Murmur of the Heart

A tale of the joys and hypocrisies of bourgeois life and rebelling against it, but this is a beautiful, nearly flawless movie. The performances are superb, both by the experienced players and by the young performers (the protagonist was only 14) who played the brothers and who would do little if any acting after this. The presentation of the characters and a particular French milieu and epoch is fascinating, and the film is in general utterly pleasurable. Rewatched 4 September 2017 on Blu-ray.

Somewhat unaffecting and inconsequential story about a kid with a serious Oedipus complex. It's put together well enough, but none of the characters are all that interesting. It's like The 400 Blows with an emphasis on sex and less adoration for its protagonist.

One of my favorite Louis Malle movies starring one of my favorite Italian actresses, Lea Massari. A seemingly by-the-book coming-of-age drama (albeit exceptionally well-made) which gets increasingly daring as it progresses.

Incredibly tender and exceptionally unprejudiced, this intimate film by Malle balance excellently between upbeat comedy and solemn soreness. The film's melancholy is befriended with - and often overshadowed by - buoyant gleefulness... Unusually entertaining and touching.

Malle does these coming-of-age stories with such an authentic and realistic touch, always a treat. Great performances all around, especially the leads, and the jazz soundtrack fits in nicely. ***SPOILER*** The scene which acts as the culmination of the Oedipal themes (which were largely inconsequential up to this point) is about as graceful as you can make incest. ***SPOILER***

Great, but...occasionally I reacted in ways I didn't expect. Pauline Kael gets close: "Malle sees not only the prudent, punctilious surface but the volatile and slovenly life underneath. His bourgeois bestiary is funny and appalling and also--surprisingly--hardy and happy." For me, the tone of the family scenes was perhaps a bit too light, too twinkly (I enjoyed the second half, once the action moved to the spa hotel, much more). It recalled those detestable 70s TV family sitcoms I grew up with.

I love the life-like pacing here. Many scenes build up conflict, mostly of boys behaving badly, yet their actions are inconsequential and basically lead nowhere (initially), which is in tune with the film's major theme that is appropriately and carefully built upon (to be fair, if my mum looked like that...). This is all supported by fantastic acting, from Massari and the boys, and the script is crackling with intelligent, believable, and sometimes very witty dialogue.

both uncomfortable and joyous. the former, because these boys are sexist, classist, and downright abusive at times, and the latter, because of pretty much everything else.far more audacious than the likes of [the 400 blows] or, dear god, linklater's [boyhood], and far more beautiful too. shares a lot of aesthetic with [the umbrellas of cherbourg]. truly wonderful.

What do adolescent boys with little to no sexual experience really do in their free time? They steal, they size up their dicks, they read Camus, they assume the minute a girl laughs at one of their jokes the girl wants to fuck them, they awkwardly fumble and make an embarrassment of themselves when kissed, they humiliate each other...these antics go on and on, and Malle does a wonderful job portraying them all. Note: Possibly my favorite movie title?

Fantastic, mature, and most importantly understated stoytelling already made this film a winner in my book. Add to that well done acting by the youthful lead and his mother and you and you got a movie on the cusp of greatness. Unfortunately, it's easy to see that that most people will never get past the themes of incest, which is sad. To me, though the film was just missing "something". No scene stuck out and no performance was fantastic. But, overall my very first french film was a winner.

Freud: The Movie.

Intelligent and sensitive. Malle is way ahead of most French directors of his time.

The Oedipal themes are a bit jarring, but it's an otherwise compelling story of sexual maturation, made with such style and joy that I was never bored for a minute.

A fairly enjoyable coming-of-age story from Malle. It's very New Wave, with obvious 400 Blows influences and little scenes like "spinach tennis" and Laurent laying out his mother's clothes. The Oedipal themes are strong and somewhat compelling, although the film does seem to just flop around aimlessly at times. The humor kind of reminded me of Philip Roth: a little bit naughty and a little bit amusing, but not ever laugh-out-loud funny.

Sopro no Coração estreava há 50 anos na França.. https://letterboxd.com/ladyspiggott/film/murmur-of-the-heart/

Tender and light-hearted as it ranges from a political standpoint, to the forbidden love between parent and child. A joy without the heavy drama sometimes tied into the coming-of-age story.

Accomplished piece of filmmaking from Malle. I get the comedic tone of it all, however, the abusive sexual behavior overwhelms that comedy to my mind. This could be a case of changing mores (or personal peccadilloes), but it didn't work for me (by holding the tension between tragic and comedic) as well as I had hoped.

that kind of a good laugh at the end isn't worth for two hours' of watching repellent, conceited lives

Malle is a little too middling for my taste, but Murmur of The Heart is a better than average coming of age story where the trials and tribulations of youthful rites of passage are presented with extreme sensitivity. There is a frankness to its depiction teen sexuality that you don't often find in these films, and the relationship between Laurent and his mother, while fraught with tension, is played out in an unusually warm fashion despite their 'unspeakable act'.

O Louis é sempre meio Malle

This movie is infamous for its incestuous scene, rewatching I rediscovered to my surprise what a tiny part that actually is of the movie. This mostly is a great coming of age movie that feels like a spiritual successor to Les Quatre Cents Coups. Biggest difference with my former self is that I found the behavior of these spoilt kids, especially the two brothers, more disdainful. (2nd watch, 1st: 85)

83.000

A great coming-of-age tale that just happens to have some incest in it. It's really a lot of fun to watch and """"the big moment"""" is just about as tasteful as it could possibly be.

A very endearingly French movie, with some great child acting going on. A bit strange (fourteen-year-old boys shagging agéd prostitutes???), but still a serviceable coming-of-age tale once you look past that.

If you can look past the incest and raging Oedipus complex, this is a sweet, mischievous coming-of-age story at heart.

Very enjoyable - if disturbing - and literate coming-of-age tale. Might be scoring this too low, it's very good.

Le souffle au coeur: 9 // 7 // 7 // 8 // 7 // 8 // 9

Great Movie

A suspense film: will our young hero sleep with his mother? Mom looks great with no clothes on (making the conflict completely understandable), but otherwise this is a real drag

An extraordinary coming of age tale. About 15 minutes overlong which is the only thing preventing me scoring it 100.