Les enfants du Paradis (The children of Paradise) 1945 - A timeless love saga

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 8,3

Director: Marcel Carne
Main Cast: Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, Pierre Renoir, Maria Casares, Gaston Modot

"Set in the Parisian theatrical world of the 1840s, Jacques Prévert's screenplay concerns four men in love with the mysterious Garance (Arletty). Each loves Garance in his own fashion, but only the intentions of sensitive mime-actor Deburau (Jean-Louis Barrault) are entirely honorable; as a result, it is he who suffers most, hurdling one obstacle after another in pursuit of an evidently unattainable goal. In the stylized fashion of 19th-century French drama, many grand passions are spent during the film's totally absorbing 195 minutes. The film was produced under overwhelmingly difficult circumstances during the Nazi occupation of France, and many of the participants/creators were members of the Maquis, so the movie's existence itself is somewhat miraculous. Children of Paradise has gone on to become one of the great romantic classics of international cinema." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

Les visiteurs du soir (The Devil's envoys) 1942 - A fascinating legend stirring in the midst of the French Resistance

IMDB Link
IMDB rating: 7,5

Director: Marcel Carne
Main Cast: Arletty, Marie Dea, Fernand Ledoux, Alain Cuny

"Originally released in 1942 as Les Visiteurs du Soir, The Devil's Envoys is another masterful collaboration between actress Arletty, writer Jacques Prevert and director Marcel Carne, who would team up one year later for the brilliant Les Enfants Du Paradis. The film is predicated on the 15th century French legend, wherein the Devil, disturbed by the encroaching forces of Good, sends his envoys to Earth to drive the citizens to despair. The Devil, played by Jules Berry in a subtly Hitler-like fashion (a chancy artistic decision in the days of the Occupation), is thwarted when his agents are unable to overcome the power of true love. Even after the lovers are turned to stone for defying His Satanic Majesty, their hearts continue to beat for each other." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links:

(DVDrip, xvid, 1 GB):

http://netload.in/dateibUL7joDT7P/Les.Visiteurs.Du.Soir.1942.FRENCH.DVDRIP.XVID.AC3.part1.rar.htm
http://netload.in/dateibw7gXqV7jU/Les.Visiteurs.Du.Soir.1942.FRENCH.DVDRIP.XVID.AC3.part2.rar.htm

(English subtitle):

http://rapidgator.net/file/74132751
http://rapidgator.net/file/74132752

Le jour se leve (Daybreak) 1939 - A nice example of French poetic realism

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031514/
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Marcel Carne
Main Cast: Jean Gabin, Jules Berry, Arletty, Bernard Blier, Jacqueline Laurent

"Marcel Carne's Le jour se leve/Daybreak turns a murder story into an evocative examination of a man trapped by circumstances beyond his control. In the script by Carne's main collaborator Jacques Prevert, Jean Gabin's working-class François shoots a man and holes up in his room, thinking back, in an impeccably structured flashback, to the events that brought him to that moment. Carne's camera does not shy away from the desperate, claustrophobic details of working-class life, yet the possibility for human connection gives François's existence hope, until the sadistic Valentin intervenes. The play of light and shadows as François waits out the night invests the surroundings' realistic drabness with a poetic sense of doom, matching the implacable fate that awaits the decent, tormented man. Trading on Gabin's image as a strong yet tender-hearted hero, Le jour se leve's François was seen as not just a man condemned by his class and human weakness but also the image of a country about to be overcome by the diabolical outside forces of World War II." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/le-jour-se-l%C3%A8ve-v28642

DVD links:

Le quai des brumes (Port of shadows) 1938 - Hauntingly sad French masterpiece

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030643/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,6

Director: Marcel Carne
Main Cast: Jean Gabin, Michel Simon, Michele Morgan, Pierre Brasseur

"Adapted from a novel by Jacques Prevert, Port of Shadows (Quai des brumes) stars that eternal victim of society, Jean Gabin. Having deserted the French army, Gabin ducks into a back alley and meets the lovely Michelle Morgan. He becomes her champion by taking on her evil 'protectors' (Michel Simon, Pierre Brasseur), but loses his last bid for freedom - and his life - in the process. Irredeemably gloomy, Port of Shadows was a primary influence in the 'film noir' genre pursued by Hollywood in the 1940s. The film was the first of three collaborations between writer Jacques Prevert and director Marcel Carne, culminating in the incomparable Les Enfants du Paradis (1944)." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/port-of-shadows-v106403

DVD links: