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Les enfants terribles (1950)
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Overview
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Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
28 July 1952 (USA)
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Plot:
Elisabeth is very protective of her teenage brother Paul, who is injured in a snowball fight at school and has to rest in bed most of the time...
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Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Nominated for BAFTA Film Award.
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User Comments:
Creative Schizophrenia - Two Great Auteurs Don't Mix!
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Cast
(Credited cast)| Nicole Stéphane | ... | Elisabeth | |
| Edouard Dermithe | ... | Paul | |
| Renée Cosima | ... | Dargelos / Agathe | |
| Jacques Bernard | ... | Gerard | |
| Melvyn Martin | ... | Michael | |
| Maria Cyliakus | ... | The Mother | |
| Jean-Marie Robain | ... | Headmaster | |
| Maurice Revel | ... | Doctor | |
| Rachel Devirys | |||
| Adeline Aucoc | ... | Mariette | |
| Emile Mathys | ... | Vice Principal | |
| Roger Gaillard | ... | Gerard's Uncle | |
| Jean Cocteau | ... | Narrator (voice) | |
| rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| Hélène Rémy | |||
Additional Details
Also Known As:
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
105 min
Country:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
West Germany:18 (nf) |
UK:12 (2000) |
UK:X (1952) |
UK:X (1976) (re-rating) |
Australia:PG |
Spain:18
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Jean Cocteau was allowed a day of shooting, when Jean-Pierre Melville wasn't feeling up to the mark. Cocteau was to follow Melville's instructions exactly or do nothing at all. Eight shots in all, which were supposed to be of a summer's day but were done in midwinter in the rain.
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (2004) (VG)
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Soundtrack:
Were You Smiling At Me
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (11 total)
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Les enfants terribles (1950)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
|---|---|
| Brilliant | dixon-20 |
| Dermithe too old? | tcsung |
| The Song that Michael sings in this film...? | mackjay2 |
| Music question - Bach? | levi-elijah |
| DVD? | xbhaskarx |
Recommendations
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First, I have to admit that I nearly didn't write this comment at all. I read a rave review of Les Enfants Terribles by an earlier user and agreed with (almost) every word of it. What more was there to add? Then I searched my soul for a day or so, and had to admit that this film REALLY does not work for me - brilliantly directed, skilfully acted, moodily photographed and lyrically scored though it may be.
For all its many splendours, this Melville film of a Cocteau novel suffers from a malady I can only describe as "creative schizophrenia." It is recognisably a work by two highly individual artists, each of whom creates his own distinctive and magical world. No film by Melville could ever be mistaken for anybody else's. The same is true of Cocteau.
How do these two worlds mix together? To put it bluntly, not at all. This is most apparent in the (mis)casting of the androgynous and incestuous brother-sister duo. With his porcelain cheekbones and languid sensuality, Edouard Dhermitte is a classic Cocteau actor. (He was, in fact, Cocteau's lover at the time.) With her politicised Left Bank angst and 'butch' vitality, Nicole Stephane is a classic Melville heroine. (She had starred in his much finer 1947 film Le Silence de la Mer.) These two actors scarcely seem to belong on the same planet, let alone in the same family.
Still more disheartening is the utter lack of allure of Renee Cosima, a pudgy young ingenue who is cast as the brother's two ambisexual love objects - the sadistic schoolboy Dargelos and the lovelorn model Agathe. Lacking even the tiniest flicker of charisma, whether as a man or as a woman, Cosima makes it difficult for us to empathise with the hero's erotic longings, or to care much about the hothouse melodrama that breaks loose as a result.
Try as I might to warm to this film, I cannot help imagining it with a different cast. As the brother and sister, Helmut Berger and Dominique Sanda from The Garden of the Finzi Continis. As the androgynous sexual pirate Agathe/Dargelos, maybe Katharine Hepburn from Sylvia Scarlett or Indrid Thulin from The Magician or (why not?) the immortal Anne Carlisle from Liquid Sky. Most important of all - and I know this smacks of heresy - I would much rather Cocteau had directed it himself. One great auteur should be enough for any film.
David Melville