There once lived a man named Oedipus Rex.
(You may have heard about his odd complex.)
His name appears in Freud’s index
‘Cause he loved his mother.

His rivals used to say quite a bit
That as a monarch he was quite unfit
But still in all they had to admit
That he loved his mother.

He loved his mother like no other.
His daughter was his sister and his son was his brother.
One thing on which you can depend is
He sure knew who a boy’s best friend is.

When he saw what he had done
He tore his eyes out one by one –
A tragic end to a loyal son
Who loved his mother.

So, be sweet and kind to mother, now and then have a chat,
Buy her flowers or some candy or a brand new hat,
But maybe you had better let it go at that
Or you may find yourself with a quite complex complex
And, you may end up like Oedipus
(I rather marry a duck-billed platypus
Than end up like old Oedipus Rex).

. . . . lyrics of song by Tom Lehrer

This is a very good film and one that you might want to check out, but, ladies, this is not one to go to with your sons! That could be way too awkward.

Historical Background: Louis Malle worked both sides of the Atlantic, though his French films, such as The Lovers (1959), Zazie (1960), Murmur of the Heart (1971), Lacombe, Lucien (1974), and Black Moon (1975), and Au Revoir les Enfants (1987) outshine his American efforts, such as Pretty Baby (1978) and Atlantic City (1981). Murmur of the Heart was based on Malle’s own boyhood experiences – except for the incestuous element, which he added for spice.

The Story: Laurent Chevalier (Benoit Ferreux) is a gangly and intelligent 15-year-old who is trying to make sense out of his world, his burgeoning sexuality, girls and women, a lecherous priest, and an unusually sensuous and immodest mother. Adding to his problems are two crude, insensitive, and boorish older brothers, Thomas (played by Benoit Ferreux’s actual older brother, Fabien Ferreux) and Marc (Marc Winocourt). Their father (Daniel Gélin) is on the mark when he complains that he is stuck with two idiots and a boy genius! The father has also been dealt a wife, Clara (Léa Massari), who is a good deal more sexually active than he is. He’s an emotionally distant gynecologist while she is a saucy and vivacious pound of passion. She is having an extramarital affair and even flirts with boys in her son’s age group. She lavishes her own sons with plenty of hugs and kisses, especially Laurent, who is still her baby. It’s tough enough for a 15-year-old to rein in his secret urge to jump the bones of every plausible female but all the tougher when the most desirable include your own mother. Then, too, he has to deal with a priest, Father Henri (Michel Lonsdale) who likes to see if he can put his hands all the way around the thighs of his school lads.

His brothers are no help whatsoever. They take him to a brothel, offering to pay for his first sexual encounter. Laurent is matched up by the Madame with Freda (Gila von Weitershausen), a prostitute in her twenties who specializes in the virgins. His drunken mean-spirited brothers, however, have in mind merely a lesson in involuntary interruptus, yanking him out by the ankles in the middle of his joy ride.

Laurent is found to have a heart murmur and this well-healed family has the wherewithal to send him to an expensive health spa for treatment. His mother will keep him company, except when she’s off for a tryst with her lover. This gives Laurent the spare time that every boy requires to sort through his mother’s bras, panties, nylons, and the like. At the spa, Laurent flirts with the pretty Fernande (Liliane Sorval), but she’s saving herself for marriage. He peeks at his mother in the tub, which earns him a slap across the face, followed by more hugs and kisses by way of guilt.

SPOILER ALERT. SKIP THE NEXT TOO PARAGRAPHS TO RETAIN SHOCKING SURPRISES!

Laurent and his mother attend the big Bastille Day bash sponsored by the spa for the patrons, and both get half wasted. Clara has to fend off two slobbering, pawing middle-aged men and needs Laurent to get herself home safely. Clara is too drunk to undress herself, so Laurent, ever the dutiful son, obliges. Laurent hops into bed beside Maman, as he calls her, and apparently storms the Bastille, though what happens exactly is mercifully left to each viewer’s imagination. Certainly there’s evident passion on both sides. In the morning, Clara says to her son that she sincerely hopes that he will not feel any guilt or reproach, that they should each simply remember it as a special moment, and that they’ll never speak of it again. Laurent trusts his mother’s advice and agrees.

