The arrival of synchronised sound in the cinema in the late 1920s provoked mixed reactions among French film-makers, and some of the masters of silent film technique were pessimistic about the impact it would have.

In 1927, even before The Jazz Singer had been shown in Paris, René Clair wrote: "It is not without a shudder that one learns that some American manufacturers, among the most dangerous, see in the talking picture the entertainment of the future, and that they are already working to bring about this dreadful prophecy".

[2] It was therefore an irony that it was Clair who would produce the French cinema's first big international success with a sound picture in Sous les toits de Paris.

The company concentrated on prestigious productions, and they recruited René Clair to undertake one of their first French projects with Sous les toits de Paris.

The film begins with a long crane shot (engineered by cameraman Georges Périnal) which starts among the rooftops and then descends along the street closing in on a group of people gathered around a singer, whose song (the title-song) gradually swells up on the soundtrack.

[6] Among the other members of Clair's team on the film were Georges Lacombe as assistant director and Marcel Carné handling script continuity ("secrétaire de plateau").

Sous les toits de Paris was the first of four successful sound films that Clair made for Tobis, all in collaboration with Meerson and Périnal.

[10] The film was first presented at the Moulin Rouge cinema in Paris from 2 May 1930, advertised as "100% talking and singing in French",[11] but it did not at first have more than a modest success in its own country.

[15] After its international acclaim, Sous les toits de Paris was released again in France and this time it enjoyed a real success on its home ground.

Early defenders of the film's warmth and charm, such as Jacques Brunius and Henri-Georges Clouzot,[16] found greater support, and the originality of the approach to sound was better appreciated.

[20] On the other hand, questions which Clair was addressing about the appropriate use of sound in an essentially visual medium continue to be valid, and his film remains a witty exploration of some of the possible answers.