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Les Enfants Terribles [1949] [DVD]
 
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Les Enfants Terribles [1949] [DVD]

DVD ~ Nicole Stéphane
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
RRP: £19.99
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Frequently Bought Together

Les Enfants Terribles [1949] [DVD] + Jean Cocteau Collection [DVD] + Orphee [DVD] [1950]
Total RRP: £59.97
Price For All Three: £34.84

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Product details

  • Actors: Nicole Stéphane, Edouard Dermithe, Renée Cosima, Jacques Bernard, Melvyn Martin
  • Directors: Jean Cocteau, Jean-Pierre Melville
  • Writers: Jean Cocteau, Jean-Pierre Melville
  • Producers: Jean-Pierre Melville
  • Format: Black & White, Full Screen, PAL
  • Language English, French
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 12
  • Studio: Bfi Video
  • DVD Release Date: 30 Aug 2004
  • Run Time: 102 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B0002GZA4S
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 31,427 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

Jean-Pierre Melville's second film, made in 1950, became a significant influence among French film-makers and earned Melville renown as a maverick who could do wonderful things outside his country's studio system. (Melville's independence was a forerunner of that enjoyed later in the decade by New Wave figures such as François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.) Les Enfants Terribles is based on a 1929 novel by poet and film-maker Jean Cocteau, who also wrote the script with Melville and according to some people interfered in everything from the casting (the rather stiff male lead was a Cocteau protégé) to the photography. Nevertheless, the story of a sister (an outstanding performance by Nicole Stephane) and brother (Edouard Dhermite) who withdraw into their own, insulated world to play out suggestively erotic dramas, has a fluid, lyrical movement that is part of a visionary whole. In some ways a harbinger of the coming pop narcissism of youth culture, Les Enfants Terribles is also a timeless tale of mythic exploration of existence and purpose. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com


Synopsis

Cinema giants Jean-Pierre Melville (THE WAGES OF FEAR) and Jean Cocteau (LA BELLE AT LA BETE) collaborated to create LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES, a stunning portrait of surreal perversion and narcissism based on Cocteau's novel of the same name. When teenage Paul, the fragile protagonist, is mysteriously felled by a powerful snowball thrown by his dastardly and handsome idol, Dargelos, he returns home to recuperate under the unwilling care of his irascible sister, Elisabeth. The two share a bedroom in the home of their ailing mother. Within the their bedroom, the siblings have constructed a private universe of erotically charged jokes, elaborate rituals, and coded behaviour sealing them off from the rest of the world. When their mother unexpectedly dies Paul and Elisabeth spiral even further into their own world, with Paul's fragile condition keeping him from returning to school. The incestuous undertones and poisonous ambiance are further complicated as Paul and Elisabeth are joined first by Paul's friend Gerard, who is obsessed with Elisabeth, and finally by Agathe, Elisabeth's colleague who is the spitting image of Paul's nemesis Dargelos. As the diabolical Elisabeth becomes unable to hide her dangerous love for Paul, the film heads for its high-pitched climax. Cocteau's tale of sublimation and deception comes to life under Melville's lucid direction.

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing and disturbing novel brought to life., 8 Jun 2007
By pointone (Bournemouth UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
Jean Cocteau's 1929 novel "les Enfants Terribles" is something something once read never forgotten. This film from 1949 with a screenplay by Cocteau who closely oversaw every aspect of the production brings the book to life Cocteau also narrates the voice over.

Siblings Elisabeth (Nicole Stephane) and Paul (Edouard Demithe) have a quasi incestuous relationship sleeping in the same bedroom, the aggressive Elisabeth constantly arguing with her brother, and sharing obsessive behaviour collecting useless "treasures" and sharing secrets.

They are later joined in this cluttered hothouse existence by Gerard (Jaques Bernard) and Agathe (Renee Cosima).

Cocteau draws us in to an unnatural but possible world of perverted adolescence, illuminated by the magic of his writing.

Highly recommended.
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2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Let's blame Cocteau, 26 Aug 2007
By John Eyon "Little Raven" (Seattle - USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is a film I wish Jean-Pierre Melville never made. It's so removed from his milieu that I can't help being reminded of Alfred Hitchcock's involvement with the romantic comedy, MR AND MRS SMITH. It seems, however, that Melville wanted to do it so he has only himself to blame.

Here we are treated to a couple of overbearing teenagers orphaned early in the story -- apparently without emotional effect. Their story in the first part of the film is mostly confined to their shared bedroom in which torment each other at the top of their lungs. Some people are fascinated by this psychopathology, but it was pure hell for me.

Nicole Stéphane as the sister has been revered for her performance -- yet I found it constantly over-the-top. I tolerated the performance of the actor playing the brother, Edouard Dermithe, better -- while he was roundly jeered by the critics. Because I don't speak French, I am reacting to only part of his performance.

An hour into the movie, and 46 minutes before the end, the film finally opens up and shows some momentum. That's about the time the American appears. He sings a pleasant ballad with a pleasant-enuf voice. Then the film begins to descend again, but it ends before it sinks to previous depths.

Jean Cocteau's source novel is considered a classic. Many people rank this film as a classic. That may be all you need to know about it.

If, like me, you want to see everything Melville did, than you have already decided to see this film. Just be aware that it is nothing like Melville's others ... I'm happy to say.
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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars superb, 21 May 2006
By me (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Les Enfants Terribles (Vintage Crucial Classics) (Paperback)
Although it took me a few pages to warm to Cocteau's ocasioanlly overdone prose, there is no denying the power of this novella.

Paul and Lise play "The Game" brilliantly, and follow it to a conclusion that in less sure hands would be melodramic but stays with you after reading.

Cocteau understands the mindset of children- perhaps people in geneal- on a fundamental level and has written a superb lttle book.
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2.0 out of 5 stars Cocteau's to blame
This is a weird movie, in that there is a creative conflict between the director, Jean-Pierre Melville, and Jean Cocteau, the author of the novel and the screenplay, and the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Peter Scott-presland

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