Jean Cocteau films an adaptation of his successful stage play, The Terrible Parents. Young Michel (Jean Marais) is in love with the attractive Madeleine (Josette Day), so he decides to tell his parents of his intention to marry her. He thinks his announcement is innocent enough; his engagement, however, threatens to reveal dark secrets lurking within his family's home. Yvonne (Yvonne de Bray), Michel's overbearing mother, concocts an elaborate scheme to drive Madeleine away, thus keeping uncomfortable household truths from being exposed
Intro and discussion by Amira Khalfellah, winner of the prestigious La Bourse du Centre National du Livre in France, March 2021. In 2020, her film Esseghayra (Miss) was selected in the Berlin International Film Festival and got the Special Mention the Jury, Category: Generation/ Children's Jury award, and was a double winner at the Mediterranean Film Festival in Rome in Best Short Film and UNIMED Prize for Intercultural Dialogue.