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Jean Cocteau’s film work wasn’t limited to fairy tales and art-house fantasies; this adaptation of his hit play shows us fine theater at its best. A family is a tangle of not-quite-normal relationships that reach an impasse when the emotionally spoiled son seeks to marry — a woman his father already knows.

Les parents terribles

Blu-ray

Cohen Film Collection

1948 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 100 min. / The Storm Within / Street Date October 30, 2018 / 30.99

Starring: Jean Marais, Josette Day, Yvonne de Bray, Marcel André, Gabrielle Dorziat.

Cinematography: Michel Kelber

Film Editor: Jacqueline Sadoul

Original Music: Georges Auric

Written by Jean Cocteau from his play

Produced by Francis Cosne, Alexandre Mnouchkine

Directed by Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau’s 1929 novel Les enfants terribles was made into a 1950 movie in collaboration with Jean-Pierre Melville. Cocteau’s later play Les parents terribles has only a vague connection beyond the title — both toy with family relationships that lean toward incest.

Jean Cocteau’s filmography could be considered relatively modest compared to some of his French brethren — but with an output among cinema’s most immense, no less influential. While I imagine most reading this have seen his canonical landmarks such as La Belle et la Bête and Orphée, there are still a select few that go overlooked due to lack of distribution.

Les parents terribles (The Storm Within) will, thankfully, no longer be one, for the Cohen Film Collection have given his 1948 melodrama a 70th-anniversary 2K restoration, and it will finally make a U.S. premiere this Friday at the Quad Cinema. Adapted by Cocteau from his own stage play and featuring the same cast of Gabrielle Dorziat, Jean Marais, Josette Day, Marcel André, and Yvonne de Bray, the film follows a man who, while still living with his parents and aunt, falls for his father’s mistress.

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