Les Parents Terribles Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Les Parents Terribles Blu-ray Movie Review

How do you say Oedipus in French?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 31, 2018

Jean Cocteau’s filmography as a director isn’t especially lengthy, comprising only eleven films, according to the IMDb. But this titan of 20th century culture was often busy pursuing and creating in Arts other than Cinema in his long life, including poetry, novels, ballet, painting, playwrighting, and (heaven forfend) criticism, which may account at least in part for Cocteau’s somewhat sparse output in the realm of movies (at least in terms of directing — Cocteau has scores of writing credits). That said, if one of the hallmarks of genius is versatility, the fact that Cocteau did so much in so many different media may be evidence enough of his manifest gifts, but there’s another, perhaps more microcosmic, way to analyze Cocteau’s diverse artistry. That way is to look at just a couple of films from Cocteau’s oeuvre, two films which followed each other (more or less, anyway) and which were separated by just two years (again, more or less) in terms of the their original releases. 1946’s Beauty and the Beast is rightly admired as one of the most superbly “magical” fantasy films in the entire history of cinema, and for those who are only acquainted with the Disney version, watching the Cocteau iteration is actually somewhat analogous to comparing Mother Goose (Disney) to the Brothers Grimm (Cocteau). But just a couple of years after Beauty and the Beast, Cocteau offered an arguably turgid melodrama, one which actually began life as a play written by Cocteau. If Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast might reasonably be seen as presaging some of the darker tinged magical realism that informs the films of, say, Guillermo del Toro, it’s perhaps not too far off the mark to suggest that Les Parents Terribles, also known by the name The Storm Within, may point in its own way to the overheated dramas that Douglas Sirk so memorably brought to the screen in the 1950s.

Les Parents Terribles evidently had a somewhat troubled history on stage, with its first run plagued by a number of both internal and external issues (including censorship), though a revival in 1946 was so successful that Cocteau immediately set about memorializing the run by porting over virtually the entire stage cast for a movie version. An elderly diabetic woman nicknamed Sophie (Yvonne de Bray) lives in a apartment with her philandering husband Georges (Marcel André) and her unmarried sister Léo (Gabrielle Dorziat). As is alluded to fairly early in the proceedings, Léo and Georges may have had a bit of thing in earlier times, though Georges ended up with the more emotionally (and physically) frail Sophie, for reasons which are never really overtly discussed. The film begins with a bit of an insulin scare, with Sophie having passed out and both Georges and Léo having to rescue her.

But Sophie’s health issues pale in comparison to her fussing and fretting about her adult son Michel (Jean Marais), a twenty something whom Sophie still sees as a child. There’s an almost Oedipal relationship between the two, with Michel calling his mother by her nickname, and the two engaging in near romantic clinches a lot of the time. When Michel announces he’s fallen in love with a young girl named Madeleine (Josette Day), Sophie takes it as a personal affront, as if Michel were ditching her for another woman (which in fact is how she sees the situation). Making things even more Sirkian (so to speak) is a later revelation that Georges has been dallying with Madeleine, though who knows what about whom attains almost farcical proportions as the story advances.

Les Parents Terribles has a lot of overwrought emotion, and it’s almost inevitably “stagy” in its presentational aspect. Marais is just a little “energetic” at times, something that tends to tip this entry perhaps just slightly over into camp territory. Some aspects, like Georges’ inveterate inventing, seem to be played for their whimsical element but never really add up to much. The bulk of the heavy lifting, drama wise, falls on de Bray’s broad shoulders, and if the writing tends to make Sophie out as a neurotic mess, de Bray actually manages to find some honest emotion as Sophie deals with either real betrayal or what she perceives as such.

Les Parents Terribles Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Les Parents Terribles is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This is being touted as a "70th anniversary 2K restoration", though I haven't been able to track down what kind of element was utilized. This is another expectedly commendable transfer from Cohen, but it does appear there are some minor source related issues that some may notice. Age related wear and tear has been minimized if not completely eliminated, and grain resolution looks natural and organic throughout the presentation. Detail levels are generally pleasing as well, and even little items in the fine detail department like the stray hairs on André's bushily Gallic eyebrows or the pill on de Bray's kind of dowdy housecoat often look precise, even in midrange shots. But there's a slightly "dupey" quality to the presentation that makes me feel some kind of secondary element was probably utilized, with some mottling tendencies in darker tones and with a somewhat soft look a lot of the time. While contrast is generally solid, I personally wouldn't have minded if the entire transfer had been just a bit darker.

Les Parents Terribles Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Les Parents Terrible features an LPCM 2.0 mono track in the original French, with forced English subtitles (why the subtitles aren't optional is a bit of a mystery, since they certainly look newly done for this release). The soundtrack here can't escape the recording technologies of the day, and there's a somewhat boxy, tinny sound, though it's actually less prevalent than one might think, simply because so much of the film is dialogue scenes, with little if any effects and/or score. While certainly shallow and narrow by today's standards, the track presents all dialogue cleanly enough, and there are no major damage issues to report.

Les Parents Terribles Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• New Introduction by Richard Pena (1080p; 4:50) offers some brief comments from the Columbia University professor.


• Learning to Direct - An Interview with Assistant Director Claude Pinoteau (480i; 9:14) features some interesting reminsicences from Pinoteau, who talks about working with Cocteau.


• Camera Tests (480i; 16:26) has several scenes, including some with what looks like a recast role. These are in French with no subtitles, have some kind of watermarking stripes through them, and kind of weirdly look anamorphically squeezed for some reason.


• Original Trailer (1080p; 3:06)


• Re-Release Trailer (1080p; 1:15)

Les Parents Terribles Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Les Parents Terribles seems to want be a rather weird casserole mixing elements of parlor comedy with more melodramatic aspects, and as such it's tonally all over the place, something that may set some viewers' sensibilities reeling. Cocteau manages some technical aspects, like a one set shoot, with his typical aplomb, but the actual story here kind of careens willy nilly to a tragic denouement that makes sillier aspects like Georges' inventions a kind of odd addition. Cocteau completists will certainly want to check this out, and for them Cohen has provided their typically well done release with solid technical merits. With caveats noted, Recommended.