1971 · drama · coming-of-age
Murmur of the Heart
Directed by Louis Malle1h 58m1971
This loosely plotted coming-of-age tale follows the life of 15-year-old Laurent Chevalier as he stumbles his way over the burgeoning swell of adolescence in 1950s France. After having his first sexual experience with a prostitute and dodging the lips of a priest, Chevalier contracts a case of scarlet fever. When the fever leaves him with a heart murmur, Chevalier is placed in a sanatorium, along with his over-attentive and adulterous mother.
Our read: Murmur of the Heart (1971) reads as a warm, kinetic, grounded drama · coming-of-age entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.
Warm, kinetic, measured drama / coming-of-age, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, measured.
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