As discussed by Sean Wilentz in his book ‘Bob Dylan in America’, there are similarities between the 1945 Marcel Carné movie ‘Les Enfants du Paradis’ (Children of Paradise) and the creative ideas of Bob Dylan during the Rolling Thunder Revue / Renaldo and Clara.
As a brief background, the French movie is set among the Parisian theatre scene of the 1820s and 30s, it tells the story of a beautiful courtesan, Garance, and the four men who love her. In French, ‘paradis’ refers to the ‘gods’ in a theatre - the second balcony of cheapest cheap seats. Performers know that those seats are filled with regular people who are their ‘bread and butter’ and will give an honest reaction, so they will play to the ‘gods’. The ‘children’ of paradise can therefore refer to the performers themselves or the people in the balcony.
It is the character of Baptiste who is of most interest to Dylan fans (pictured above). A mime who wears white face make-up, he also appears at one point wearing a pale wide-brimmed hat with flowers and a flowing scarf around his neck. In the movie finale, Baptiste has to choose between Garance and his wife in a way that is reminiscent of the triangle in Renaldo and Clara.
I think I read too, that when Bruce Springsteen came to see a RTR show, his girlfriend asked Bob Dylan why he wore the white face. Dylan muttered a reply that he'd “seen something once in a movie..."
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