Les enfants terribles
Let me warn you: I will use this opportunity to talk about Philip Glass’ opera most of all. It was the reason why I saw the film in the first place, since I have never seen a Melville or a Cocteau before (yeah I know, and since we are talking about famous French directors, I have also never seen a Chabrol or a Lelouch). That opera was something like an epiphany, the kind of opera that makes me glad I am an opera buff. They showed it “after hours” at 10.30pm and put some seating onto the revolving platform on the stage itself. We were sitting on that platform looking towards the back of the stage, and every once in awhile we would get rotated towards another part of the stage – the left and right side and the orchestra/audience. The outside scenes were shown towards the back of the stage (like the snowball fight at school), the inside scenes were shown where the orchestra normally sits, then some additional scenes (like Elizabeth’s and Agathe’s meeting) were shown on the left and right side without much decor. Considering that the orchestra for this opera only consists of three pianos (who were sitting next to the “orchestra stage”), I thought that this kind of revolving stage setting was incredibly clever. This is basically a chamber orchestra after all.
Even more than the clever stage setting, I was impressed by the singers and the music. They had a very talented woman play Elizabeth, and the opera itself may be the best thing I have ever heard by Philip Glass. We all loved it (Pixelmatsch, Pip and I) and thought that the recurring theme of horror, becoming more intense as Elizabeth grew more and more crazy, was quite brilliant. Even now, three months later, I can vividly recall it to my head, that is how much the music impressed me. When we got there, I didn’t realize the text would be sung in French and the subtitles were going to be only in German, but Pip said it didn’t matter at all. According to him you could understand everything and enjoy it fully, and it’s not like this was the first time we saw an opera without understanding much of the libretto. Henze’s Phaedra and (surprisingly) Strauss’ Salome also worked for us. If stage-setting, singing, acting and music work together, then words seem almost superfluous. This is somewhat difficult for me to accept, for whom reading a play is one of the greatest things and my typical enjoyment of an opera can be heavily influenced by how much I like the libretto, yet for certain operas, like “Les enfants terribles”, the genius lies elsewhere. I have had too much fun at the opera without understanding the libretto to not believe in the power of the music and stage alone.
Perhaps this is also why, ultimately, I don’t care much for Cocteau’s original work. Without Glass’ music and without that amazing stage-setting (and the resulting pleasant experience), you’d think it’s a completely different story. While I enjoyed the characters’ slow slipping into madness in the opera, I was mostly taken aback in this film. Especially the character of Gérard’s uncle, who loves the kids and thinks they are angels, made me realize even more how little I can relate to them. They are really just crazy, but not in a pleasant way. To me, the whole film was seeing Elizabeth shouting at people how stupid and worthless they are, and Paul being a whiny kid. I never understood the sibling’s game in the opera, but in the film it’s even worse. Maybe there is some metaphor I don’t see or whatever, but from what I can see, the games mean nothing and don’t understand influence the plot which is mostly driven by Elizabeth’s mood swings and jealousy.
I think I should refrain from saying anything about Melville’s style. Ultimately I think I couldn’t really make a good judgment on the direction because I was distracted by how atrocious Elizabeth’s haircut was. Honestly, I thought it was so in-your-face that I couldn’t get over it, as silly as it may sound.
Somehow I was really in love with Dargelos/Agathe. Whoever that actress is, she is darn cute.
All in all, I love to see the same story over and over again. After seeing Glass’ opera, I was sure that “Les enfants terribles” is a story that would mesmerize me again and again (like “Eugene Onegin”, “The Lady of the Camellias”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” or “Letter from an unknown woman” do), but somehow I felt a strong estrangement in the film. I would want to see the opera again in a heartbeat, and I would want to see other versions of the same story too, but the film itself just felt odd to me.