Le Souffle Au Coeur

aka: Murmur of the Heart
France 1971, 123 minutes
Dir. Louis Malle
In French with English subtitles
Rating: [R18]
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Drama / Youth

Feat. Benoit Ferreux

Aroview: A much praised coming-of-age tale concerns a sickly, but promiscuous teenage boy growing up in a stilted bourgeois family in 1950s Dijon and searching for freedom and sexual adventure.

Attracting some controversy for its final scenes of incestuous consumation, this remains a closely-observed and tender evocation of both adolesence and post-War France, dir. Malle infusing the story with sensual economy, intelligence and grace.