User reviews

The actor Jean-Pierre Leaud, the child star of Truffaut's breakthrough '400 Blows' and who plays the protagonist Claude in 'Deux Anglaises et le Continent' symbolises the flawed and tender charm at the heart of this 1971 film. Leaud can't act. Nevertheless, by dint of his solemn Gallic charm and beauty, there is something deeply moving about this turn-of-the- century cross-Channel menage-a-trois.

The story is an adaptation of a novel by Truffaut's beloved author Henri Pierre Roche who also wrote the novel which inspired 'Jules et Jim'. 'Deux Anglaises et le Continent' is written in diary form from the points of view of three characters, Anne, Muriel and Claude who make up the narrative's central love triangle. The story is basically one of thwarted love. Both English sisters develop strong feelings for their French 'brother' Claude, which eventually turns into destructive sexual passion. As such, the film is an inversion of 'Jules et Jim', which was a comic celebration of love between two close male friends and one girl. Stories of doomed love appealed to Truffaut.

When it appeared in cinemas, the film was a critical and commercial flop. In '71 society was in the grip of sexual liberation, and here was Truffaut, who had reflected the zeitgeist so perfectly six years earlier with a whimsical celebration of liberated passion in 'Jules et Jim' serving up a period piece more reminiscent of the buttoned-up prudery of a Bronte novel.

There are many things wrong with the film. There is an odd tension between the acceptance of Claude's promiscuity as a French fait accompli on the one hand, and the sisters' chaste Victorian values on the other. The film also contains anachronisms throughout which it's fun to spot, including modern electricity pylons. The first half of the film is set in Wales but you can tell it was filmed in Normandy (Truffaut didn't want to travel to a non-French speaking location.) There are several scenes in English in which the dialogue makes you squirm. And, in my opinion, it was an error of judgement on the film maker's part to record the voice-over narration himself in such a hasty, lacklustre tone.

And yet, and yet... There is something moving and wonderful at the heart of this film because it is naive. When it was made, society had moved on and women were taking the pill and changing history; the last thing it wanted was a pastel mood-piece about two thirty year-old virgins. But there is an innocence at the film's heart which is not sentimental but you could call it very male. On the one side you have Leaud's truly shocking moments of ham acting, stilted dialogue, unbelievable period settings and a generally plodding tone, but in the balance these are outweighed by the beauty of the cinematography, the fine performances from Kika Markham and Stacey Tendeter, the music, and Truffaut's genuine feeling for the intricacies of love in all its colours.

Claude Roc has been invited to the coast, where two sisters and a mother will be host, a trip from gay Paris to Wales, lets him gather up his sails, he has ambitions of becoming a betrothed. It's a pleasant and quite ordinary stay, he falls for Muriel but parents have their say, a resolution is prepared, a separation for a year, after which they can agree to run or play.

It's not the most exciting romantic drama you might encounter, some musical chairs, not so passionate affairs, a rather drab and dull performance by Jean-Pierre Léaud who is difficult to disassociate from Antoine Doinel, although generally all the performances and characters are pretty disengaging. Not the best product of François Truffaut's career all told.

A mildly moving, inoffensive Truffaut movie about a young French bloke (played by Truffaut regular Jean-Pierre Léaud, far more remarkable in movies such as Les Quatrecent Coups) who in turn romances two English (or rather, Welsh!) sisters, set during the first decade of the 20th century. It's a French movie and features a love triangle, so that for a start could have turned it into a potentially unoriginal and cliché-ridden affair. Yet the main problem I had with it wasn't so much the well-treaded theme of the love triangle, as the voice-over which somehow gave the feeling the narrative was rather weak (and I suspect it was). The characters of the two sisters, especially the older sister, were surprisingly better drawn than the male lead's (or maybe it just had something to do with the fact the two actresses playing them were more appealing than the inexpressive, boyish Léaud - I simply could not bring myself to believe that these two girls would both feel so attracted to such a bland young man! He was definitely more engaging as Antoine Doinel!). The movie was also successful at portraying something of the difficulty in relations between the sexes in the Edwardian era - how young men and women really needed to go clandestine if they hoped to even get to know each other decently (not just carnally but also emotionally). The issue of women's sexuality, and how it was virtually denied them in this epoch - the price to be paid for so-called respectability - is also a theme that's successfully conveyed by the movie. How could a woman rightfully claim her own sexual identity in such a day and age? An interesting question worth raising. Fortunately, we were spared any simplistic clichés contrasting "libertine France" vs. "strait-laced Britain" as well.

