So a brother and sister just fight for an hour and forty six minutes. In French. And it looks ten years older than it is. Couldn't finish it.
shareThe question should be "why did I bother..?" It's not your cup of tea but others might like it. There was a bit more going on than fighting you know.
shareDitto. I tried, as well. I love foreign movies - French, Italian, Japanese, and others. But this was over the line. I got most of the way through it, but it began to wear on me. Like walking through a swamp in waist-deep mud. Not for me.
vmwrites
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I absulutely concur. I don't doubt Cocteau's work, but more an inability on my part to understand it. I often rely on commentary to better understand film, so I can appreciate it. Let's say I just didn't get it. If you could help explain what I should look for, I will rent it again and give it a second chance.
I remember having the same trouble years ago in college, when my prof decided to use Albert Camus' "The Stranger" in freshman English. I still don't understand existentialism, but I keep trying.
Any help on Les Enfants Terrible will be appreciated.
vmwrites
Any help on Les Enfants Terribles will be appreciated.Well, both the Criterion and the BfI have running commentaries: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews4/lesenfantsterribles.htm share
I found it visually arresting and hypnotically compelling, so I guess, to each his own.
It's odd that you would come here to brag about not finishing it. I came here to find out if people were discussing something that happens somewhere in the middle, when compassion blossoms for these rather unlikeable characters (I found them interesting at first, though unlikeable, then by the end, I cared very much about most of them). I can't quite pin down how or when they accomplish that trick. And Nicole Stephane was a startlingly gifted actress.
Has anyone seen The Dreamers? Am I the only one who thinks it's a deliberate homage to Les Enfants Terribles?
It is deliberate. The original title of the source novel was "Holy Innocents", as reference to the English title of Les Enfants Terribles being "Holy Terrors". The author of The Dreamers studied Cocteau and his own novel was inspired in part by that work. He talks about it in commentary tracks for both films, I believe.
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would it have been better if they fought in Portuguese?
it really takes off in the final 20 minutes, and you missed a heck of an ending
It's alright Cissy. I sterilized the scissors.
it really takes off in the final 20 minutes, and you missed a heck of an ending
When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...share
I didn't like Terribles either. I would consider myself a fan of Cocteau, but this is an example how he can occasionally be a bit too gay.
It is blunt force cinema, which when done well is worthy, but this never really became interesting to me.
No likable characters is not always a bad thing, but in this film I just don't care either way. There is no real impetus to embrace this story (my point of view).
Well directed, well acted, true. That doesn't mean I enjoy the film.
But I don't question Criterion for producing a dvd for it because it is useful for Melville or Cocteau completists.
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Why bother to post if you didn't finish watching?
fleapit
The fact that you wrote "in French" proves that you're an American. An ignorant one at that.
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