It was a joy for movie buffs. In 2015, Pathé decided to restore a masterpiece by Abel Gance, Paradis Perdu. This film is, by François Truffaut’s own admission, his first great cinema emotion.
The film was released in 1940, in the midst of the war, and the parents of little François, who was only eight years old at the time, decided to take him to the cinema. It will be a revelation. In 1965, on France Culture, having become a recognized director, he explained in the program Impromptus de vacances the reasons for his first emotion: “I had my first cinematic shock the day my parents took me to see Paradis Perdu, which had a particularity, that of taking the war of 14 as its subject.”
And continued: “The rooms were full of people crying. It was an extraordinary spectacle. I have never found a collective emotion in the cinema like at that time. The cinemas were made up of soldiers’ wives on furlough and people who didn’t know how long they would stay together.
Beyond the memories of one of the masters of the New Wave, it must be admitted that the scenario was as moving as it was heartbreaking. Pierre (Fernand Gravey), a young penniless painter, falls madly in love with the charming Janine (Micheline Presle) and asks her to marry him. Happiness is at its peak, until the day the war breaks out, forcing Pierre to go to the front. In the heart of the trenches, he learns that he has become a father, but that Janine died giving birth to their daughter. Mad with grief, Pierre abandons his daughter with his former concierge. Until the day their paths cross again….
The cast of the film is extraordinary. Abel Gance brought together almost all the big stars of the time: Fernand Gravey, Elvire Popesco and of course Micheline Presle. Micheline Presle to whom François Truffaut paid the most beautiful tribute in his critical collection The films of my life, writing: “Silvana Pampani (in La Tour de Nesle by Abel Gance, Editor’s note) was the greatest actress in the world, like Sylvie Gance once upon a time. in Napoléon, Micheline Presle in Paradis Perdu…” We couldn’t be more praiseworthy.
Paradise Lost (1940) by Abel Gance with Micheline Presle, Fernand Gravey, Elvire Popesco… Restored version on Blu-ray and DVD
