Cocteau’s ‘Enfants’

Press, 30 April 1981, Page 14

Cocteau’s ‘Enfants’

A strikingly original work based on the novel by Jean Cocteau “Les Enfants Terrible” will be shown by the Canterbury Film Society next Tuesday at Room Al, Ham, at 8 p.m. and on Wednesday at the Museum Theatre at 7.30 p.m. Cocteau co-authored thescreenplay with the film’s producer-director, Jean-Pi-erre Melville, in this story of a strange brother-sister relationship, incestuous in all but the deed. In the nursery room of their childhood, Paul (Edouard Dhermitte) and Elisabeth (Nicole Stephane),

have created for themselves an enclosed self-contained world, packed with secret treasures and private associations. This they recreate in young adulthood after they have moved into another house with other people. The two cannot cope with relationships beyond each other and the nursery becomes a symbol of their emotional limits. Made in 1949, the film comes from Cocteau’s most creative period in post-war French cinema. In the following year he directed the

controversial film version of his own stage play, "Le Parents Terrible,” and also the materly “L’Aigle a Deux Tetes.” “Les Enfants Terrible” had a tremendous impact on up-and-coming French directors. Truffaut told Melville he had seen it 25 times and Chabrol invited its photographer, Henri Decae, to copy certain of its camera movements while making “Le Cousins.” Accompanying the feature will be “The Doll’s House,” Rudall Hayward’s 20-minute adaptation in colour of the Katherine Mansfield short story.