Les enfants terribles

Name: Les enfants terribles
Genre: Drama
Released: 1950-03-29
Duration: 1 h 45 min
Rating: 7.1
Cast: Nicole Stéphane, Edouard Dermithe, Renée Cosima

19501950
Not RatedNot Rated
1h 45m

7.1/10

3.9K

Drama

The dangerously obsessive relationship between a psychologically manipulative brother and sister who isolate themselves and draw others into their mind games.The dangerously obsessive relationship between a psychologically manipulative brother and sister who isolate themselves and draw others into their mind games.The dangerously obsessive relationship between a psychologically manipulative brother and sister who isolate themselves and draw others into their mind games.

7.1/10

3.9K

Director
- Jean-Pierre Melville
Writers
- Jean Cocteau(novel)
- Jean-Pierre Melville(uncredited)
Stars

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award
- 2 nominations total

Edouard Dermithe and Nicole Stéphane in Les enfants terribles (1950)

Nicole Stéphane in Les enfants terribles (1950)

Edouard Dermithe in Les enfants terribles (1950)

Jacques Bernard, Renée Cosima, Edouard Dermithe, and Nicole Stéphane in Les enfants terribles (1950)

In a snowball fight between schoolboys the handsome Dargelos hits the chest of Paul, who drops unconscious to the ground. Paul has a deep affection for Dargelos, and later denies that there was a stone in the snowball that hit him. Back home Paul's sister Elisabeth takes care of him. The teenage siblings live together in one room, where they have developed several private games. Paul's schoolmate Gérard is secretly enamored of Elisabeth, and often stays with them. When Elisabeth introduces her new friend Agathe to Paul, he recognizes that she resembles Dargelos strongly, and immediately falls in love with her. Elisabeth marries a rich young American Jew, Michael, but he dies in a car accident the day after the wedding. Elisabeth inherits his big apartment with 18 rooms and a gallery, and the four friends move into it. Paul sleeps in the gallery, where he builds a replica of the siblings' old room. Both Paul and Agathe are secretly enamored of the other. When each of them reveals this to Elisabeth, she gets jealous, and starts developing a sinister plot to turn them away from each other. —Maths Jesperson {maths.jesperson1@comhem.se}

incestuous relationship lesbian subtext homosexual subtext psychotic killer psychotic woman 39 more

Taglines
- a love story by Jean Cocteau
Genre
- Drama
Certificate
- Not Rated
Parents guide

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.

Goofs
The amount of blood on Paul's face changes between when he is in the shop and when he is in the taxi.

Quotes
Narrator: Young people imagine the worst right away, yet the worst seems unreal to them, since they're unable to imagine death.

Alternate versions
The song that Michael sings while sitting at the piano was deleted for the original American release.

Connections
Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Une vague nouvelle (1999)

Soundtracks
Concerto in A minor for 2 violins and string orchestra (Opus 3, No. 8; RV 522)
Written by Antonio Vivaldi

Top review

Fate lends a hand to unraveling relationships.

Jean Cocteau, considered one of the foremost French artists of the 20th century, wrote and narrated this bizarrely familial tale about a brother and sister who have a strong love/hate relationship that expresses itself in high-strung shouting bouts that result in one of them storming out of the room. Clearly, this is a volatile relationship that is only made worse when the elder sister, Elisabeth, marries a young, rich mogul named Mike who unexpectedly leaves his entire fortune to her. Adding to this drama is the brother, Paul, being injured in a snowball fight and forced to rest extensively in Elisabeth's mansion.

As a young girl and man that are acquaintances of the siblings enter the equation, the drama heats up which leads to serious revelations and underlying feelings coming to the surface. Such a story in the early 1950s had to be seen, even in Europe, as somewhat controversial given the incestuous undertones of Elisabeth and Paul's relationship. Even so, to see classic Cocteau as directed by a young, up-and-coming Jean-Pierre Melville still feeling out his soon to be unique and inspired style.

Though at times a bit French-flavored melodrama and bizarre psycho- sexual encounters, Les Enfants Terribles still has enough power and creative camera work to engage the viewer up until the blunt conclusion.

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