From its opening shots of humanity flowing down Paris' famous theater street, the Boulevard du Crime, in the 1840s, when pantomime and melodrama were at a height; through its delicate yet elaborate portrait of the actors and thieves who live there, Les Enfants du Paradis has the authority of a great work of art. “This is unquestionably both Carné's and Prévert's masterpiece and overflows with art and intelligence,” writes French film historian Georges Sadoul. The story unfolds around the beautiful actress, Garance (Arletty), and her rival lovers, the actor Lemaitre (Pierre Brasseur), the Count de Monteray (Louis Salou), and the mime Baptiste (Jean-Louis Barrault in the role he created, much like Chaplin's tramp, for all posterity). That such a flamboyant (and expensive) work could be made during the German Occupation is astounding; the mere making of the film can be seen as an heroic provocation, and themes of evil and loss are woven into this costumed revival of a Paris that was nothing if not French.