‘Children of Paradise’

The last film the New Beverly Cinema will be showing in 2009 is one of the best films ever made and a great personal favorite of mine. That would be the 1945 French epic “Children of Paradise,” directed by Marcel Carn and written by Jacques Prévert. Bursting with life and spirit, this is one of cinema’s great explorations of love, and the humanity and complexity of its relationships make it the rare film with the emotional texture of a 19th century novel. As a piece of romantic/dramatic cinema, its peers are few, its superiors quite simply nonexistent. Sunday at 4 p.m., Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. New Beverly, 7165 W. Beverly Blvd., L.A.

FOR THE RECORD:
“Children of Paradise”: A Critics’ Picks in Thursday’s Calendar about the French film “Children of Paradise” misspelled the last name of the film’s director Marcel Carne as Carn. —

-- Kenneth Turan