583 - Murmur of the Heart, France, 1971. Dir. Louis Malle.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

583 - Murmur of the Heart, France, 1971.  Dir. Louis Malle.

Laurent Chevalier and his mother Clara love each other.

Laurent is the oldest of three boys.  Their father is a gynecologist.  The family lives in Dijon, on a grand estate, where the father's doctor's office is in the home.

Clara is Italian.  And she is younger than her husband.  She still has the zest of life in her.  And she shares it with her sons.

Clara is played by Lea Massari.  Whom we saw, as Anna, go missing in Michelangelo Antonioni's l'Avventura (1960).

https://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/06/165-lavventura-1960-italy-dir.html

Maybe this is where she turned up.

Laurent's older brothers, Thomas and Marc, are indulgent jackanapes who engage in impish escapades

Laurent, at 15, is a burgeoning scholar, who loves reading and listening to jazz music.  Charlie Parker.  Dizzie Gillespie.

Laurent confesses to his priest, Father Henri, played by the great, and young, Michael Lonsdale.

His brothers are intent on assisting in his human growth and development.  Despite the protestations of their maid Augusta.

Laurent watches his mother leave the house.  He sees where she goes.  And with whom.  He tries to tell his father, but his father is too busy to listen.  So he says.

Laurent has a heart murmur.

His doctor sends him to a sanatorium.

His mother takes him there.

He plays chess.  He plays tennis.  He makes friends.  He meets girls.

He meets Helene.  And Daphne.  And he gets to know his mother.


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Did you hear Jelly Roll on the radio yesterday.  There was a fantastic piano solo.

The music store has the new Charlie Parker.  It's a great record.  Charlie Parker solos with a rhythm section.

The loony bin made him better.

Nervous breakdown.  Lots of jazzmen have them.  And no wonder--alcohol, drugs, women.

War is too serious to leave to the military.