La Voix Humaine

A film by PETER MEDAK
Based on the lyric tragedy by FRANCIS POULENC
Libretto by JEAN COCTEAU

La Voix Humaine is a concerto for soprano and orchestra, centering on the break-up of a relationship by telephone. It represents one side of a conversation between a young woman (sung by American soprano, Julia Migenes) and her lover, who has jilted her. In a 1930s, Parisian apartment, a woman is seen making for the door. As she passes the telephone, it rings. From now on she sings, sitting, standing, on her knees, pacing up and down the room, pulling at the telephone cord, going through every emotion until ultimately, in despair, she takes her own life.

Jean Cocteau wrote, it is not just that the telephone is sometimes more dangerous than the revolver but that its tangled cord drains us of our strength, while giving us nothing in return.

Julia Migenes
Orchestre National De France
Conducted By Georges Prêtre

Director Of Photography: Dominique Chapuis
Production Designer: Nicolas Dvigoubsky
Art Director: Emmanuel De Chauvigny
Costumes: Jean-Louis Sherrer
Recorded By Radio France
Producer: Pierre-Olivier Bardet
Director: Peter Madek

Co-produced by Erato/Radio France, with the support of Fondation Sacem and with the participation of Antenne 2, Westdeutscher Runkfunk and Centre National de la Cinématographie