In 1954, in the Spring, the fourteen year-old boy Laurent Chevalier (Benoît Ferreux) lives with his Italian mother Clara Chevalier (Lea Massari); his father, the gynecologist Charles Chevalier (Daniel Gélin); and his teenager brothers Thomas (Fabien Ferreux) and Marc (Marc Winocourt) in an upper-class neighborhood in Dijon. Laurent is fan of jazz, and Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie are his favorite musicians. He also likes to read Proust and other prominent writers. Laurent is very close to his mother and he discovers that she has a lover named Jacques. However, Charles ignores his younger son. Thomas and Marc take Laurent to a brothel but while having his first intercourse, he is interrupted by his drunken brothers. When the doctor finds that Laurent has a murmur in his heart, he suggests that the boy should go to Bourbon-les-Eaux to heal and Clara stays with him in the same room. Along the days, Laurent befriends the teenagers Helene (Jacqueline Chauvaud) and Daphne (Corinne Kersten); on the Bastille Day, Jacques dumps Clara and she celebrates the holiday with Laurent. They drink a lot and when they return to their room, they have an incestuous relationship.
"Le Soufflé de Couer" is a coming of age story with Oedipus complex of a young boy in France in the 50's. The story of Louis Malle is politically incorrect in accordance with the present standards of Hollywood but absolutely acceptable in 1971, the year of "Summer of 42". The fourteen year-old boy has an incestuous relationship with his mother; is molested by a priest; smokes; drinks; shoplifts; has sex with prostitute; cheats; drives reckless on the road with his brothers, but all the situations are credible and developed very naturally. The sexual tension between Laurent and Clara is present from the beginning to the end and Lea Massari is extremely beautiful and sexy. The first half is quite pointless but the second half is a very provocative film. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "O Sopro do Coração" ("A Murmur in the Heart")
"Le Soufflé de Couer" is a coming of age story with Oedipus complex of a young boy in France in the 50's. The story of Louis Malle is politically incorrect in accordance with the present standards of Hollywood but absolutely acceptable in 1971, the year of "Summer of 42". The fourteen year-old boy has an incestuous relationship with his mother; is molested by a priest; smokes; drinks; shoplifts; has sex with prostitute; cheats; drives reckless on the road with his brothers, but all the situations are credible and developed very naturally. The sexual tension between Laurent and Clara is present from the beginning to the end and Lea Massari is extremely beautiful and sexy. The first half is quite pointless but the second half is a very provocative film. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "O Sopro do Coração" ("A Murmur in the Heart")