''The Mouth Agape'' (french: La gueule ouverte) is a 1974 French drama film directed by

Maurice Pialat Maurice Pialat (; 31 August 1925 – 11 January 2003) was a French film director, screenwriter and actor known for the rigorous and unsentimental style of his films. His work is often described as " realist",

. It depicts, in a cinematic realist fashion, a woman going through a

terminal illness Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, dementia or advanced he ...

and also dealing with the tumultuous lives of her husband and son. It was one of the least commercially successful of Pialat's films. It was the third film of the ten that he directed before his death in January 2003. It is also known under the titles ''The Gaping Mouth'' and ''The Gaping Maw''. The film stars Monique Mélinand,

Philippe Léotard Philippe Léotard (his full name was Ange Philippe Paul André Léotard-Tomasi; 28 August 1940 – 25 August 2001) was a French actor, poet and singer. Biography He was born in Nice, one of seven children - four girls, then three boys, of whi ...

, Hubert Deschamps, and

Nathalie Baye Nathalie Marie Andrée Baye (born 6 July 1948) is a French film, television and stage actress. She began her career in 1970 and has appeared in more than 80 films. A ten-time César Award nominee, her four wins were for '' Every Man for Himself' ...

in the main roles.

Néstor Almendros Néstor Almendros Cuyás, (30 October 1930 – 4 March 1992) was a Spanish cinematographer. One of the most highly appraised contemporary cinematographers, "Almendros was an artist of deep integrity, who believed the most beautiful light wa ...

, the Spanish cinematographer known for working with the

Nouvelle Vague French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

directors

François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...

and

Éric Rohmer Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer (; 21 March 192011 January 2010), was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher. Rohmer was the last of the post-World ...

, collaborated with Pialat for the first time on ''The Mouth Agape''. The title is a poetic reference to the open mouth position sometimes found in corpses.

Plot

Monique Mélinand portrays a woman in the late stages of

. Her son Philippe (

), Philippe's wife Nathalie (

), and her husband Roger (Hubert Deschamps) attempt to comfort her as she navigates through her ordeal. However, those two closest men in her personal life begin to get more involved in their relationships with multiple mistresses. Her husband flirts with customers in their clothing and

haberdashery In British English, a haberdasher is a business or person who sells small articles for sewing, dressmaking and knitting, such as buttons, ribbons, and zippers; in the United States, the term refers instead to a retailer who sells men's clothing, ...

store while her son flirts with her nurses. The film incorporates elements of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

’s

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

Così fan tutte (''All Women Do It, or The School for Lovers''), K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte w ...

'' to poetic effect, relating to these scenes. In the end scenes, she goes through several final, deeply emotional moments as the disease claims her life.{{cite web, url=http://eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/catalogue/la-gueule-ouverte/, title=La Gueule ouverte, work=

Masters of Cinema Masters of Cinema is a line of DVD and Blu-ray releases published through Eureka Entertainment. Because of the uniformly branded and spine-numbered packaging and the standard inclusion of booklets and analysis by recurring film historians, the l ...

, {{Dead link, date=March 2021

Reception and legacy

''La gueule ouverte'' was one of the least commercially successful of Pialat's films. Some critics have viewed the film as semi-autobiographical, and it was described as such in a

re-release. Pialat’s mother died in the same real place as the one depicted in the film, and the Philippe character is somewhat similar to Pialat himself such that he could be an

author surrogate As a literary technique, an author surrogate (also called an author avatar) is a fictional character based on the author. The author surrogate may be disguised, with a different name, or the author surrogate may be quite close to the author, with ...

. Critic Noel Megahey of the cinema website ''The Digital Fix'' has described the film as having " such intensity and uncommon brutal honesty about a subject that is usually treated with more delicacy and sensitivity that it can be difficult and challenging to the viewer" but that "the effort is certainly rewarded".{{cite web, first=Noel, last=Megahey, url=http://homecinema.thedigitalfix.co.uk/content.php?contentid=70590, work=The Digital Fix, accessdate=August 24, 2010, title=La Gueule ouverte (1974), date=April 28, 2009 Critic Jonathan McCalmont of the arts website ''Ruthless Culture'' has labeled the film as one of Pilat's most "intrusive" works. McCalmont has also stated that "One of the things that is most fascinating about Pialat as a director is that though completely devoid of sentimentality, his work also shows a perpetual awareness of the temptations that it offers... tslack of sentimentality presents itself as a ruthless focus upon the present."{{cite web, url=http://ruthlessculture.com/2009/09/04/la-gueule-ouverte-1974-part-of-the-furniture/, work=Ruthless Culture, title=La Gueule Ouverte (1974) – Part of the Furniture, first=Jonathan, last=McCalmont, date=4 September 2009 , accessdate=August 25, 2010 Critic Miguel Marías of the

film journal ''Film Journal International'' was a motion-picture industry trade magazine published by the American company Prometheus Global Media. It was a sister publication of ''Adweek'', ''Billboard'', ''The Hollywood Reporter'', and other periodicals. Hi ...

Senses of Cinema ''Senses of Cinema'' is a quarterly online film magazine founded in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Based in Melbourne, Australia, ''Senses of Cinema'' publishes work by film critics from all over the world, including critical essays, career ...

'' has praised the film, and commented that: {{blockquote, The film shows without the slightest trace of sublimation, self-pity or sentimentality what it really is to stand in hopeless, powerless watch for hours, days or even months, feeling inadequate and useless while tiredly sitting near a bedside or restlessly walking up and down, aimlessly, like a caged tiger around the house, waiting for the once and still (or perhaps again) loved one to die. This figure is probably in pain, or suffering from some sort of physical or psychic decay, and is unable to speak fluently or even to breathe. These are the sorts of things one rather chooses to ignore or forget and does not want to think about, or which one knows directly from close quarters experience.{{cite web, url=http://sensesofcinema.com/2006/cteq/la-gueule-ouverte/, first=Miguel, last=Marías, title=La Gueule ouverte, work=

, accessdate=May 22, 2017, series=Cinémathèque Annotations on Film, Issue 40, date=July 2006 Director

Michael Haneke Michael Haneke (; born 23 March 1942) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. His work often examines social issues and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society. Haneke has made films in French, G ...

has cited the film as being in his top 10 favourite films of all time.{{cite magazine, url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/10/05/happy-haneke/, title=Happy Haneke , magazine=

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

, date=28 September 2009

References

{{Reflist

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0071587, title=The Mouth Agape * {{amg title, id=144489, title=The Mouth Agape {{Maurice Pialat {{Così fan tutte {{DEFAULTSORT:Mouth Agape 1974 films French drama films 1970s French-language films Films about death Films directed by Maurice Pialat Works based on Così fan tutte 1974 drama films 1970s French films

Plot

Reception and legacy

See also

References

External links