Jean Cocteau was allowed a day of shooting, when Jean-Pierre Melville wasn't feeling up to the mark. Cocteau was to follow Melville's instructions exactly or do nothing at all. Eight shots in all, which were supposed to be of a summer's day but were done in midwinter in the rain.
The line spoken by Cocteau when Elisabeth is looking at her hands, "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand..." is from Macbeth Act 5 scene 1, by William Shakespeare.
This is the only feature film Jean-Pierre Melville ever made that was neither (strictly speaking) a crime melodrama, such as Bob le flambeur (1956), Le Samouraï (1967) and Le cercle rouge (1970), nor a drama set during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, such as Le silence de la mer (1949), Léon Morin, prêtre (1961) or L'armée des ombres (1969).
Edouard's startlingly abbreviated bikini underwear in the bathtub sequence raised eyebrows in Europe, and caused considerable comment in USA.
The sound of Edouard Dermithe's heartbeat was the sound recorded of Jean Cocteau's heartbeat, dubbed in by the director.
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By what name was Les enfants terribles (1950) officially released in Canada in English?
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