Les Enfants du Paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945)

“I’d spill torrents of blood to give you rivers of diamonds.” “I’d settle for less.” It’s hard to believe that this monolith of a film was put together under the World War II circumstances that it faced, its completion amounting to an act of cultural defiance. How far you believe the tales of the production’s…

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010)

As he revelled in the hysterical dystopia of the Fifth Element, so Besson relishes spinning a lush Edwardian Paris out of brass curios, opulent interiors, sumptuous dresses and perfectly curled moustaches. The film concerns the 1913 adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, a feisty young journalist with a thoroughly modern sense of independence. Her unlikely quest: to revive…