I parenti terribili

Jean Cocteau was one of the few artists capable of bridging the gap between reality and the wondrous magic of existence. His "La Belle et la Bete" (1946), and even more so "Orphee" (1949), were masterful and inventive suspensions of reality for the sake of something infinitely more real..

"Les Parents Terribles" was not constructed in the same vein and is a rather simple story of a young man and his terrible parents. The endearing but doofus-like young man is played by the well-sculpted Jean Marais. Somehow, at 35, he looks younger in this film than he did in the 1943 "L' Éternel retour," which was also based on a Cocteau screenplay. The plot revolves around the young man's naive love for a girl who's been having an affair with his dad. Yvonne de Bray (somehow reminding me of Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard") gives an excellent incestual performance as Marais's clingy mother. The story's melodrama chugs along smoothly and only falters for me during one of the last scenes, where it spills too far over the top. Ultimately, the movie is a very enjoyable farce, even if nowhere near Cocteau's true wizardry.