This is on the whole also a good-looking movie, with lovely sets, costumes and photography. One question: why does everyone in the movie (including the title) keep referring to the two sisters as English when they live in Wales and define themselves as Welsh?

there are two things that held this film back from being a truffaut masterpiece: the voice over and jean pierre leaud.

the voice over is overused in this film and is hardly effective in many cases. the voice over always sound rushed, hasty and monotonous, it hardly treats the story sensitively and it sounds like truffaut (the one doing the voice over) is trying to say it as fast as he can so he can move on to something else in the story. the problem is he uses the voice over to explain complex emotions of the characters and he could have used someone else to do the voice over with more expression and pace. this brings me to my second problem with the film. the voice over is often explaining the complex emotions of leaud's character, claude, while leaud wears the same expression of confusion and dismay throughout the film. he says his lines in that same quiet, shy voice for most of the film and looks uncomfortable and timid in the role. my suspicion is that truffaut used voice over to compensate for leaud's lack of acting ability. leaud is thoroughly miscast as claude, a complex character who is at the center of the love triangle.

but somehow, the film does pull together and is a very moving story about what happens when three people distrust their instincts and refuse to make decisions about their feelings for one another. anne and claude hide their intention of committing to each other behind this french idea of "free love" that neither really buys into. muriel is a very religious woman who treads very carefully with claude because of his ideas on love and sex and has some very strong guilty feelings about her sexual desire. claude...well according to the voice over, he prefers to love them from afar than to choose between them. he wants both women, but knows he can't so he subconsciously refuse to choose between them and just go back and forth between the two when the relationship with one becomes difficult.

anne and muriel are similar to other truffaut heroines. anne is more forgiving and nurturing and patient, very much like Julie from day for night. muriel is the unstable passionate one who could sacrifice her sanity for a man, very much like catherine from jules and jim or adele H. they're both well acted by kika markham and stacey tendeter, and they're the ones who carry this film. the photography wasn't as lush as i expected it to be, but it has enough eye candy for those who love costume dramas with nice houses and gardens. the voice over and the dialogue are very well written and is poetic without sounding trite most of the time.

the film could have been a masterpiece of truffaut if he'd got someone else to do the voice over and got a more competent actor for claude. the film compensates for these weaknesses with superb writing and good performances from the rest of the cast.

In the end of the Nineteenth Century, the English teenager Ann Brown (Kika Markham) travels from Wales to Paris and befriends the French Claude Roc (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and she invites him to visit her hometown, where she lives with her mother (Sylvia Marriot) and her younger sister Muriel (Stacey Tendeter). When Claude arrives at her home, Ann and Muriel become close friend of Claude, but Ann pushes Claude towards Muriel and they fall in love for each other. However their mothers propose a separation during one year without any communication between them to make them sure about their real feelings. But after six months in Paris, Claude is seduced by many love affairs and sends a letter to Muriel calling off their commitment. When Claude meets Ann in Paris later, they have a love affair; but Claude still has feelings for Muriel.

"Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent" is a pointless and dull romance with a melodramatic triangle of love that recalls a soap-opera most of the time. The cinematography, sets and costumes give a beautiful reconstitution of the period; the gorgeous Kika Markham and Stacey Tendeter have great performances; but the excessive narrative of the obvious is irritating and the feature could be shorter. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "As Duas Inglesas e o Amor" ("The Two Englishwomen and the Love")

Silly and pointless melodrama, good only for laughs. The fault is partly with the script, which calls for the characters to vacillate in their romantic yearnings without visible cause or motive. But mostly the movie fails because of the wooden and passionless "acting" of the male lead. His style is so non-expressive that the movie has to rely on voice-overs to reveal the passions he is supposed to be feeling. The actresses portraying the sisters do a good job with the absurd roles they are given.

Along the way some clumsy symbolism is thrown in for good measure, such as the scene where, right after the concept of "physical love" is discussed, one of the sisters pulls an apple out of nowhere to hand to Claude.

Unintentional comedic highlight of the movie is the letter from one of the sisters where she reveals that she is not as pure as she might seem.

Another great film by François Truffaut. This one resemble «Jules et Jim» but this time it's about a man, Claude (played by Jean-Pierre Léaud), and the love he's developing (it's reciprocal) for two sisters from Wales, Anne and Muriel (played by Kika Markham and Stacey Tendeter). Usual emotional twists that are a trademark of Truffaut. Nothing is easy, and even love can be extremely cruel.

The film is moving and the acting is very good. The photography and the use of the camera is also pretty good.

Out of 100, I gave it 81.

