One Paragraph Movie Review: The Children of Paradise

Seventy-seventh film: The Children of Paradise, one of the longest and Frenchest films I’ve ever seen. Set in 1830, made in 1945 and roughly the same duration as the time in between, I watched it in two sittings and have to admit that I stayed gently gripped the whole time. This film has everything: food, drink, frocks, fancy hairdos, acrobats, duels, con-men, thieves, dandies, unrequited love, a mime, and a single visible nipple. As a bonus, there’s a Usual-Suspects-style narrative twist near the end that, if the movie were shorter, would tempt me to watch it again with smug inside twist knowledge, but who has that sort of time? Good, but. Three violent floral bouquet murders out of five.