Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 15, No. 16. August 14, 1952

[Introduction]

English and American film studios are, compared to the French, fairly well off economically. They have technical resources that are almost unknown to the present Frech cinema; but taken all in all is the average film better? Technically, perhaps, but often "the heart of the matter" is missing. What we want is "more matter and less art."

It is a common fact that great works of art often spring from economic frustration; Dosteovsky's novels, Beethoven's music. And a handful of films produced by French script-writers and directors during the occupation of their country by the Germans. It would be an exaggeration to say that this occupation was the cause of the success of the French cinema, but it is true to recognise that the artist was the only one to draw a new creative inspiration from suffering, repentance and compulsion. They had the pride of getting over, by this newly gained inspiration, good taste and intelligence in spite of the lack of material for film-making which grew a little worse each month.

Marcel Carne and his script-writer were artists of this period, but their creative talent was not new but directed along a different channel Whereas before they had produced films that carried the "creative interpretation of actuality" to the highest flights, they now turned their abilities to providing appropriate film fare for the cruel-reality soaked French people. Their films of this period were romantic.

" Lew Enfants du Paradis" is a product of this mood. Carne and Prevert wanted to help their countrymen forget their difficulties and hardships. They gave them a story of the past, a story with a theatrical setting. But the film goes deeper than this.

"All the world's a stage; and the men and women merely players" is the film's motto. The curtain goes up and we see a section of those players en masse in a street of 19th century Paris. A gallery of infinite human characters gathered together in the Boulevard du Temple, with its vaudeville theatres and pantomimes, its freaks and sideshows, its clowns, strongmen and motley crowds surging along in search of pleasure. The "three francs" side shows: one advertises to show the Naked Truth. But when you get Inside it is half-covered with water.