Children of Paradise

Children of Paradise DVD Menus

Here's a selection of DVD menu designs for The Criterion Collection's Children of Paradise. It's a two-part film spread over a two disc set (for the DVD at least) and it's packed with all kinds of extras which makes for a lot of screens. These are just a portion of them.

One of the challenges with this package was to interweave the whimsical sensibility of the Alexandre Trauner production painting which appears on the cover (as well as the theatrical re-release poster) with the film imagery. I stuck with type styles that were true of 19th century France and at the same time reflected of a certain 1940's aesthetic as well. The result is more storybook than history book which really seemed in accord with the movie.



















Two by Marcel Carné

On September 18th, The Criterion Collection releases two films by Marcel Carné; Children of Paradise and Les Visiteurs du Soir. I had the pleasure of designing for each. The pair feature cover art by Alexandre Trauner who served as production designer on both of the films. These are actual production paintings and, without giving too much away, there's more where that came from. I recreated the title treatments for the covers based on each of the film's main titles. You can read about the process for Children of Paradise here. I'll have more to show of these packages as the release date nears. In the meantime, if you can't wait to see Children of Paradise and you happen to be near where this spectacular restoration is touring, do check it out. You'll be glad you did!

Children of Paradise

Poster for the Janus Films release of the restored Children of Paradise.

The beautiful painting was created by production designer Alexandre Trauner for the 1945 film. I got a peek at several of the production design paintings while working on this and they're all pretty sprecial.

For the poster, art director Sarah Habibi invited me to compose a title treatment based on the main title card, translating the original, les Enfants du Paradis. The title sequence is a gorgeous mix of French scripts and display faces --all hand lettered, naturally. This solution would be no quick trip to the font library. All of my letters are custom drawn too.

The spectacularly restored film is making it's tour of the U.S. this spring. For more information on Children of Paradise, the touring schedule --as well as a video demonstration of the painstaking restoration proces-- be sure visit the Janus Films website.

• Janus Films