Les Enfants Terribles

1950, Jean-Pierre Melville adaption of the Cocteau novel.
For all the psycho-sexual undercurrents here, this film is really a very fresh one. Melville opts for a 'L'Atalante' esque set of dark objects (fetishes), which one hlaf expects to come to life, in a busy, messy but not dirty background. He films this with pretty long takes, with a frequently moving camera happy to reframe, to push in, not in a motion-sickness way but with a kind of pleasurable sharpness.
This film really does constantly keep moving; their is a sure purposiveness in the characters, the stagings, the dialogue, and even though the takes are long the scenes are short and sharp. There is also a nice sense of not too much tight control; the actions don't seem premieditated, firm but at the same time not entirely necessary.
Music is here used to again enhance the otherworldy aspect of the children's fantasy-land. The echoing voices in the later set-up of the bedroom is a nice touch, adding a definite Cocteauean lair of the cavern. A pleasurable film to watch, with a spirit that gives the tough story a constant jump to it.