Soon, however, he’s off to test his newfound wings of passion with the younger hens. He finds Fernande in her room and nearly assaults her, but she refuses. Without batting an eyelash, Laurent asks Fernande which room Daphne (Corinne Kersten) is in – another cute young girl and not so inconveniently virtuous as Fernande. Returning to his own room after spending the entire night with Daphne, he discovers visitors – his father and both brothers – demanding to know where he’s been. Father barely manages to offer that the explanation had better be good before breaking into laughter, along with the brothers. Soon Clara is laughing with them as well, all pleased that their youngest has become a young man. They may be weird, but this is a loving family after all!

Themes: It is interesting how differently Malle handles the two principal themes: the raunchiness of hyper-hormonal adolescent boys and mother-son incest. The former Malle presents in the full glory of its crudeness while the latter he handles with tasteful sensitivity. One can’t help but feel that he was taking the measure of what the public could bear in each category. The obnoxious brothers engage in a grotesque penis-measuring event, torment the servants, steal from their parents, and spoil their little brother's first sexual experience. There’s very little to like about either one of them.

I suppose that one ought to be shocked at the incest scene but, quite honestly, I wasn’t and neither, it appears, are most other reviewers. Incest may be the biggest taboo of all, but my humble system of morality is both more simple and more complex than Christian sexual repression or the uptight Puritanism of present day America. I prefer the more relaxed European attitude toward sexuality and nudity. Moreover, I’m just not into arbitrary rules, even with respect to such basic issues as incest. My overriding moral standard is whether an act causes more harm than good when all who are affected are taken into account. The extenuating circumstances (disinhibition caused by intoxication, sensuous mother, libidinous but frustrated boy) and the deft handling of the potential psychological trauma by the mother in the aftermath left me feeling that no significant harm had been done and some good may have even come out of the experience for Laurent. He’s learned about sex from a sympathetic experienced woman and I don’t imagine we’ll be seeing him tear his eyes out. I will say, however, that, percentage-wise, one can count on the vast majority of instances of incest (or even simply sex between any adult and a child) are going to be highly exploitive situations and damaging to the child. Malle has presented the exception that proves the rule rather than a case history that establishes an alternative rule. There’s an interesting moment, earlier in the film, when the three brothers walk into the brothel and a couple of the prostitutes spot them. One says to the other, “Look at that one, he’s the same age as my son.” There’s something of an innuendo of pseudo-incest anytime two people who are a generation or more apart in age have sex.

Production Values: Murmur of the Heart is well-filmed and maintains a nice, quick pace throughout. There’s no long dry spells in the script and viewer attention is maintained pretty well. The soundtrack features a lot of jazz, as that is what Laurent is into, especially Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Swing for the swinging life these folks live in France.

Benoit Ferreux is superbly cast as Laurent, providing all of the adorable gangliness so evident at fifteen. Léa Massari is also perfect for the part of the exceptionally sensuous mother. She is the kind of middle-aged woman that would excite lust in all of the friends of her sons. The only exceptional aspect of this film, really, is that she also excites similar feelings in her sons. Léa Massari is best known for her performance as Anna in Antonioni’s L’Avventura (1960). Daniel Gélin, who played the father, also appeared in La Ronde (1950), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Testament of Orpheus (1959), and La Nuit de Varennes (1982). Michel Lonsdale, who played the priest, has a long resume of appearances in such films as Stolen Kisses (1968), The Phantom of Liberty (1974), Stavisky (1974), The Romantic Englishwoman (1975), and Moonraker (1979), in which he played Drax.

Bottom-Line: Murmur of the Heart pretty much works as well today as it did when fresh out of the can in 1971, though the controversial elements seem less heady today after decades of raunchy offerings out of Hollywood in the teen genre. I would respect this film a lot more if it didn’t seem so evident that it was designed with box office appeal squarely in mind. It’s as if Malle lacked confidence that his childhood experiences were charming enough to command interest without the addition of several rather tawdry and exploitive sensationalist elements: the molesting priest, the incestuous mother-son relationship, lesbian jokes, and the penis length comparisons. It’s not that any of these elements are objectionable; only that they seem contrived. Still, it’s a very good and entertaining film. Murmur of the Heart is in French with English subtitles and has a running time of 118 minutes.

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age