The classroom a hall for brats at a spectacle, taught the inevitable truth (for Duras) of God's non-existence. Perhaps also the emptiness is symbolic, teaching has destroyed what a child is. The school playground, when filmed, is entirely absent of children. The absence of extras is a peculiar feature of the film, which comes off as narcissistic. In a sort of educationalist moonlighting, following in the tradition established by Rousseau, Duras expounds upon the futility of education and its both Procrustean and coercive nature. The reason? He does not wishes to be taught things that he does not know. He declares, upon attending his first day of school, that he no longer wishes to attend. It's in this spirit that Duras gifts a lovely piece of jazz music from Carlos d'Alessio near the end of the movie.Įrnesto is a seven-year-old boy who has the body of a thirty-year-old man. In Les Enfants, protagonist Ernesto (Axel Bogousslavsky) asks a group of people to join him in a glass of cider and the peeling of potatoes.

Qoheleth, as he is known (a title not a name), emphasises that the only pleasures to be taken in life are fairly immediate ones such as the satisfaction from hard work, and from eating and drinking. Never underestimate the amount of love Duras pours into a film!Įcclesiastes was written by an individual who identified himself as the King of Israel, and contains musings and aphorisms regarding the transitory nature of life and the futility of worldly aspirations. Ecclesiastes was a very resonant choice for Duras, having been introduced to it by a man she loved called Freddie.

Tangential as ever she never directly refers to it, but she does refer to the 'book about the King of the Jews chasing the wind' (note in her short film Césarée, she never mentions the central figure of Berenice by name, merely referring to her as the 'Queen of the Jews'). For this tale Duras takes as inspiration the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Orange vs angry giant