La gueule ouverte (1974)

Director:

Maurice Pialat

Writer:

Maurice Pialat (writer)

Release Date:

8 May 1974 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Hospital | Throat Cancer | Nudity | Agony | 1970s

Cast

Hubert Deschamps	...	Roger,le père, 'Le Garçu'
Monique Mélinand	...	Monique, la mère
Philippe Léotard	...	Philippe, le fils
Nathalie Baye	...	Nathalie, la fille
Henri Saulquin
Alain Grestau
Anna Gayane
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jean-François Balmer	...	(scenes deleted)
Albert Brunel
Aline Brunel
Jean-Luc Carrit
Christian Dehaux
Marie-Blanche Dehaux
Jean-Dominique de la Rochefoucauld
Corinne Derel
Berthe Dischamps
Jeanne Dulac
Lucien Dulac
Anne-Claude Girard
Mireille Laurenchet
Françoise Pavy
Hélène Sautreau
Jacques Villeret	...	(scenes deleted)
Georges Vimard

Also Known As:

The Mouth Agape (International: English title)

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:12 | Finland:K-16

Company:

Les Films de la Boétie

Cries and whispers

The last picture:Philippe Leotard and Natalie Baye are leaving home behind.He drives at a dizzying speed.Then the father,alone in his deserted house,turns off the light.

The young couple thinks he can escape:it's not pleasant to stay in a house where one of your folks has just died.But actually,it's their OWN death which they fear ... Death is no more an abstract word (which concerns the others),it's something certain.

"La Gueule Ouverte" is Pialat's "Cries and Whispers" (both his film and Bergman's were released at about the same time).But "La Gueule Ouverte" is devoid of aestheticism: directing is icily remote,music is completely absent (with the exception of the scene when Monique Melinand listens to Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte" ),no embellishment; nothing is spared the audience and the fact that such a harrowing screenplay succeeds artistically without falling into the trap of vulgarity or/and sentiment is entirely due to Pialat's natural feeling for economy and sparseness which preclude all forms of conventional sentimentality.

His characters are despicable persons,with the eventual exception of the mother who seems more educated (Pialat seems to indicate she must have suffered from the meanness of her family: the father and the son play around ,even when she is about to die ,the daughter-in-law tries and tries to show some compassion but she's finally completely indifferent.

Nothing is spared the audience indeed .The dying woman 's unbearable breathing -and the scene lasts three interminable minutes- ,the body placed in the coffin, the old man crying his heart out...

My two favorite Pialat movies are this one and "L'Enfance Nue" .The latter deals with the beginning of life ,of a harsh life whilst the former depicts an inhuman death.