Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) directed nine films, many of them based on his own stage plays. Oddly, he did not direct the films of either of his major novels, Thomas, the Impostor (directed by Georges Franju in 1964) or Les Enfants Terribles (directed by Jean-Pierre Melville in 1949-50). Cocteau was plenty involved in the latter, writing the screenplay, often on set, and forcing his new boy toy (Edouard Dermithe with dyed platinum hair) into the leading male role, of the delicate Paul. (Cocteau cast Dermithe in his own "Orphée" in a supporting role; the title character was Dermithe's predecessor as Cocteau's protégé, Jean Marais).

Paul is supposed to be 16 as well as delicate. Dermithe was 25 and quite strapping. His supposed classmate, the sensible Gérard was played by the 21-year-old Jacques Bernard. Both of them look way too mature to be schoolboys in short shorts. And the tough boy whom Paul idolizes (and by whom Paul is struck down by a snowball wrapped around a stone), Dargelos is played by a 28-year-old woman, Renée Cosima (she returns as Agathe, fascinating Paul for her resemblance to the thug who was expelled from school after injuring Paul).

The film "Les Enfants Terribles" is stylized (as much as "Orphée" or "La belle et la bête," the two masterpieces Cocteau himself directed). Dermithe was muscular, but he had the pouty passive-aggressiveness of the character down. Is there that much differences between a petulant, spoiled 25-year-old and a petulant, spoiled 16-year-old? (This is not a rhetorical question, but fairly fundamental to whether one can suspend disbelief to follow the story.)

Paul's older sister Elisabeth dominates him. I'd say that she "infantilizes" him, but it is more that she keeps him infantile. In the role Nicole Stéphane (who was 27) dominates the film. She is the puppet master not only of Paul and of Gérard (who loves her but remains intimidated and servile) and of Agathe. She goes out an finds a rich husband who considerately dies and leaves her a fortune and a mansion into which the other characters move. (At the start, the mother of the impossible young ones ("terrible infants" is a false cognate: "enfant" applied to higher ages than "infant," and "impossible" or "unruly" convey the meaning better than "terrible" in English) is an invalid under Elisabeth's care, but the mother dies without having much influence on her children who are very, very close--constantly squabbling, but maintaining a relationship that excludes others, even when others (Gérard, Agathe) sleep in the same room as the siblings.

Do I find this creepy? Yes. Like the Parisian siblings in Bertolucci's "The Dreamers," their isolation à deux unnerves this American, as it does the American the brother and sister in "The Dreamers" toy with. Is it because they are French that Gérard and Agathe don't question the Paul/Elisabeth intimacy? Or because Gérard is so enamored with Elisabeth and Agathe with Paul that they do not dare to question or challenge the siblings' bond?

As time goes on and the outsiders' loves become apparent to Elisabeth (she pays so little attention to anyone other than Paul that she is slow to notice), she turns into a 20th-century (early 20th-century, I think) Marquise de Merteuil (the spider weaving webs of human relationships in Les liaisons dangereuses). Drenched in self-mystification, a melodramatic end is assured -- and brilliantly shot by Henri Decaë (Le Samouraï, Le cercle rouge, 400 Blows, Elevator to the Gallows, Viva Maria!, etc.) from above. The last shot of Paul is also unforgettable, as is Elisabeth stuffing a crayfish in his mouth earlier, and water seeping under Gérard's feet.

In addition to straining credibility in casting, the film (like Jean-Pierre Melville's first film, "Le silence de la mer" (1949) which also starred Nicole Stéphane and was also shot by Henri Decaë has a lot of voice-over narration/commentary. Both flagrantly violate the "Show don't tell" maxim. Cocteau reading his own poetic analyses conveys his particular notions of magic and tragedy and seems to me preferable to dialogue among the significantly clueless characters. Rules are made to be broken -- by those with skill as well as boldness to defy them.

The Criterion edition bonus features include a 2003 television interview with Nicole Stéphane that includes too much footage from the movie (and near the end of the movie, so this interview should not be viewed before watching the movie) and focuses almost entirely on Cocteau. There was a large Cocteau exhibit ad the Centre Pompidou at the time. Noël Simsolo strolls through it talking to Dominique Païni and Jean Narboni (separately) about whether "Les enfants terribles" is a "Cocteau film" or a "Melville film."

Having recently seen Melville's first film, "Le silence de la mer," I think that the extent to which it is a "Melville film" (before Melville started making existential crime dramas) is underestimated. That he brought the actress who dominates "Enfants" and the still-novice cameraman from his earlier film should, IMO, bear more weight than it does for those celebrating Cocteau. Of course, Melville was shooting a story filled with Cocteau's mythos, with Cocteau delivering narration as well as having written the book and screenplay. Also, the ending is Melville's, made over Cocteau's objection. Cocteau is responsible for casting his beloved as Paul, but it was Melville's bad idea to have Dargelos and Agathe played by Renée Cosima (IMO an even worse decision)... but Melville's to cast Nicole Stéphane (and I'd answer the question by saying that "Enfants" is "a Nicole Stéphane film."

There is considerable claustrophobia in both "Le silence de la mer" and in "Les enfants terribles." But, also in both films, when the characters get out of the room in which they are usually encased, the outdoor shots are memorable.

Cocteau and Melville influenced the New Wave, especially Truffaut (Truffaut and Malle both used Henri Decaë as a cinematographer; I think Godard's use of voice-overs was influenced by Melville, who played a role in Godard's first film, "Breathless").

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The DVD also includes an odd trailer and commentary by Gilbert Adair (author of the novel on which "The Dreamers" was based and of Love and Death on Long Island and The Real Tadzio) I have not listened to. The subtitles are perfectly readable and the gradation of black and white are splendidly preserved and transferred (there is a diminution of light as befits the dark climax). The dialogue and the Bach and Vivaldi music that comprise the soundtrack some through clearly, too.

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© 2008, Stephen O. Murray

As a masterful example of black-and-white compositions and a quintessentially French look at amorality, this is a contribution both to the Isinga-memorial black-and-white movie writeoff and to Barbara's French finds writeoff.

Later Melville films (indeed, his last three) I've epined about:
L'armée des ombres (Army of Shadows)
Le cercle rouge (The Red Circle) /content_117196426884
Un flic (Dirty Money--literally, "a cop")

Cocteau wrote the dialogue for Robert Bresson's "Les dames du Bois de Boulogne" (which was also given the Criterion treatment)
and Michelanegelo Antonioni's (awful) "The Mystery of Oberwald" was based on Cocteau's play "L'aigle à deux têtes" which Cocteau had filmed himself in 1948.




Recommended:
Yes

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