Murmur of
the Heart aka Le Souffle au Coeur, written and directed by Louis Malle
Nine out of
10
The epitome
of the Oedipus Complex, Murmur of the Heart is a splendid coming of age story.
It was
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Story or Screenplay and the
even more relevant Palme d’Or at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival and for other
prestigious prizes.
The New
York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list has included this film:
Benoit
Ferreux is formidable in the title role of the fourteen-year-old Laurent
Chevalier who is learning about life through books, from girls and a prostitute
–sex worker in the present use of the term.
Above all,
it is his love affair with his mother that seems to have a serious, ever
lasting impact on the hero.
The teenager
lives with his two brothers, the gynecologist father, Charles Chevalier, who
has an affair with his employee from the look of it, and his mother, Clara
Chevalier aka the fabulous Lea Massari.
The three
brothers are provocative, nasty to their house cleaner – when they throw a
party, they turn the place upside down and more serious for the devoted woman,
a girl is kissing the innocent Laurent.
When friends
visit them, the elder brother takes the rebellious behavior to an incredible
level.
The family
owns a Corot – which could be evaluated today at many millions of dollars – and
they know the value of it.
The spoiled,
rude brother asks the guests about the painting and then he states that it is not
clean…
He takes to
the tableau and pretends he wants to clean it, and then he is upset and says a
painting is only worth the canvas and the value of the colors.
That is all
there is to it and the rest is just capitalist, malignant speculation with a
work of art.
Therefore…he
takes a knife and starts cutting thorough the Corot, making guests and family
irate.
In the
background, France had fought a war in Indochina and various opinions are aired
on the subject.
One acquaintance
is on the right of the issue – the hero calls him a Nazi – and feels that a
country that loses its colonies becomes irrelevant, giving the example of Great
Britain.
The elder brothers
take advantage of the absence of three parents one night, loan the car – even if
they have not asked for it and they have no driving license – and take Laurent to
a brothel.
A less
happy, potentially traumatic experience involves Father Henri, portrayed by a
legendary actor, one of the best in the world, Michael Lonsdale – titanic in
the recent Des Hommes et des Dieux.
This cleric
is teaching class, but apart from the useful information, the education of
teenagers, he is a perverse individual –as is alas the case of so many priests –
who grabs the hero.
When the
health of the hero is weak, his mother takes him to a spa, where he is getting
some palliative treatments.
Apart from
showers with a pressure hose, they play tennis and people in the resort admire
the mother.
Clara Chevalier
tells the stories of her coming to France as a refugee, the death of her father
who fought with the partisan, the marriage that took place when she was only
sixteen.
One night,
after she has too much to drink, the emotion is increased by a fight between a
two men over who can dance with her; she is taken to her room, undressed and
caressed by her son.
Their relationship
has anyway been very outré, she said she is not prudish and walked around in
underwear, they played with each other, he took baths with her watching and
finally…they have sex.
Nonetheless,
this is a sophisticated, erudite, philosophical film, with references to artists
and geniuses like Proust and Camus…the latter is quoted with his haunting
statement:
“There is only one really serious philosophical
problem, and that is suicide.”
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