We begin our series with a sublime example of the romantic against which to set our summer-long exploration of modernism and its aftermath. Set in the 1840s, when pantomime and melodrama were at their height on Paris' famed theater street, the Boulevard du Crime, this delicate yet elaborate portrait of the actors and thieves who made the Boulevard their home has all the passion, intelligence and authority of a great work of art. The story unfolds around the beautiful actress Garance (Arletty) and her rival lovers: the actor Lemaitre (Pierre Brasseur), the Comte de Montray (Louis Salou), and the mime Baptiste (Jean-Louis Barrault in the role he created, much like Chaplin's tramp, for all posterity). From the opening shots of humanity flowing down the Boulevard and for the next three hours of visual set-pieces, it is astounding to reflect that the expensive production was created largely under the difficult conditions of the Occupation. But themes of evil and loss, as well as of enduring, secretive fidelity, are woven into this costumed revival of a Paris that was nothing if not French, and the very making of such a film might be seen as a flamboyantly heroic provocation.