Cyril Joyce A
incorrigble director, but somewhat relatable to all malicious boy
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
11/15/23
Full Review
dave s
Laurent Chevalier (Benoit Ferroux) from Murmur of the Heart may be one of Louis Malle's most finely etched characters. Growing up in Dijon, France in the 1950s, 15-year-old Laurent navigates a fine line between childhood and adulthood. Raised by his free-spirited mother (Lea Massari) and his buttoned-down father (Daniel Gelin), the precocious teen possesses a fierce intelligence and a deep fascination about anything related to sex. Malle refuses to sugarcoat adolescence, but remains surprisingly discreet throughout the film. Also written by Malle, the escapades of the young man never fail to entertain. While Ferroux is solid throughout, the movie is stolen by the performance of Massari, whose larger-than-life presence manages to steal every scene. While some will no doubt find Laurent's final sexual conquest at the end of the movie objectionable, Murmur of the Heart remains one of his best films.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
How will Laurent, a teenager, grow up with two intrusive older brothers, an over affectionate mother and a somewhat dismissive father? This is the central question in this coming of age story. The key aspect of his growing up in the movie has to do with his sexual life.
A house in which everyone seems to be mostly concerned about oneself, except for the house maids whose attentiveness is ignored. The adults struggle to keep the father and mother roles that would be expected. If the father is mostly absent, the mother seems to struggle to redefine her role as her children grow up. To add to the pile, a lingering possible reactivation of Laurent's Oedipal complex is present throughout the movie. These are just some of the varied aspects the movie covers. We could easily add a layer of social and religious critic, and another related to politics
All is treated very lightly and the movie never becomes dramatic. In fact, the movie is somewhat flat, slow, a tad boring and repetitive at times. The most climatic moment comes all in the end. In any case, the acting is great and the movie is not altogether painful to watch. And it may surely stir a conversation or two.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/03/23
Full Review
William L
It's not an Oedipus Complex if you only want to bang your mom, you also have to want to kill your dad.
For all of its taboo subject matter, Murmur of the Heart feels nothing if not sincere, a mishmash of the expectations, emotions, and desires that define adolescence. Characters carry realistic (some might say 'impure') motivations and clear character features/flaws that each leave distinct marks on Ferreux's impressionable Laurent, in terms of the actions he takes and the identity he attempts to create. In the eyes of this character, maturity has to do virtually entirely with sexual accomplishment, seeing the liberated nature of his easygoing older brothers and wishing to emulate it; Malle takes this further by introducing a broad range of opportunities for sexual expression, at one end dodging the affections of a pedophilic priest and at the other harboring lust for his promiscuous mother. That range is the point, Laurent has ideas about the steps he wants to take to 'graduate' to adulthood as a result of conversation and genetics, but it's the awkward fumbling that defines the period of transition. (4/5)
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
08/08/21
Full Review
s r
1001 movies to see before you die. Yes, it was an entertaining film about growing up and how lines get blurred. However, it showed a difference to French culture in when kids are exposed to teenage ideas and what ideas they are shown, RUS. Not sure if I agree.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Awkwardness and uncertainty â" and the reactions to it â" must be hard to capture onscreen; they happen so much in a person's head. But writer and director Louis Malle (and actor Benoà (R)t Ferreux) have managed to depict a 15-year-old boy's emerging sexuality (and the awkwardness and uncertainty that accompany it) without resorting to narration or explicating dialogue scenes. Instead we see Laurent balanced delicately between the enfolding arms of his young mother (Lea Massari) and the rambunctious and emboldened actions of his older brothers (Fabien Ferreux and Marc Winocourt). The latter take him to a brothel but play a practical joke on him there. His mother...well, this film is notorious because of the way it "solves" the problem of the mother's acceptance of her teen boy's sexuality. Of course, you can't believe it has happened (and this was apparently one of the few elements of the film that was not autobiographical) but as a narrative device, it certainly adds an emphatic and resounding note to the proceedings and goes where no "coming of age" film has gone before (or since?). The title refers to Laurent's medical condition after a fever which results in a stay at a health spa, sharing a room with his mother, which allows him to flirt with other girls his age (or perhaps a bit older) and to see how older boys engage with them. But he's tentative throughout the film's many episodes and anecdotesâ" until the very end when, perhaps emboldened by his mother, he exudes confidence.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
Full Review
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