Murmur of the Heart
Murmur of the HeartLe souffle au cœur
Overview
This loosely plotted coming-of-age tale follows the life of 15-year-old Laurent Chevalier as he stumbles his way over the burgeoning swell of adolescence in 1950s France. After having his first sexual experience with a prostitute and dodging the lips of a priest, Chevalier contracts a case of scarlet fever. When the fever leaves him with a heart murmur, Chevalier is placed in a sanatorium, along with his over-attentive and adulterous mother.
Cast
Lea Massari
Benoît Ferreux
Daniel Gélin
Michael Lonsdale
Ave Ninchi
Gila von Weitershausen
Fabien Ferreux
Marc Winocourt
Micheline Bona
Henri Poirier
Liliane Sorval
René Bouloc
Jacques Gheusi
Annie Savarin
Jacques Sereys
Yvon Lec
Michel Charrel
Bernadette Robert
Crew
Suzanne Baron
Philippe Turlure
Louis Malle
Louis Malle
Vincent Malle
Jean-Claude Laureux
Ricardo Aronovich
Jean-Jacques Caziot
Claude Nedjar
Maurice Urbain
Fernand Moszkowicz
Jacky Reynal
Rida Draïs
A souffle of a movie!
Laurent Chevalier is a 14-year-old boy living in Dijon in 1954 who loves jazz, always receives the highest grades in his class, and opposes the First Indochina War. He has an unloving father, Charles, a gynecologist; an affectionate Italian-born mother, Clara; and two older brothers, Thomas and Marc. Thomas and Marc are inveterate pranksters, while Laurent engages in taboos such as shoplifting and masturbation. Laurent also discovers that Clara has a lover, and upset by the adultery, runs to tell Charles, who, busy with his practice, angrily turns him away.
One night, Thomas and Marc take Laurent to a brothel, where Laurent loses his virginity to a prostitute, Freda, before they are disrupted by his drunken brothers. Upset, Laurent leaves for scouting camp, where he catches scarlet fever and is left with a heart murmur. Bedridden for a month, he is cared for and entertained by Clara and their maid, Augusta. Laurent’s teacher at his Catholic school suggests that Laurent’s illness has matured him, so that he has made progress in his studies, and urges Clara to treat him more like an adult.
As Laurent requires treatment at a sanatorium, he and Clara check into a hotel. Due to an error by Charles’s secretary Solange, the hotel books both Clara and Laurent into a single room, and given that the hotel is completely full, no additional room is available. Laurent takes interest in two young girls at the hotel, Hélène and Daphne, and also spies on his mother in the bathtub. Though Laurent pursues Hélène, Hélène says she is not ready for sex; Laurent accuses her of being a lesbian. Clara temporarily leaves with her lover, but comes back distraught after their breakup; Laurent comforts her. After a night of heavy drinking on Bastille Day, Laurent and Clara have sex. Clara tells him afterward that this incest will not be repeated, but that they should not regret it. Laurent leaves their room, and after unsuccessfully trying to seduce Hélène, spends the night with Daphne.
Genre: 18+ Adult, Unrated, Comedy, Drama, R.
Released: 1971.
Director: Louis Malle.
Starring: Lea Massari, Benoît Ferreux, Daniel Gélin