Les Enfants Terribles (1950)

 Jean-Pierre Melville's "Les Enfants Terribles"


After the rousing success of his 1949 film "La Silence de la Mer," Jean-Pierre Melville caught the attention of famed poet, playwright, and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. Cocteau asked Melville to adapt his 1929 novel "Les Enfants Terribles." The result, 1950's "Les Enfants Terribles" is a bizarre concoction of Melville's unique direction and Cocteau's inexplicable written word. 

I won't go too much into the plot of the film, only to say that it centers on a brother and sister who have a very strange relationship with each other. There is so much tension, violence, love, and even passionate obsession between them. When they interact with several other characters who arrive into the story, they drag them through their various games and twisted relationship.

I have to say that I did not enjoy this film. I can objectively see its merits, especially the bizarre quality that Cocteau always brings to his stories. However, this did not register with me and I felt incredibly uninterested by the film's conclusion.



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