All language subtitles for About.The.Film.DVDRip

Les enfants terribles

played a crucial role in leading
Jean Cocteau and my mother to meet.

Cocteau had refused
several times

to do a film adaptation
of the novel he'd written in 1929.

Then one day, Jean-Pierre Melville,
a young filmmaker at the time,

asked him to do it,
and to convince Cocteau,

he showed Cocteau his first film,
Le silence de la mer, based on Vercors.

The novel Les enfants terribles

was truly Jean Cocteau's baby.

He'd never given anyone else

permission to make it into a film.

I think Claude Autant-Lara
had wanted to do it earlier.

Even Hollywood was interested -
John Huston, if I'm not mistaken.

He had offers
to direct it himself,

but he said,
"No, it's a novel.

I only made a film of
Les parents terribles

because it was already a play."

But he said yes to Melville right away
after seeing Le silence de la mer.

When he saw Le silence de la mer,
imagine his astonishment

to see, in the role
of the mute niece,

a young woman
who looked exactly like a drawing

he'd done for the novel.

Cocteau almost always
illustrated his novels

with his own drawings.

"I can't believe it! It's incredible!
That's her - that's Elisabeth!"

FIRST ASSISTANT
DIRECTOR
Cocteau didn't
want to direct it

because no producer
would back the film

except Melville,
who was also a producer.

He didn't have much,
but he had his little studio on rue Jenner.

He adored Cocteau's work.

They'd met.
He'd played a bit part in Orpheus.

He told Cocteau he'd like to bring
Les enfants terribles to the screen.

It was hard for Cocteau to say,
"No, I'd rather direct it myself."

I think he was glad
to have a producer

who could back the film

and also bring along the actress
from Le silence de la mer.

Dermithe was a controversial choice
because he wasn't an actor,

and he was also much older
than the kid in the novel.

Melville didn't want him.

Cocteau was glad to have
a producer/director willing to make

Les enfants terribles into a film,

since he knew he could push
for Edouard Dermithe to play Paul

and that he'd be
allowed on the set.

It was easier
for him that way.

He'd be free of all
the technical details of the shoot.

He'd just be there
as artistic advisor,

especially for directing the actors
and set design,

everything that set
the tone of the film.

It was Truffaut who said -

and I have the movie poster
with his quote on it -

"Cocteau's greatest novel

has become
Melville's greatest film."

I think Truffaut realized
that Melville was the first

to break the chains of the studio system
and make films the way he wanted.

- You think I'm a fool.
- No, but I could be wrong.

He has to steal
something more difficult.

- The watering can.
- I refuse!

Then I'll never speak
to you again.

I can't. It's enormous!

I want to see
if you've got guts.

Don't "Elisabeth" me!
Just do it!

Take the cape.
- What for?

To hide the can.
And no one's out in the rain.

- Oh, please!
- Go on! We'll be watching.

Also, there was
a kind of misunderstanding.

Jean-Pierre started making
film noir shortly thereafter,

so he was no longer
considered an "auteur."

This helped spread the idea that it was
Cocteau's film, which is totally false.

As far as
what it was like on the set

and who really did the directing,
that was pretty clear-cut.

Melville was
the "technical" director.

He'd already shown talent

for what later came to be
his trademarks.' his camera angles,

and even sometimes

the movement within a shot.

But the film
is completely imbued

with Cocteau's work
and personality. No doubt about it.

People think of it
as Cocteau's film,

because Les enfants terribles
was Cocteau's most famous novel.

But one mustn't deny
Melville's role in the film.

He had a primary role.
He directed it.

Nevertheless, the film
is still more associated

with Cocteau's body of work
than Melville's.

Also, Melville didn't exactly disown
the film, but he didn't like talking about it.

He's got an ugly mug.

To each his own.
Into the treasure chest.

You could consult
with me first!

- We're consulting with you.
- Then speak!

He threw a snowball at me
and pepper at the principal,

and he got expelled.

Well, he's still got
an ugly mug.

G�rard, don't tire Paul out.

I must return to Mother
and supervise the nurses.

It's not easy.
They want to act on their own.

I can't leave them alone
for a moment.

