Les Enfants terribles
Jean-Pierre Melville
Elisabeth and her brother Paul are very close, living in an isolated world they have created in which they share their rituals and games. Elisabeth marries, and is widowed the following day, inheriting an immense fortune. The brother and sister move into a luxurious mansion where their reconstruct their "kingdom". But now, a friend of Paul and a friend of Elisabeth come to live with them, disturbing their sibling intimacy...
With : Nicole Stéphane, Edouard Dhermitte, Jacques Bernard, Renée Cosima, Adeline Aucoc
Screenplay : Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean Cocteau (d'après le roman éponyme de Jean Cocteau)
Image : Henri Decaë
Sound : Jacques Gallois, Jacques Carrère
Editing : Monique Bonnot
Decors : Jean-Pierre Melville
Screenplay : Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean Cocteau (d'après le roman éponyme de Jean Cocteau)
Image : Henri Decaë
Sound : Jacques Gallois, Jacques Carrère
Editing : Monique Bonnot
Decors : Jean-Pierre Melville
Production : O.G.C.
Distribution: Théâtre du temple
Distribution: Théâtre du temple
"I have always loved Les Enfants terribles, it was one of my favourite books as a teenager, but I must admit that I wouldn't have thought of turning it into a film. I wanted to film something different after Le Silence de la mer, but not a literary adaptation. Being chosen by Cocteau probably flattered me somewhat, and very quickly I got carried along in the whole story" (J-P Melville). With a very personal version of Cocteau's text, and without giving way much to the poet's demands, Melville made a film which made a deep mark on the New Wave. "When the film came out in 1950, the Cocteau-Melville film was like nothing else in French cinema at the time, but Les Enfants terribles restored to the screen the deep, powerful and bewitching charm of the novel it portrayed so faithfully and in which the whole youth of 1930 could recognise itself" (François Truffaut).