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The Arrival of SoundFilm 5 of 12
Under the Roofs of Paris
Sous les toits de Paris
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René Clair, Films Sonores Tobis, Epinay, 1930. Albert (Albert Préjean), a street singer, and Pola (Pola Illéry) live under zinc roofs; a thief (Gaston Modot as Fred) complicates the courtship. Clair had a whole street built so the camera could travel from garret to cobbles. He treats sound as a gag and a distance: a song that will not stay in one room, a fight heard more than seen. One of the first French features designed for sound rather than retrofitted. The roofs are a set, and they look like Paris anyway.
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Clair drowns speech in street noise and lets a song wander from room to room. A whole street built at Epinay so the camera could travel from garret to cobbles. The fight happens in the dark and you hear more than you see. Sound used as distance.
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