Customer Reviews

Murmur of the Heart (The Criterion Collection)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Unbridled youth is very powerful in this somewhat tongue-in-cheek coming of age romp from the French master. The boys are your Menendez brothers en petit. They are arrogant, mean to the servants, sell the family jewels, paintings and carpets, drink to excess, attend whore houses with their stolen money and put up with lecherous priests in the day time. Mom has a lover and is bored with Dad, but she loves her little boy, 14-year-old Laurent, played with a "youth will be served" confidence by Benoit Ferreux, whose "coming of age" is perhaps a Louis Malle fantasy from his own youth.

There is the usual deft and warm Malle touch as he explores some verboten sexual ground and manages to have it all come out as charmingly sweet as a French musical farce. En route he parodies the post-war decadence of the French during the fifties as he satirizes Albert Camus, the war in Vietnam (pre-US involvement) and the Catholic church. One scene moves to another as though there was a fire to get to. Malle gives us what is necessary and runs into the next scene relying heavily on the camera to carry the story with minimal dialogue.

This film should be seen and contrasted with Malle's homage to a pre-adolescent Brooke Shields in his American film, Pretty Baby (1978) where the camera tends to linger. Here he celebrates the randy adolescent charm of Ferreux perhaps to excess. But then, I'm sure to some, 12-year-old Brooke Shields must have been a yawn. The amazing thing about Malle is his ability to openly address taboo subject matter and do it in a way that disarms would-be critics. His secret I think is his deep affection for his characters and his emphasis on our ability to overcome and to heal. Malle, more than almost any film maker I can think of, keeps sex in perspective and does not over react to sexual differences.

Incidentally I was intrigued to discover that Malle's first film was the ground-breaking under water documentary The Silent World (1956) made in collaboration with the legendary Jacque-Yves Cousteau.

Louis Malle's sensitive and delicate look at sexual initiation. Set in 1954, Benoit Ferreux plays a 14-year-old boy from Dijon; his father is a cold, uncaring gynecologist; his mother (played brilliantly by Lea Massari) is a free spirit. He contracts scarlet fever, which cause a heart murmur, and goes with his mother for a cure to a hotel/spa. He meets some girls there, and Massari openly sees a lover; she doesn't hide anything about this from him - in fact, she openly solicits his sympathies when she leaves her lover rather than go off with him. Massari's and Ferreux's closeness is gradually developed until they go to bed together. This act of incest is a special moment for both, and Malle must be praised for not exploiting it or making it sordid. Massari, as I said, is excellent, and it's not an easy role to play. The movie is both a commentary on the vapidness of the French bourgeoisie and an affirmation of life on a personal level. There is also a great Charlie Parker musical score. A wonderful movie all around.

Louis Malles' film 'murmur of the heart' dances accross the screen with so much vigor and and jazz that you don't know quite what hit you in the end..it is fabulous light-hearted and it dosen't care what people think.. that is why i like it. It is gorgeously filmed and the acting is quite good - but it is not a typical portrait of childhood - it contains both the things you would expect to see and also the unexpected - a great French film.

One of the most delightful films ever made, this is a feast of fluid, elegant filmmaking. The erotic, rebellious content thus is elevated to something sacred-- think of Titian's painting of Ariadne and Bacchus, or the courting of Papageno and Papagena in The Magic Flute. In Malle's hands, life is too exquisite to be wasted on the squeamish, on the people with small souls. This is an inspired, civilized, and absolutely moral film, on a par with Bunuel's The Milky Way and Renoir's Rules of the Game. Nobody who hasn't seen this film should ever be allowed to vote!

There are few films that can get away with the outlandish and taboo behavior found within `Le Souffle au Coeur'. I've been a fan of director Louis Malle's for a while now, having seen two other masterpieces by him, and so this was a film I was dying to actually see. From the films very beginning I could feel it was something special. The jovial talk between two young boys of jazz music was sweet, concise and appropriate. It set the right mood for this unique look at `growing pains' so-to-speak.

The film is a wildly entertaining look at adolescence from the eyes of fifteen-year-old virgin Laurent Chevalier. Growing up in 1950's France, Laurent is your typical teenager. His older brothers are flamboyant playboys who talk of their exploits and teasing their younger brother. Laurent's father is uninterested in him entirely, and his mother Clara is maybe overly interested; doing her best to compensate. Laurent drinks and smokes and pursues relations (not relationships) with other girls hoping to walk into adulthood. When a bout of scarlet fever sends him to the spa he finds himself reaching at the opportunity to lose his virginity.

`Le Souffle au Coeur' is a comedy in pure French fashion. It's vibrant and carries an almost bouncy vibe. It's a film that is determined to make you smile.

