The Unmanageable children = Les enfants terribles

The unlikely coupling of rigid formalist Jean-Pierre Melville and the lucid dream-like imaginings of Jean Cocteau has produced an intoxicating work which delves into the psychological space that binds a brother and sister together. Based on Cocteau’s 1929 novel, (which he wrote after recovering from opium addiction), “Les Enfants Terribles” explores the obsessive and ultimately destructive relationship between orphaned siblings Elizabeth (Nicole Stephane) and Paul (Edouard Dhermitte). Their intense connection however begins to unravel when Paul falls in love with the ethereal Agathe, played by actress Renee Cosima, who also doubles as Paul’s school yard nemesis, Dargelos. The incestuous desire is delicately suggested by Melville who chooses instead to intricately draw out their secret world of codes and fantasy. Amongst all this lies Cocteau’s beautiful prose (also narrated by Cocteau), which at one point declares that the siblings, “lived like two limbs of a single body”. Cast includes Renee Cosima, Jacques Bernard and Melvyn Martin. In French with English subtitles.