Murmur of the Heart (Le souffle au coeur)
Directed by Louis Malle
Written by Louis Malle
1971/France
First viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Tagline:Â Who Would Have Thought a Film About Incest Could Be So Warm, So Fresh and So Funny?
Louis Malle is one of my favorite directors but this was a let-down.
Laurent Chavalier (Benoit Ferreux) is fourteen going on fifteen. Â He lives with his boring pedantic gynecologist father, his gorgeous free-spirited Italian mother, and his two older teenage brothers, who revel in playing mean pranks. Â The children are basically allowed to run wild as the parents are absent for significant periods of time. Â Laurent is the only scholar in the bunch
Laurent is on the cusp of manhood. Â His brothers buy a prostitute for him but play a mean trick before the big moment. Â Laurent makes some comically awkward advances on girls his own age with little success. Â He is discovering the pleasures of pornography and monopolizes the bathroom. Â Lauren also discovers that her mother is meeting a lover on the sly.
About halfway through the story Laurent is diagnosed with a heart murmur. Â The treatment is bed rest followed by a month at a health spa. Â Mom dotes on him during his illness. Â She also spends a lot of time running around the house in her underwear. Â Then they go to the spa together and are forced to share the same room. Laurent meets some girls with whom he flirts. Â Then the lover shows up. Â I’ll stop here. Â The last two or three minutes of this film are golden.
I just don’t think spoiled brats and their mean-spirited mischief are very funny. Â So I had the same problem with this as I did with Malle’s Zazie dans le metro (1960). Â This movie is full of that kind of stuff. Â When it focuses mostly on Laurent’s woman problems, it can be amusing and even insightful. Â The incest is treated as well as it possibly could have, but it’s still kind of icky. Â It’s a beautifully made film. I will give it that.
Louis Malle received an Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=597LmMREnsY&t=39s