What I admire about this film is that it takes a very realistic approach to the teenager's idea of sex. There is no over dramatization here or forced tragedy, but everything is seen through the eyes of the naïve and inexperienced. This way the film can grace the stages of adolescence with an almost fearlessness, giving everything the light appeal of a children's story. As Laurent explores his own sexuality we are never offended or put off or even really concerned (although it is apparent that we should be somewhat concerned) because through the eyes of a child this is something grand and exciting. Sure, it's scary and nerve-racking, but in the end it is yet another experience that brings you closer to adulthood.

Malle superbly directs this film, allowing each frame to slink right into the next with a sensual fluidity that captures the very heart of this story.

The acting is also sublime; Benoit Ferreux nailing every ounce of childlike curiosity that makes his character so human and raw. The real star here though is Lea Massari, who plays Clara, Laurent's mother. She captures the very essence of motherhood and just sucks in the viewer. Her relationship with Laurent (while surely distasteful) is almost understandable, and the films development of the characters and plot make it easy for us to completely adore her. She loves her son and wants to help her son, and that genuine paternal feeling is never lost amidst her poor decisions.

In the end I highly recommend this film. It is a genuine classic and a brilliantly crafted coming-of-age comedy. Yes, the subject matter does get a bit risqué and could offend some, but when placed into context it is far from an offensive film.

This film was made in the 70s and touches on so many topics that would have made it a banned film in the US. For it's time, it is a masterpiece and a great film altogether. It's very edgy, but what do you expect from a French film shot in the 70s?

I really cant say much that the other reviewers haven't said already. Mr. Littrell said it best with this line: "Malle, more than almost any film maker I can think of, keeps sex in perspective and does not over react to sexual differences." I concur wholeheartedly. Sex, even taboo, never looked so inviting.

I saw it once when I was fourteen myself and then just recently I picked it up on sale used, and I cherish it now as much as I did as a youth. The strong, tender relationship that Benoit Ferreux and Lea Massari share on screen is simply ravishing, sensual, brilliant and stunning. Malle does such an exceptional job in creating this funny, but believable world. The relationship reminds me somewhat of Marcel's with his mother in Yves Robert's 'My Father's Glory' and 'My Mother's Castle', another French masterpiece.

Lea Massari simply steals the show with sexy, sultry and tender scenes.

One of my favorite films of all time.

Criticized in 1971 for daring to deal with the theme of incest, Malle's "Murmur" is actually a sparkling French comedy notable for its wit, sensitivity, and energetic jazz soundtrack. Writer-director Malle approaches the awkwardness of adolescence with honesty and cheeky humor--as when Laurent drinks, smokes, and attempts to quench his carnal desires on an outing with his older brothers--but also subtlety, especially in the film's trickiest turn of events. Ferreux and Massari have an undeniable chemistry that feels genuine rather than manipulative or shocking, letting Malle put an unusually fresh spin on the sexual coming-of-age drama. For a fond, funny take on teen innocence, "Murmur of the Heart" is made to order.

bravíssimo Signore Luigi!

Louis Malle directed this affectionate story of a young man's coming of age.(Coming of age filmes usually make me ill, what a welcome exception!)
When a 14-year-old boy from a bourgeois (but wild , anarchistic and delightfully mischief) home is sent to a sanitarium health reasons, he learns that "mamma knows best".

(To tell you what she knows, well..,if I reveal the "secret" of the movie that almost got it censored...)

Pappa is a gyneocologist, mamma a bedda Italiana , daughter of a political exile who married into the rich gentry in Dijon France, a world strange to her as she is for them.

Laurent ( or "Renzinno", his Italian appellation of mamma's affections) is the central character,
a 15 year old, Charlie Parker (and bebop jazz in general) loving, Albert Camus reading "hipster-atheist-existentialist". he and his crazy brothers take it to the stuffy adults, and upper class French society in general ~ madcap, but not slapstick!
THis movie has some great dialogue! (Helps to know French , as the dialogue is much better than subtitles reveal.)

A comic and, at the time, quite scandalous motion picture.

With Benoit Ferreux as the our young stalwart Renzino
and Lea Massari as his sensuous mom.(imagine , Claudia Cardinale, Sofia Loren, and Vera Bloom wrapped into one!

She is unbeleivable, a real delight!)
Watch especially for the dinner "spinach tennis" match, but so many scenes worth the price of the movie alone! .

1000 stars under a French sky!

There are a few subjects that are difficult to discuss on any plane, but incest, even in film, is among the trickiest. Louis Malle's "Murmur of the Heart", now forty years old, is seamless in its approach and understanding, presenting what could happen when a mother and her son draw very close and it's made all the better by two brilliant stars under Malle's direction.

The Dijon, France of 1954 is a long way from Anytown, USA of 2011, but in many ways this is not a film of mere innocence...it's one of subtle maturity where the story rings true at every level. Benoit Ferreux, the bony-kneed, teenage Laurent, is marvelous to watch as his understated but nonethelss passion-filled relationship with his mother unfolds. The mother, Lea Massari, is a gem as she tries to balance a marriage, a lover and Laurent. Her eyes tell the whole story. "Murmur of the Heart" is a treasure and should not be missed.