The Mouth Agape [La Gueule Ouverte] **** (1974, Monique Mélinand, Hubert Deschamps, Philippe Léotard, Nathalie Baye) – Classic Movie Review 6052

Director Maurice Pialat’s 1974 French drama film The Mouth Agape [La Gueule Ouverte] is a realist depiction of a woman undergoing the late stages of a terminal illness, going through several deeply emotional moments.

Monique Mélinand plays Monique, a 50-year-old woman who is about to die of throat cancer, in this intense and powerful if necessarily downbeat, depressing and disturbing 1974 drama from French master Maurice Pialat, working as both sole writer and director.

The woman’s unfaithful husband Roger (Hubert Deschamps), son Philippe (Philippe Léotard) and daughter-in-law Nathalie (Nathalie Baye) all react in different ways to her agony in a bleak and emotionally wrenching examination of the dark side of French family life understandably generally unseen in the cinema. It is beautifully shot in Eastmancolor by another film master, Spanish cinematographer Néstor Almendros, collaborating with Pialat for the first time.

Pialat is said to be the heir of Jean Renoir, but this extremely potent, perfectly performed film has a stark rigour worthy of Robert Bresson.

Also in the cast are Alain Grestau, Henri Saulquin, Anna Gayane, Jeanne Dulac, Corinne Derel and Christian Dehaux.

Unsurprisingly, with its theme of terminal illness, it is one of Pialat’s least commercially successful films. The title refers to the open mouth sometimes found in corpses.

Pialat’s films are often partly autobiographical. Pialat’s mother died in the same place as the one in the film, and the son Philippe character is similar to Pialat.

The soundtrack incorporates elements of Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte.

It is Pialat’s third feature, following L’Enfance Nue [Naked Childhood] (1968) and We Won’t Grow Old Together [Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble (1972). He is also the director of Passe ton bac d’abord [Graduate First] (1979), Loulou (1980), À nos amours (1983), Police (1985), Under Satan’s Sun [Sous le soleil de Satan] (1987), Van Gogh (1991) and Le Garçu (1995).

Pialat directed Gérard Depardieu in four of his 10 films: Loulou, Police, Sous le soleil de Satan and Le Garçu (1995).

Pialat won the Palme d’Or at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival for Sous le soleil de Satan.

Maurice Pialat (31 August 1925 – 11 January 2003).

Maurice Pialat (1925–2003).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6052

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