Under the Roofs of Paris

A street in Paris. Albert sells song sheets in the road, handing out the words while the crowd sings along with him. He falls for Pola, a Romanian woman; so does his friend Louis. A local gang gets involved. The story is simple; the event is the street itself. René Clair writes and directs. Its place in history concerns sound. In 1930 sound film was two years old and most productions fixed the camera and lined the actors up in front of the microphone. Clair did the opposite and used sound selectively. Some scenes are entirely silent, in others speech is heard through glass, in others there is only music. Sound is used as material rather than as an obligation. That is also why the opening shot is remembered. The camera descends from the rooftops to the street, and the song is heard first from a distance and then close. The film did moderate business in France and was a large success in Germany and elsewhere in Europe; it established Clair's international reputation. The street was built on a stage by Lazare Meerson and counts as a threshold in French production design. Who it is for: viewers curious about early sound cinema and French film of the thirties. Who it is not for: the story is thin, the acting belongs to the silent template, and the pace is very slow by current measure.