiste. She was infatuated and arbitrary, and tolerant of Baptiste's derailment just to hold him tighter. She was heartache, heartache that she fell in love with someone who didn't love her, and heartache that she couldn't possess a person she loved after all.
There is no movie that portrays killers and thieves so wonderfully, shows the love and hatred of stray actors so interesting, and portrays life in Paris so charmingly. Even street sellers of used clothes and beggars have their own fun and hobbies.
Paris, this is life.
View more about Children of Paradise reviews
