Les Enfants Terribles

One of Jean-Pierre Melville's influential classics which still isn't available on DVD, this film actually resembles the work of its screenwriter, Jean Cocteau, more than the sophisticated noir which Melville perfected in the years after. It concerns an unusual brother-sister relationship and a gender-bending friend who threatens their bond. The surreal touches sprinkled throughout recall Cocteau's Orpheus and even Polanski. The acting is very good, especially the performance of the devilishly manipulative sister. It's beautifully shot and staged and delivers a knockout of a payoff. A wonderful lost classic of pre-New Wave French cinema.