She's impossible!

Cocteau wasn't there all the time.
He had other business, of course.

He was there often,
but what was remarkable

was the almost covert nature
of his presence.

He'd watch closely,
but I never heard him say very much.

Perhaps he spoke
to Melville in private,

but to us,

while we were acting,

I don't remember him
saying anything.

I saw him give Edouard Dermithe
suggestions a few times,

but he let Melville do his work.

It's true that the film was
heavily influenced by Cocteau,

because it was his novel.

In fact, when Jean-Pierre
called out "Cut!"

the actors would look
to Cocteau first for his opinion.

This irritated Melville,
and understandably so,

and Cocteau
sometimes sensed it.

One day, Melville was fed up

with not being
sole master on the set

and threw a small fit.

And Cocteau, a very diplomatic man,
said, "I'll let you work.

Perhaps I'm intruding,"
and he left for a while.

The situation was defused, but now
it felt like something was missing,

because the actors really liked
having Cocteau there.

He came back a while later,

and I think Melville - a very smart man -
understood that it was his film,

and that everything Cocteau
contributed artistically and poetically

would only enrich it
and be to Melville's credit as director.

Anyway, you're barking
up the wrong tree.

Michael wants to marry me,
and I like him.

Marry you?

You're mad!
Have you looked in the mirror?

Look!

No one would marry you.
You're ugly! The queen of the idiots!

He was just
making fun of you!

Your chin looks much better
when you're angry. Keep it up!

Finally, a kind of harmony reigned
on the set - until we got to the ending.

There were two camps.
Cocteau's ending

showed brother and sister

in a sort of cocoon of sheets,
transfigured by death.

But Jean-Pierre wanted
a more realistic ending.

She sees her brother die
so she commits suicide,

knocking over the screens.

A more realistic
if perhaps less poetic ending.

Melville wanted
a more realistic ending,

with the screens falling.

Elisabeth, seeing
her brother dead, kills herself.

It was a much more
realistic ending,

more in keeping with Melville's style
and his later films.

So who was right?
It's not for me to say.

People also say
Cocteau edited the film,

but I'm here
to tell you he didn't.

I visited the editing room a few times
on Melville's kind invitation,

and he and Monique Bonnot
were always alone at the editing table.

I never saw Cocteau.
Maybe he was there.

I didn't live
in the editing room,

but I stopped by often,
because I was fascinated

by editing and by the film.

Another thing I find unfair
is that some directors say,

"It's 100% Jean Cocteau's film."
That's absolutely false.

Melville himself explained,
with admirable intellectual honesty,

that he did just like he'd done
with Vercors' Le silence de la mer:

He placed himself
at the service of the story,

and that's what he did
with Cocteau's novel.

Another reason people
might think it's Cocteau's film

is due to his narration.

Here's the room
where G�rard camps out on the floor,

where a drama is in progress
yet no one notices,

where Paul drinks his milk
and takes his medicine

and Elisabeth
reads her magazines,

where strange forces live
that are cast out by Life

because they disturb
its mechanisms.

It annoyed Melville.

People often thought Cocteau
directed the film, which wasn't true.

And Cocteau never claimed he did.

But Melville was
quite jealous of Cocteau.

Nicole can explain it
better than me,

but Cocteau indeed had
a huge influence on the film.

When you see the film,

it bears Cocteau's stamp
more than Melville's, in my opinion.

So it's a film
directed by Melville

but imbued through and through
with Cocteau's poetry,

his omnipresence, his style.

She passed behind a screen,

but the Forbidden city
was no longer.

She saw Paul
lying on a billiard table.

In her dream,
it was called Gloomy Hill.

She reached Gloomy Hill
and leaned over Paul.

Her left hand touched
the automatic clicker.

Her other hand rested on Paul's.

Paul said,
"Listen to the farewell bell."

"On its release in 1950, this film was
unlike anything being made in France.

It's not important to determine
what Melville or Cocteau contributed

to this concerto for four hands,

where one's calm meticulousness
serves the other's dynamic writing...

Thus Cocteau's greatest novel
has become Melville's greatest film."
- Fran�ois Truffaut