The Mouth Agape

Monique Mélinand portrays a woman in the late stages of terminal illness. 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 store while her son flirts with her nurses. The film incorporates elements of Mozart's opera Così fan tutte to poetic effect, relating to these scenes. ==Release==

On 17 May 2016, Cohen Film Collection released The Mouth Agape on DVD as part of their "Films of Maurice Pialat" collection. ==Reception and legacy==

La gueule ouverte was one of the least commercially successful of Pialat's films. 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... [its] lack of sentimentality presents itself as a ruthless focus upon the present." Critic Miguel Marías of the film journal Senses of Cinema has praised the film, and commented that: Director Michael Haneke has cited the film as being in his top 10 favourite films of all time. ==See also==