Murmur of the Heart

It casts a fresh, vigorous and unclouded eye on adolescence as it really is rather than as we would like it to be.

The theme is treated with faultless discretion and taste, without the smallest nod to current sensationalism.

Malle, as I see it, is saying: to understand today you must appreciate yesterday. The more I think about it the more encouraging and enlightening this appears.

The performances are remarkable, with Lea Massari (remember the girl who disappeared in L'Avventura?) as the mother; Bdnoit Ferreux as the boy, and Daniel Gelin as the inhibited and inhibiting father, sheer perfection.

How [Louis Malle] achieves this effect is beyond me; he takes the most highly charged subject matter you can imagine, and mutes it into simple affection.

It's an enormously entertaining picture, presumably the gentlest and most endearing movie ever made about a boy who has sex with his mother.

The film is elegantly and fluently played, free in movement but discreet in feeling.

This is one of Louis Malle's best films because of his careful study of a youthful age and psychology. [Full Review in Spanish]

The film is funny, attractive, and worthwhile.

Classic French coming-of-age film has nudity, incest.