dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
writ. Jean-Pierre Melville (writer), Jean Cocteau (story and screenplay)
feat. Nicole Stephane, Edouard Dermithe, Renee Cosima, Jacques Bernard, Melvyn Martin
Teenage siblings Elisabeth and Paul (Stephane and Dermithe) turn their rivalry into a combination of a competition for the greatest love and a death duel. Holing up in their room, having abandoned the outside world, they let everything else die as they spar. They invite outsiders to join the game only to mock them or grow jealous when feelings develop that threaten the bond between the two.
Michael (Martin) breezes through as the American dream, foreign and hopeful, yet unsustainable, even if a lingering provider. But the game can't survive the move to the mansion, where the expansive halls destroy the power of proximity, upsetting the spell between Lise and Paul, leaving them room to dream independently. Still, with their dreams too well bound and Paul too weak to break free on his own, the duel can only escalate to its inevitable end.
Melville brings his edge to Cocteau's horror fantasy of paranoid youth. Critics who discount Melville's contribution, giving directing credit to Cocteau, miss the teeth and the cold distance also found in other Melville works. Still, the film does hint at some conflict between creators, the dream world insufficiently transporting, less seductive than one would hope.
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