Les deux Anglaises et le continent (1971)
(Anne and Muriel)
Country: FR
Technical: Eastmancolor/1.66:1 130m
Director: François Truffaut
Cast: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Kika Markham, Stacey Tendeter
Synopsis:
Around the turn of the nineteenth century, a young Frenchman passes a summer with a pair of English sisters living in Wales, with one of whom he nurtures an uncertain passion. When a trial separation is imposed by his mother prior to their nuptials, he meets again the other sister in Paris, and together they have an affair. But with neither, it would seem, is he destined to remain.
Review:
The distaff side of Jules et Jim, and based on a novel by the same author, this is also the first of Truffaut's films to cast Léaud as someone other than Antoine Doinel, the director's fictitious self. However, the project was clearly a personal one, as the identification with the female characters, and the actor's increasing resemblance to Truffaut make plain. The English actresses are fine, but the embraces are clumsy; indeed, Léaud was ever a somewhat wooden actor, and it is unclear whether his character's diffident feelings are intended, or a by-product of the actor's gaucheness on screen. As a serial womaniser, which itself is hard to take, he comes across as a polite kind of Viscomte de Valmont, playing with these English virgins as if he were deciding which one to pluck first, only to fall in love with a true passion when it is too late. The customary voiceover narration (by Truffaut) underlines the literary origins, while the naïve primitivism of the filming (shots without direct sound, iris shots, wavering pans) also recalls Jules et Jim, and other titles from his early filmography. An imperfect confection, then, but one whose tenderness leaves a lasting mark, and whose teasing away at the problem of erotic love is as characteristic of Truffaut as is Rohmer's in his own films.
(Anne and Muriel)
Country: FR
Technical: Eastmancolor/1.66:1 130m
Director: François Truffaut
Cast: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Kika Markham, Stacey Tendeter
Synopsis:
Around the turn of the nineteenth century, a young Frenchman passes a summer with a pair of English sisters living in Wales, with one of whom he nurtures an uncertain passion. When a trial separation is imposed by his mother prior to their nuptials, he meets again the other sister in Paris, and together they have an affair. But with neither, it would seem, is he destined to remain.
Review:
The distaff side of Jules et Jim, and based on a novel by the same author, this is also the first of Truffaut's films to cast Léaud as someone other than Antoine Doinel, the director's fictitious self. However, the project was clearly a personal one, as the identification with the female characters, and the actor's increasing resemblance to Truffaut make plain. The English actresses are fine, but the embraces are clumsy; indeed, Léaud was ever a somewhat wooden actor, and it is unclear whether his character's diffident feelings are intended, or a by-product of the actor's gaucheness on screen. As a serial womaniser, which itself is hard to take, he comes across as a polite kind of Viscomte de Valmont, playing with these English virgins as if he were deciding which one to pluck first, only to fall in love with a true passion when it is too late. The customary voiceover narration (by Truffaut) underlines the literary origins, while the naïve primitivism of the filming (shots without direct sound, iris shots, wavering pans) also recalls Jules et Jim, and other titles from his early filmography. An imperfect confection, then, but one whose tenderness leaves a lasting mark, and whose teasing away at the problem of erotic love is as characteristic of Truffaut as is Rohmer's in his own films.
(Anne and Muriel)
Country: FR
Technical: Eastmancolor/1.66:1 130m
Director: François Truffaut
Cast: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Kika Markham, Stacey Tendeter
Synopsis:
Around the turn of the nineteenth century, a young Frenchman passes a summer with a pair of English sisters living in Wales, with one of whom he nurtures an uncertain passion. When a trial separation is imposed by his mother prior to their nuptials, he meets again the other sister in Paris, and together they have an affair. But with neither, it would seem, is he destined to remain.
Review:
The distaff side of Jules et Jim, and based on a novel by the same author, this is also the first of Truffaut's films to cast Léaud as someone other than Antoine Doinel, the director's fictitious self. However, the project was clearly a personal one, as the identification with the female characters, and the actor's increasing resemblance to Truffaut make plain. The English actresses are fine, but the embraces are clumsy; indeed, Léaud was ever a somewhat wooden actor, and it is unclear whether his character's diffident feelings are intended, or a by-product of the actor's gaucheness on screen. As a serial womaniser, which itself is hard to take, he comes across as a polite kind of Viscomte de Valmont, playing with these English virgins as if he were deciding which one to pluck first, only to fall in love with a true passion when it is too late. The customary voiceover narration (by Truffaut) underlines the literary origins, while the naïve primitivism of the filming (shots without direct sound, iris shots, wavering pans) also recalls Jules et Jim, and other titles from his early filmography. An imperfect confection, then, but one whose tenderness leaves a lasting mark, and whose teasing away at the problem of erotic love is as characteristic of Truffaut as is Rohmer's in his own films.