Customer Reviews

Under the Roofs of Paris [VHS]

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This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"Under the Roofs of Paris" released as "Sous les toits de Paris" in France is Rene Clair's first film with sound in it.

The film is about two men in love with the same woman. when one is falsely accused of a crime and sent to jail, the other takes advantage of the situation to make it worse.

It is another of the musical comedies released by Rene Clair, three of which (including this one) are currently available on the Criterion Collection.

The print quality is not perfect which is to be expected of a film nearly 75 years old. But as always, Criterion does an excellent restoration. This one having been done under the supervision of the French.

There are some great special features also.

"Paris qui dort" (Paris Alseep), Clair's first film is included. It is a silent film about a scientist who used a ray gun to 'freeze' every person in Paris. Only some people in an airplane and the night watchman in the top of the Eiffel Tower are unaffected.
There is also a interview with the director and a trailer.

This is a great release and both films on here are worth watching

This is a film from the transitional period between silents and sound. The film was shot without sound, then later dubbed. The result is a movie that is predominantly visual and this assists greatly if you have bought the V.H.S. version, because the subtitles are all over the place. Some dialogue has no subtitles whatsoever, some has titles for part of a conversation, and (maddeningly!) other parts have a subtitle half or even a quarter visible at the bottom of the screen. This is not the fault of Rene Clair however, who presents us with some great images of the streets of Paris, its low-life, and a peek inside the rented rooms of the poor people. The sound too is pretty good when you consider its original format, and the pretty but simple music conveys Clair's own enthusiasm to the listener.
The plot is somewhat incidental, but difficult to follow since it seems two near-identical men dressed in almost the same clothes are rolling dice to see who gets a girl. They are thwarted by a tough Parisian thief who looks uncannily like Basil Fawlty! But this does not really matter, just look at the sights and sounds of 1920s Paris, lovingly recreated in the film studio and see why Clair went on to become such a successful Hollywood director.

Rene Clair's 1930 SOUS LES TOITS DE PARIS, a mostly-mimed musical, is about about two pals -- Albert and Louis -- who make a wager in the rain "under a Paris roof" (hence the title) to see who will go with pretty Pola. But alas she goes off with Fred! A series of complications way too complex to detail here ensue as the four characters mix and match until one is left alone singing in the rain on a Paris street.

This film, made silent and then dubbed with French dialog and music, is done with grace and charm in spite its melodramatic plot. Albert's calm detachment seems to insulate him from all danger and sorrow, while Fred seems to get away with numerous nefarious deeds. I liked this film and its dreamlike images and poetic story.

In 1930, movies with sound were still a relative novelty, and while American films of that era ("The Jazz Singer", etc.) mostly tried to outdo each other with being as loud and shrill as possible and the music was center stage, the French did a film that is tasteful and restrained in its use of sound, and sometimes even reverts back to silent film, perhaps only to remind us to savor the next time sound appears. Why am I not surprised?

I already knew the chanson that is also the main theme of the movie (and in fact one of the little jokes in the film involves panning around an apartment house only to find no one can get that ditty out of their heads, to the chagrin of some of the other tenants), so I was naturally interested to see if the movie it came from was any good. And it is. René Clair knows that his plot is banal, but then again so they are in most other movies, so this is an exercise in mood, camera movement and how the story is told. And his restraint is what makes the film seem fresh even today -- too many movies from the 1930s, whether they are American screwball comedies or French films like those of Jean Renoir have a tendency to go overboard, often in ways that make the movie somewhat painful to watch today for being so over-the-top, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." The wisdom of Clair is turning a small, intimate story into a small, intimate movie. He is utterly unpretentious, something else modern filmmakers might take note of. The film is impressive because it does not try too hard to impress.

Perhaps the best way to sum this movie is to say this is is a picture which sound, which all the time extolls the virtue of silence. For example, in the dance hall, when the singer and his friend share a broken cigarette the dance music is basically noise (and makes conversation impossible). If the main technical innovation of a film you are making is sound, then pointing out all the time in your film how superfluous (and perhaps even annoying) it really is, how it really just stands in the way of things that are really important is certainly quite bold. There has probably never been a sound picture that has made a more convincing case that films (and perhaps even life itself) might be more enjoyable without sound!

Watching this definitely benefits from a feel for what Europe in the 1930s might have been like, particularly since the movie is relatively stylized and studio-bound. Other good films about life between Berlin and Paris at that time include Berlin: Symphony of a Great City and Carné's Port of Shadows - Criterion Collection.

A heartbreaking, beautiful portrait of urban life in the City of Love. This was director Rene Clair's first sound film, built around the concept of following a street musician through his daily life. Clair uses the occasion to play with the concept of sound recording: many dramatic scenes are played out silently, while an entire apartment building softly hums the catchy tune sung by chanteur Albert Prejean; in the film's climactic scene, a record on the stereo begins to skip as rival suitors quarrel over the Roumanian belle, Pola Illery. The sound design is as playful as it is inventive, and Clair's command of image and editing is superb. Fans of French "musette" music owe it to themselves to check out this film, which skillfully depicts the nightlife inside one of a Parisian bal mussette dancehall, populared as it was by seedy ruffians and disheartened lovers. A wonderful film; highly recommended.

Rene Clair's first sound film contains innovative cinematic devices that have since become commonplace (but which still retain most of their poetry in this context). A useful tonic for anyone who believes that sound was the death of true cinema, _Under the Roofs of Paris_ shows that even in the clunky early days of sound technology, there were directors who could use it with the freedom and expressiveness found in the best silent films.

Criterion has performed a loving restoration of this French classic, and included a few very nice extras (including an informative television interview and Clair's early short "Paris qui dort"). It's a classic.

It is amazing how quickly some directors mastered sound film almost immediately. Both Ernst Lubitsch in Hollywood and Rene Clair in France adapted to the sound film apparently without effort, and produced some of the earliest masterpieces in their respected countries. Their strategies, however, differed slightly. While Lubitsch employed microphones from beginning to end, Clair, much like Hitchcock in Great Britain with his earliest sound features, blended silent and sound techniques. In UNDER THE ROOFS OF PARIS, Clair has essentially produced a silent film with numerous talking sequences, usually relatively static scenes with conversation and singing. The reason for this was primarily the incapacity of the earliest microphones to accommodate much music. Clair is so masterful in his use of the camera, however, that he makes a virtue out of necessity, and one can only notice the silent nature of much of the film if one looks for it.

Anyone familiar with the work of Andrew Sarris knows that Clair, like Lubitsch and Hitchcock, is placed in his "Pantheon' of the greatest auteurs in the history of film, and one can easily believe it watching this remarkable film. While many early sound directors saw sound as a gimmick, Clair saw it as an opportunity to expand the capacity of film to tell a story.

The story is not like anything that would have been told in Hollywood. The story is boy meets girl, boy kinda gets girl, boy loses girl, and the girl stays lost. A note of danger and sadness underscores the entire movie, despite the sharp humor and song. Albert, a young man who makes his living by selling sheet music in the street, falls deeply in love with Pola, whom he rescues from a petty gangster. While in jail, his best friend befriends Pola, and she falls in love with him. The contrast between Albert, who loves with great constancy, and Pola, who throws her affection from the gangster to Albert to his friend Louis with little or not transition, could not be greater. In the end, while one regrets for Albert's sake that he does not end up with the girl he loves, one cannot help but think that he can do better. Interestingly, Albert is played by Albert Préjean and Pola, who is supposed to be Romanian, is played by Pola Illéry, who was indeed Romanian.

I can't stress enough how enjoyable this film is. Seventy-four years later, the viewer doesn't have to cut this film the tiniest bit of slack to love it. It isn't an artifact, but a vibrant, adorable excursion into the Parisian underworld of 1930. It was not merely one of the first great French sound films made, but one of the great musicals of all time.

During the '30s, René Clair was considered one of the cinema's most stylish innovators and satirists... Now, however, both the 'poetic realism' and the exuberant humor on which his reputation once rested seem shallow and dated...

A critic, and a poet and actor in the serials of Louis Feuillade, the young Clair aligned himself with the French avant-garde of the '20s... Indeed, his silent work may be seen as offshoots of the Dada movement: his debut, "Paris Qui Dort" ("The Crazy Ray"), was a bizarre comic fantasy in which a mad scientist uses a magic ray to render the city immobile; only a group of strangers, safe atop the Eiffel Tower or in a plane, remain conscious to search for the culprit and bring Paris back to life...

Rene Clair has always been the prototype of the kindness and noblesse as well an easy going filmmaker; his entire career colud be described as the most genuine artistic Ambassador of the costumes and typical characters of the great city.

Along his fruitful career, Clair developed and always bet for the best of the mankind. His depictions possesses that naive glance surrounded by a magical spell.

This film is a genuine portrait and a very sincere homage to Paris. An engaging that will captivate you over and over.

I feel a little odd reviewing this movie. I seem to be in complete contrast to what other have to say about this movie. I was left somewhat disappointed.

I have only seen two previous films by French filmmaker Rene Clair. I saw "I Married A Witch" and "Le Million" (So far this is my favorite). So I have nothing against Clair's work. In fact I would say I already consider myself a fan. His work reminds me of the American slapstick comedies being made by Chaplin or Lloyd. And "Under the Roofs of Paris" as pointed out by other reviewers was Clair's first talking film. Though just as in Chaplin's first sound films "City Lights" and "Modern Times" dialogue is kept at a minimal. Much of the film has background music and when actors speak the music stops. The action of the film is always set to music. In fact "Under the Roofs of Paris" could have worked as a silent film. But I just didn't enjoy this movie as much as I did "Le Million" and the reason for that is the story. "Under the Roofs of Paris" has a flimsy story-line. The movie hangs by a very slim thread.

The movie has something to do with two men; Albert (Albert Prejean) and Louis (Edward Greville) falling in love with Pola (Pola Illery), some sort of story going on with a robbery (That is never shown on-screen) involving Bill (Bill Bocket) and Fred (Gaston Mobot). The problem with the film is Pola, who goes from one man to the next. I questioned whether she loved either of them. Or if she was capable to love at all. I didn't understand her character. How she was able to switch so fast from Albert to Louis is beyond me. And they say men are fickle! The other problem has to do with this robbery. Because we never see it on screen we don't know what's going on. Who did they steal it from? Why are the police involved? Was it from some rich family? And why exactly are Albert and Bill friends to begin with. But maybe I'm asking all the wrong questions. Maybe we are not suppose to think when watching this movie. Maybe we are just suppose to sit back and look at it. Well, if we do that "Under the Roofs of Paris" has something to be desired. It has a wonderful look. Much of this DVD transfer that I saw had a crisp clear look. The cinematography is beautiful. And the whole story-line was probably just a lark for Clair. But again, I just felt the movie didn't have the silliness of "Le Million", which had a much better story.

Also on this DVD is Clair's first film "Paris Sleeps" a 20 minute short that at first is quite funny but then goes on a bit too long. Not much happens.

Bottom-line: A confusing story that doesn't explain much and jumps from one situation to the next. The character Pola is a disappointment because she doesn't seem realistic. Has a wonderful look and at times is enjoyable, especially in the beginning.