Paradis perdu (1940)
Directed by Abel Gance

Film Review

It was the staggering failure of La Fin du monde (1931) that put paid to Abel Gance's creative independence just as he was coming to grips with the challenge of sound cinema.  For the rest of the decade, Gance was compelled to accept commissions to direct commercial films, most of which now pale into insignificance compared with his major oeuvres of the silent era.   Only in a few of these films - notably Un Grand Amour de Beethoven (1937) - does Gance show any real commitment or artistry.  Most are wearyingly dull and tacky plod-a-thons, not the work of a worldclass cineaste but the grudging output of someone who'd rather be doing something more useful with his time.

In Paradis perdu, the last commercial film that Gance directed before the fall of France to Nazi Germany, there's little doubt that the director has reached the end of his tether.  Compared with his next film, the hideously overblown but sporadically brilliant melodrama Vénus aveugle (1941), Paradis perdu is positively constipated, a mechanically crafted crowdpleaser that ends up looking as if it was directed by someone who had lost the will to live.  The plot is pure hokum, exactly what you would expect to find in the kind of tediously formulaic melodrama that audiences apparently could not get enough of in this benighted era.  Perhaps mindful of his future career prospects, Gance gives it his best shot, and for the first half of the film he performs an admirable salvage operation.  But, once past the mid-point, Gance has clearly lost interest and the whole thing just collapses into an ungainly mess.  It's as if he directed the second half of the film with his eyes closed.

Up until the 45 minute mark, Paradis perdu is quite a good film.  Admittedly, it is a massive step-down from Gance's previous achievements, but the gently elegiac Belle Époque rom-com he serves up brims with charm and exploits to the full the star appeal of its lead actress, Micheline Presle, who has rarely appeared more radiant on screen.  It is the kind of populist fare in which Fernand Gravey appears most at ease, and until the drama kicks in he and Presle are impeccable.  Paradise is indeed lost when WWI breaks out and the film makes an abrupt transition into forced and excruciatingly lachrymose melodrama.  What ensues is scarcely worth watching, with Gance routinely knocking out another dose of anti-war sentiment before plunging headfirst into a tepid vat of mediocrity.

So even and insipid are the last thirty minutes of the film that the narrative fails to hold together (either that or the spectator is just too bored to pay attention).  The plot has moved on twenty years or so and Micheline Presle returns as her own daughter, which has the unintended effect of injecting an incestuous undertone into some of her scenes with the now decrepit Gravey (unconvincingly made up to look like a 50-year-old).  Gravey is now apparently in love with another woman, whose brother is the apple of Presle's eye.  In the best tradition of third rate melodrama, Gravey ends up having to sacrifice his own happiness for his daughter's, and promptly drops dead.  None of this makes any sense and you can see why Gance gave up on it.  You wonder why he didn't just walk away from the film and just put up a caption saying "J'en ai ras le bol!"  Half-complete, Paradis perdu would probably enjoy a much higher standing than it presently holds.

Film Synopsis

In 1913, an aspiring young artist, Pierre, falls in love with a beautiful seamstress, Janine.  Their Elysian summer is cut short when war breaks out and Pierre is sent to fight on the Western Front.  Whilst he is in the trenches, Pierre learns that his wife has died whilst giving birth to their daughter, Jeannette.  After the war, Pierre returns to Paris, a disillusioned and heartbroken man who reluctantly takes on the burden of bringing up his daughter alone.  Many years later, Pierre has fallen in love for a second time, with a woman who is much younger than he is.  Unfortunately, his daughter is in love with the woman's brother, and the latter refuses to marry Jeannette unless her father breaks off his relationship with his sister.