Les Enfants terribles (1950) - film review

Paul and Elisabeth are a teenage brother and sister who live with their dying mother in a cramped apartment.  When Paul is injured in a snowball fight, the overly protective Elisabeth takes care of him, although she also taunts him.  The two siblings are inseparable. They share the same bedroom, have the same interests and play strange games together.  They live in a world of their own.  But then their mother dies and Elisabeth decides to marry a wealthy business man.  The siblings’ former habits are resumed when Elisabeth’s husband is killed in a car accident.  Together, they create a new world for themselves, with their friends Gérard and Agathe, living in the grand mansion that Elisabeth has inherited.  Then, one day, Elisabeth discovers that Agathe and Paul are in love.  Jealousy can be a very powerful emotion...

Jean Cocteau’s 1929 novel about two adolescent siblings trapped in a near-incestuous relationship was provocative when it was first published but its transition to the big screen met with even stronger condemnation.  Many commentators in the French media attacked it for its blatant allusions to incest (citing the infamous scene in which the brother and sister take a bath together) whilst the Catholic press was adamant that the film was unsuitable for anyone to watch.  For all the hostility it stirred up, Les Enfants terribles is a work of considerable merit which distinguishes itself from most films of its time, not only in its controversial subject matter, but also in its distinctive design and unsettling lyricism.

The film was the product of one of the most improbable partnerships in cinema history, between the poet-playwright Jean Cocteau and filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville (who is best known today for his hardboiled gangster films).  Cocteau chose Melville to adapt his novel having seen his debut film Le Silence de la mer (1949), which he considered a cinematic revolution.  The film they made together is not perfect - it lacks the lucidity and coherence of Cocteau’s own directorial efforts - but it is an inspired cinematic digression into unchartered territory.  What it delivers is a chilling depiction of an obsessive love between a brother and sister - a brutally destructive amour fou which poisons not just their own lives but also the lives of those around them.

To say that Melville and Cocteau had difficulty seeing eye to eye would be to understate things somewhat.  They could hardly agree on anything.  Cocteau foisted his young protegé Edouard Dermithe onto Melville, insisting he play Paul, even though he is patently too old and too inexperienced for the part.  Likewise, Cocteau objected to Melville’s choice of Nicole Stéphane for the part of Elisabeth - the actress had previously featured in Le Silence de la mer (1949) and gives her best performance in this film.  Another source of contention was the casting of actress Renée Cosima for the dual role Dargelos-Agathe, in a somewhat clumsy attempt to reinforce Cocteau’s original homoerotic concept (the attempt fails as Cosima is not remotely convincing as a teenage boy).  Melville and Cocteau even disagreed on the choice of music, Melville finally getting his way by using classical music (Vivaldi and Bach).  The poor working relationship between Cocteau and Melville is reflected in the film’s uneven texture, lack of narrative focus and the all too obvious conflict between the former’s unworldly poetry and the latter’s bitter materialism.  The film should have been a disaster but somehow it isn’t.

What saves Les Enfants terribles and prevents it from slipping into a chaotic mishmash of conflicting artistic visions is some superlative work from cinematographer Henri Decaë, which miraculously irons out the artistic differences between author and director.  Decaë had already broken new ground on Le Silence de la mer, using the camera and lighting in a way that achieves much greater realism and intimacy than traditional techniques.  Decaë would later become one of the most sought-after directors of the French New Wave, working on Claude Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge (1958), Louis Malle’s Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (1958) and François Truffaut’s Les 400 coups (1959), as well as some of Melville’s best films, including Le Samouraï (1967).  Decaë’s work on Les Enfants terribles is especially noteworthy - his use of reflections, unusual camera motion (achieved through use of a hand-held camera), and shots taken from the most unexpected angles achieve the eeriest dreamlike feel.  What Decaë creates is a darkly oppressive mindscape that powerfully evokes the twisted relationship of the two principal characters.   Together, Decaë and Melville take Cocteau’s haunting study in sibling mutual dependency and fashion from it one of the most innovative and disturbing films of the pre-New Wave decade.

© James Travers 2011

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