Puzzling and somewhat pointless drama from Francois Truffaut has a young Frenchman at the turn of the century traveling to Wales to meet with his new girlfriend and her family; once there, he finds himself falling in love with his girlfriend's troubled sister (seems sis is a bit neurotic about her own virginity, wearing it both as a badge of honor and as an angry embarrassment). Dulled-out, inert rumination from a novel by Henri-Pierre Roche, though many critics gave it raves. Hurt overall by colorless performances, bad art direction and a severely long running time. Truffaut added more footage for a 1984 re-release, taking it from 108 minutes to a now-astounding 132 minutes. *1/2 from ****

One must try to watch Anne and Muriel with lovely feelings in heart as Truffaut has created a masterpiece of love.The love portrayed in this film requires sacrifice.This is a kind of cinematic oeuvre which will absolutely captivate your senses.You will wonder how Nestor Almendros has been able to create remarkable images.Everything about this film is perfect.This is a film to be watched with your partner provided you have ever loved someone in your life.

Whatever was said about Truffaut l always had a foot behind of his work due my early cinema's perceptions on the past, coming from countryside l was out of the circle of those poetic intellectuals who suggesting by any means ascribe him as mastermind's director and finally after just three pictures I have been figure out such greatness, in this poetic picture over a missing love, on the first scenes on sea shore at bucolic British Islands' landscape a love between three younger persons a man and two sister were involved each other by love and friendship, a year was established to them as hiatus to be sure their feelings, after this contrived agreement and back on bright living colorful Paris, the young man living under wings on a heavy matriarchal aristocracy easily fit at crowed city lifestyle as we know Paris he changes a lot, Truffaut implied his past experience to developing a strong concept of gains and losses, letting to the final act at Calais, which we never wouldn't suppose such dramatic and unexpected finale, but it' was the remarkable Françoise Truffaut's look, giving us an unprecedented scale this near masterpiece!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 9.25

One of my many favorites, one of my favorite Truffauts, and Léauds, is this magnificent film taking place in England/Paris. Kika Markham in this film is one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. Overall the film is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Should be seen in a theater. Very moving.

10/10

I watched this because Greta Gerwig cited it in an interview as an influence when she was making 'Little Women.' But Gerwig, working for Hollywood, could never have made something both as muted and as archly artificial as this movie. It's historical drama done pretty cheap, the sets looking like real rooms that had simply never been redecorated since the film's early 20th century setting; and with a great deal of the info delivered in voiceover, there's pretty much full transparency on the source material being a book (opening credits appear over pages from it). I's all the better for all of that; the usual naive notion that film can actually transport us to some lost era is revealed as the tawdry hubris it is and somehow, for me anyway, the unpolished fakery of it all feels far truer than more faithful copies.

On another note, is Jean Pierre Leaud a genuine sex object or just another of film's ordinary boys somehow getting to profligately sleep with goddesses? Here, at least, he looks much more like the latter and it seems especially ridiculous to see him inspire the mad passions he does in the English sisters. On the other hand, he still has that unique, subtle comedic manner that almost defines the French New Wave, to which his contribution, when you tot it up, was enormous and, to all intents and purposes, essential.

I liked all this best for the film's early, more playful sections. I guess the point is, we start in play and innocence and then things get complicated, but do they also have to become duller, as they do here? On the other hand, the drawn-out vacillation between loving one sister and then the other makes a nice point about how contradictory things can seem absolutely true as we go through life.

Truffaut manages to detach the audience from the romance we are being shown, while simultaneously heavily involving us in it. Like Jules and Jim, it is hard to believe that people really acted this way, but that is part of the mastery of the film. This is a truly great romance that must have a blu ray release.

This movie is based on a novel. This is a very important fact. The opening credits show us the novel, presumably so that we will all know what a book looks like. To emphasise the fact that this is a movie based on a novel, there is lots of narrative voice-over. The voice-over is helpful for those of us who cannot see the screen. It describes what is going on on screen, and it also describes what is going on in the characters' minds, presumably because for some reason the director has no other means of letting us know what is going on in their minds. And the voice-over is rather tedious just like the way I'm writing this is tedious. No, seriously, it's awful. The French guy is staying with the two English girls and their mother, and as the camera shows us 1 French guy, 1 English girl, and 1 mother at dinner, plus 1 empty chair, the voice-over tells us the other English girl isn't there. We watch them eat in silence. The voice-over tells us they ate in silence. It got to the stage where the voice-over said something about them (out for a walk) coming to a rushing torrent. My own personal voice-over said "If I see a rushing torrent in the next two seconds, I'm out of here". