Louis Malle perhaps has directed his most controversial film about Laurent and his complicated relationship with his mother. Because he is the youngest of three boys, he is still a virgin and coddled like the family baby. The film seems to last forever but in a beautiful moving way. We watch as his beautiful Italian vivacious mother seems to attract admirers even her own son. Without discussing the film's oedipal issues, the film has some very pleasant scenes and some that are not so pleasant. Maybe Malle is trying to bring reality of a young body's sexuality. His two older brothers are not the sympathetic or kind older brothers to him especially. Laurent is truly the film's most important character but his mother is definitely the most important figure in his life. As he comes of age, she has to grasp with losing him to another woman, the inevitable outcome of any mother-son relationship. We learn a lot about Laurent's mother too in this film. While sexuality is another theme in this classic film, there are touching scenes between the Laurent and his mother. As he finds himself attracted to other women, he becomes daring, insulting and even unlikable. I won't give away the ending of this film. But it's worth watching even today more than 30 years later, I cannot believe it's older than me. It seems like it could have been done today and that's why it's a classic film.

In 1954, in the Spring, the fourteen year-old boy Laurent Chevalier (Benoît Ferreux) lives with his Italian mother Clara Chevalier (Lea Massari); his father, the gynecologist Charles Chevalier (Daniel Gélin); and his teenager brothers Thomas (Fabien Ferreux) and Marc (Marc Winocourt) in an upper-class neighborhood in Dijon. Laurent is fan of jazz, and Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie are his favorite musicians. He also likes to read Proust and other prominent writers. Laurent is very close to his mother and he discovers that she has a lover named Jacques. However, Charles ignores his younger son. Thomas and Marc take Laurent to a brothel but while having his first intercourse, he is interrupted by his drunken brothers. When the doctor finds that Laurent has a murmur in his heart, he suggests that the boy should go to Bourbon-les-Eaux to heal and Clara stays with him in the same room. Along the days, Laurent befriends the teenagers Helene (Jacqueline Chauvaud) and Daphne (Corinne Kersten); on the Bastille Day, Jacques dumps Clara and she celebrates the holiday with Laurent. They drink a lot and when they return to their room, they have an incestuous relationship.

"Le Soufflé de Couer" is a coming of age story with Oedipus complex of a young boy in France in the 50's. The story of Louis Malle is politically incorrect in accordance with the present standards of Hollywood but absolutely acceptable in 1971, the year of "Summer of 42". The fourteen year-old boy has an incestuous relationship with his mother; is molested by a priest; smokes; drinks; shoplifts; has sex with prostitute; cheats; drives reckless on the road with his brothers, but all the situations are credible and developed very naturally. The sexual tension between Laurent and Clara is present from the beginning to the end and Lea Massari is extremely beautiful and sexy. The first half is quite pointless but the second half is a very provocative film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Sopro do Coração" ("A Murmur in the Heart")

Technically, this is a very good movie--with decent acting, lighting, direction, etc. The problem is that no matter HOW well-made the movie is technically, it cannot overcome the basic sleaziness of the plot. It was bad enough that the three brothers are sociopathic sex fiends--but in the end of the movie the lead character has sex with his own mother (a biological one, to boot). Sigmund Freud and the Oedipal Complex aside, this is just plain nasty! However, considering this is from Louis Malle, who brought us the lovely story "Pretty Baby" (about an 11 year-old who works in a whorehouse and is the object of desire for an old freak),this movie didn't come as a total surprise. Now I'm sure many of you are thinking I'm some sort of prude--fine. However, then it's incumbent upon you to justify this incestuous relationship instead of just dismissing my complaint. Yeah, some kids may DREAM of sleeping with their mothers (this must be true--Freud made a fortune after he came up with this concept),but to actually portray this in a movie?! What's next--necrophilia?!

It's beyond me that so many people love this film and so far on IMDb my review has received gobs of "not helpfuls". The main character has sex with his own mother and this is treated in the film like a loving and sweet thing!!! And yet people see this is a good film?!?! Geez...sometimes I just wonder if there's any intelligent life on this planet at all. Folks,...he has sex with his Mommy!! What more can you have happen in a film before it becomes a bad film?! Can't there be SOME boundary over which you don't pass in a film?!

Just for the record, I'm against mother-son incest. It's not good. Really. Just say NO.