Le Souffle au Coeur [Dearest Love] [Murmur of the Heart] **** (1971, Lea Massari, Benoît Ferreux, Daniel Gélin, Michel Lonsdale, Ave Ninchi) – Classic Movie Review 4505

Writer-director Louis Malle’s tender 1971 middle-class coming-of-age comedy of manners is the end of the first Indochina War. The film poses a rather delicate question: will the open-minded young teenage boy Laurent (Benoît Ferreux), who has the heart murmur of the title and the need to discover love, sleep with his dominatingly affectionate mother, Clara Chevalier (Léa Massari)?

Delicately avoiding the controversy of the subject of incest, Malle examines the pains of growing up in France in 1954 with the loving detail he later brings to Au Revoir les Enfants (1987), poking fun but arousing sympathy for his appealing characters. The delightfully natural playing brings out the best in Malle’s elegant, sensitive writing.

Also in the cast are Daniel Gélin as Charles Chevalier, Michel Lonsdale as Father Henri, Ave Ninchi as Augusta, Fabien Ferreux, Jacqueline Chauveau, Marc Winocourt, Gila von Weitershausen as the prostitute and Micheline Bona.

In real life Malle as a child shared a hotel room with his mother while on a trip to treat his heart murmur.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4505

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