MovieChat Forums > Les enfants terribles (1952) Discussion > Brilliant

Brilliant

posted 15 years ago by dixon-20
6 replies | jump to latest

I thought this was a brilliant film. I'm a bit disappointed that few people voted on it (mostly favorably, a 7..5 rating by 738 votes in all). I guess foreign films don't get much of a look in. Pity.

Roy.

[–] franzkabuki 15 years ago

Well it may - and probably would - have been brilliant if it weren´t for the unnecessary voiceover that´s both too literary and too literal in its in-your-face directness. A film like this would´ve definitely benefitted from a bit more subtle, ambiguous approach.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] ghbbrown-1 15 years ago

I watched this because I've enjoyed what I've seen of Melville's films. I'm not sold on Cocteau--his work is too precious or I'm too Philistine--or both. So, the thing was lovely to look at but the characters just irritated me to distraction. Dermitte was super fine in appearance-for a 25 year old, but unbelievable even for a precocious French teen. I stayed awake and muted Cocteau's voiceover. On the other hand, the description of the poison reeking "of pestilence and geraniums" was charming.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Bree_33 9 years ago

10/10. A great claustrophobic/atmospheric film. In his review, François Truffaut described LEs Enfants...as "One of the few olfactory films in the history of cinema" (its odor is of children’s sickrooms). Truffaut felt that the places and situations created by Melville were as much sensorial as physical.

☁☀☁

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[–] Jes' Sayin' (6015) 2 years ago

Not very useful if you've never been in a child's sickroom.

[–] amazingann 9 years ago

I loved the Cocteau book Les Enfants Terrible when I was in college 35 years ago, and read it many times. I saw the film for the first time last night, now that I am in my 50s. It took me back to the feelings and reverence of my youth, so did a great job of evocation. I can’t (or don’t want to) evaluate the film on its own merits, and from a more mature (worn down?) position. I enjoyed how it recreated the mood of the book, which seems entirely worthwhile.

Back in my 20s, I loved the book because it seemed like a story out of time, a myth, although set in contemporary trappings. The siblings lived in a surreal other world of their fashioning, which had meaning and moment imbued into it by the force of their characters. Ordinary items became magic by being placed in the treasure chest. This is what being young felt like for me – one is in a fantastic protected room, away from the larger world with its dreary requirements and mundane preoccupations.