Under the Roofs of Paris
Sous les toits de Paris
France
1930
92 Min
Black and White
1.33:1
French
Synopsis
In René Clair’s irrepressibly romantic portrait of the crowded tenements of Paris, a street singer and a gangster vie for the love of a beautiful young woman. This witty exploration of love and human foibles, told primarily through song, captures the flamboyant atmosphere of the city with sophisticated visuals and groundbreaking use of the new technology of movie sound. An international sensation upon its release, Under the Roofs of Paris is an exhilarating celebration of filmmaking and one of France’s most beloved cinematic exports. —The Criterion Collection
Director
René Clair
In 1920 René-Lucien Chomette began acting in films under the name René Clair. He performed in Louis Feuillade’s 1921 serials L’Orpheline and Parisette, but in 1924 he began writing and directing his own films with the comic fantasy Paris Qui Dort (The Crazy Ray). Through the ‘20s Clair would make some of the most original and admired works of early French cinema, including the avant-garde short Entr’acte, the landmark early musicals Sous Les Toits De Paris and Le Million, and the classic satire A Nous La Liberté. Working in England and the United States during the 1930s and ’40s, his films were dominated (sometimes overly so) by fantasy and whimsy, but he managed to inject some healthy venom into the Agatha Christie mystery And Then There Were None. He returned to Europe for his films of the 1950s and ’60s, most notably La Beauté Du Diable (Beauty And The Devil) and Les Belles De Nuit (Beauties Of The Night).
—allmovie guide
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trolley freak
17Oct11
After mastering the silent film, Clair had misgivings about the use of sound but you wouldn't know from the immediate expertise of the new medium he shows in this, his first talking picture. From the remarkable opening crane shot over the rooftops of a studio-bound Paris, a Master is at work. Sparing with his use of dialogue, he manages to create a charming and romantic musical concoction with elements of comedy.....
Alexander Robino
25Feb11
Unfortunate macguffin alert. But really, don't let my snobby 3-Star rating discourage you. There are some wonderful things about this film.
G.T. De Fontenoy died for us
20Apr10
Simplicity is why Rene Clair was a master and genius his late twenties early thirties work is the best representation of of real french cinema along with early renoir. If you dont like it you dont understand cinemas role in art and entertainment.
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The Comedy Stylings of Robert Bresson
By Ignatiy Vishnevetsky on January 14, 2012
Tracing Bresson’s audio-visual sensibility back to the formally-ambitious film comedies of the early 1930s.
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SOUS LES TOITS DE PARIS (1930)
By SAYONARA BUNKA!! (Formerly Corbeau) on January 14, 2011
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… High up in the sky we float. We turn to observe the neighbourhood. But wait, no: we are drawn towards them, more than a dozen people. And so we go, down, down, down to the earth… read review
Untitled
By CriterionRefs on January 19, 2009
I blogged about this film here: http://criterionreflections.blogspot.com/2009/01/under-roofs-of-paris-161.html
An excerpt: In its narrative structure, acting performances and subject matter… read review
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