Content area
Full text
Les Enfants terribles
Produced and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville; written by Jean Cocteau; cinematography by Henri Decaë; edited by Monique Bonnot; starring Nicole Stéphane, Edouard Dermithe, Renée Cosima, Melvyn Martin, Maria Cyliakus, Jean-Marie Robain and Jacques Bernard. DVD, B&W, 107 mins., in French with optional English subtitles, 1950. A Criterion Collection release, www.criterionco.com, distributed by Image Entertainment, www.image-entertainment.com.
Jean-Pierre Melville knew from the start that directing Les Enfants terribles, adapted by Jean Cocteau from his own 1929 novel, would complicate his status as an emerging force in French cinema. Melville was a relative newcomer with only one feature to his credit, while Cocteau was a celebrated artiste who had directed several films and written quite a few more. A chronic overachiever in all kinds of fields, Cocteau was also a poet, an essayist, a jazz drummer, a prolific painter and sketcher, a journalist who often paid the bills with newspaper and magazine pieces, and the manager of a prizefighter who made a comeback under his guiding hand. Melville produced, directed, and designed Les Enfants terribles, but Cocteau wrote the script, spoke the narration, and possessed the bigger name, so it seemed inevitable that audiences would see it as his film.
Foreseeing this pitfall, Melville launched a counteroffensive in the opening credits. In the background appears a classical Greek temple under a stormy sky, and in the foreground appear the letters of Melville's name, popping up one at a time, each welcomed by the clang of a cheery bell, until his monicker is complete, ceremoniously crowned with an oversized M made out of celluloid. Whatever you think of the movie, you're going to remember that name!
The film became a classic, of course, and Melville became a name to conjure with, even though Cocteau wasn't shy about grabbing as much credit as he could, for work on the production and for dreaming up the wickedly eccentric story in the first place. The eponymous main characters are Paul and Elisabeth, a teenage brother and sister who were born to raise hell, especially with each other. During a schoolboy romp outside Paul's school, an alluring lad named Dargelos hurls a snowball that hits him in the heart-one of the most moving metaphors I know for the sudden onslaught...