Summary
In Paris of the early 1900s, a young middle-class French man, Claude Roc, meets and becomes
friends with a young English woman, Anne Brown. Anne invites Claude to stay with
her and her sister, Muriel, at their house in Wales. There, Claude is initially
attracted to Anne, but Anne diverts his attention towards Muriel. When Claude and
Muriel realise that they are in love, Claude’s mother insists that they should separate
for one year. Then, if they are still in love, they may marry with her accord.
After just six months of separation, Claude writes to Muriel to say that he no longer
loves her, news which devastates Muriel. By chance, Anne meets up with Claude in
Paris and the two enjoy a short-lived romance. Anne discovers that Claude’s love
for Muriel has not died yet...
Review
This is one of Truffaut’s most intense and sombre films about romantic love. He
made the film a short while after actress Catherine Deneuve put an end to their two-year
long love affair. As a consequence, the film is marked by the director’s personal
touch to an extent probably not seen since his first long film, Les quatre cents coups
.
The theme of the film is a curious mixture of traditional romanticism (in the style of
the Brontë sisters) and Truffaut’s own intimate depiction of love - physical and
emotional. Throughout, there is a sense of torment and guilt, best exemplified by
Muriel’s tortured confession of self-abuse. The three characters in the film (Claude,
Anne and Muriel) have great emotional and intellectual depth, but none seems capable of
understanding what love is or how to deal with it. As result, all of their lives
are damaged, and therein lies the tragedy.
Although the film has its strengths (in particular the stunning photography), it has some
very noticeable deficiencies. Despite the intrinsic power in the drama, its realisation
in this film leaves an impression of artificiality and coldness which seriously undermines
its emotional impact. Jean-Pierre Léaud appears far too reserved and dispassionate
to be entirely convincing in his role, and his two co-stars often come across as stiff
and as starchy as their Edwardian corsets. Some of the English dialogue
used in the film is really quite poor, and when delivered with such perfect diction by
the two English-speaking lead actresses, it ressembles a parody of a BBC classic drama
serial - an immediate passion-killer.
The film has often been compared - unfairly - with Truffaut’s earlier film, Jules et
Jim, which was based on Roché’s other novel. The two films are actually
very dissimilar in detail, although both involve an apparently irreconcilable love triangle.
Les deux anglaises et le continent is a much more profound and moving tale
about the power of love to shape and mar a life, and the dangers that repressed love can
create. Unfortunately. Truffaut was not able to capture the potential of the novel
as brilliantly as he did with Jules et Jim, so there is a strong sense of disappointment
with this film.
When it was first released in France in 1971, the film was practically a commercial
disaster. Truffaut had to cut 15 minutes off the film, and even then it received
some pretty harsh commentary from the critics of the day. The film received a fair
reappraisal when it was re-released in 1985, after the director’s death, in its original,
unedited form. The film is now highly regarded in some circles, although few would
regard it as the masterpiece which Truffaut envisaged making.
© James Travers 2000
See also:
The life of François Truffaut
Les 400 coups
Tirez sur le pianiste
Jules et Jim
Farenheit 451
Baisers volés
Le Dernier métro
Buy films by François Truffaut
More about the French New Wave
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