I loved the period and I was particularly attracted to the possibility of bringing the Boulevard du Crime of those times back to life. “Listen,” I said to Prévert, “I go back to Paris to visit the Musée Carnavalet and look at the documents of the Cabinet des Estampes on the period that interests us.” (…) What I discovered at the Cabinet des Estampes went beyond my greatest ex- pectations. I found absolutely everything I was looking for in the prints from the period: documents on the Boulevard du Crime but also on the Théâtre des Funam- bules and other similar venues; drawings of little cafés and taverns of La Courtille in addition to the silhouettes of street vendors and artisans. I asked for and got permission to photograph what interested me in the museum’s specialized area. (…) The immense sets of the Boulevard du Crime was built on a large piece of land next to the Victorine studios, where just a year before stood the white castle of Les Visiteurs du Soir. Nevertheless, we did not want a repeat of what had happened last time: as a precautionary measure, we prepared some “back-up sets” in the studio. The work plan was the following: the Boulevard du Crime (as long as the weath- er conditions made it possible), than the interior shots and nally the return to Paris where lming – considering the vast number of scenes – would have continued in different studios, in particular Joinville and Francœur. Unfortunately, due to the small amount of time given to him and the problems at the time, Bersacq was unable to complete the sets for the outside shots for the planned date. We had to fall back on the interiors, Garance’s boarding house and the infamous tavern.
Marcel Carné, La Vie à belles dents, Jean Vuarnet, Paris 1979

With this crowd – I think above all of the lm’s opening and end – the lmmak- ers made a surprising farandole around the most ephemeral destinies, a storm of perishable individuals, in the light, a whirlwind of puppets who lose them- selves in pleasure. Play on words winds about this extravagant dream, la Bohême of the amusement park where melodrama nds the right habitat. As for the luxuri- ous sets – a furtive luxury – they empha- size the sordid spectrum, the shacks, the backstage. (…) Let’s list other beautiful moments of this lm: that Corot-like landscape, the pantomime scenes, Ar- letty huddling on stage, how we feel her burn with her unhappy love! Fate hangs over the whole lm: each character obeys contradictory impulses and, the victim of passionate density, wanders off lost. (…) I believe Bergson would have loved this whirl of images full of (…) disorganized, vital momentum.
Jean Sollies, Les Enfants du Paradis, “Gavroche”, March 22, 1945