IMDb RATING
7.3/10
1.3K
YOUR RATING
Monique is dying. Around her gather her unfaithful husband, her son, who is like his father, and her daughter-in-law. We observe them playing with life as she dies.Monique is dying. Around her gather her unfaithful husband, her son, who is like his father, and her daughter-in-law. We observe them playing with life as she dies.Monique is dying. Around her gather her unfaithful husband, her son, who is like his father, and her daughter-in-law. We observe them playing with life as she dies.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Anne-Claude Girard
- Anne-Claude
- (as Annie Claude Girard)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMaurice Pialat wanted to show with that film the cancer and the agony of his own mother. He shot in Auvergne (France), close to where he spent his childhood.
- SoundtracksCOSI FAN TUTTE
Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (uncredited)
Deutsche Grammophon
B.P. 138 861
(Atto Primo: Scena 5. Recitativo "Non v'e più tempo, amici" - No 9 Quintetto e Coro "De scrivermi ogni giorno" / Scena 6: Recitativo "Dove son ?" - No 10 Terzettino "Soave sia il vento") song title uncredited
Conducted by Eugen Jochum (uncredited)
Fiordiligi: Irmgard Seefried (uncredited)
Drabella: Nan Merriman (uncredited)
Ferrando: Ernst Haefliger (uncredited)
Guglielmo: Hermann Prey (uncredited)
Don Alfonso: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (uncredited)
Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker (uncredited)
Featured review
The pain of life
This is not the greatest film by Pialat, but is still far better than most others of its time. It was his third feature, and the first set in his native Auvergne. Monique, a woman in middle age, is slowly dying of cancer, while her husband Roger tries to cope with his feelings of desperation by chasing women. The scene with the girl trying on the yellow pullover in Roger's store is marvelous: he feels her breasts while she seems not very upset over this, or amused either. Philippe is the only one of their children who is still around, and he seems to be following his father in philandering. His marriage with Nathalie will be a rocky one if he can't settle down. Nathalie herself is intelligent, maybe a bit too much for Philippe.
Pialat takes such chances when he shoots a scene: see the opening with Monique and Philippe at home listening to Mozart and talking about family matters; it goes on almost ten minutes, dangerously long you might think, yet Pialat and the actors bring it off beautifully. Hubert Deschamps settles into his part so well, he hardly seems to be acting at all. Same for Monique Melinand and Philippe Leotard; only Nathalie Baye seems a little self-conscious at times. Nestor Almendros was the cinematographer, he had already worked with Truffaut and Rohmer. Pialat wanted available light whenever possible: this accounts for the occasional muddy moment in the film. Is La gueule ouverte available as a Region 1 DVD yet?--if not, why not?
Pialat takes such chances when he shoots a scene: see the opening with Monique and Philippe at home listening to Mozart and talking about family matters; it goes on almost ten minutes, dangerously long you might think, yet Pialat and the actors bring it off beautifully. Hubert Deschamps settles into his part so well, he hardly seems to be acting at all. Same for Monique Melinand and Philippe Leotard; only Nathalie Baye seems a little self-conscious at times. Nestor Almendros was the cinematographer, he had already worked with Truffaut and Rohmer. Pialat wanted available light whenever possible: this accounts for the occasional muddy moment in the film. Is La gueule ouverte available as a Region 1 DVD yet?--if not, why not?
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Die Qual vor dem Ende
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $1,121
- Runtime1 hour 22 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1
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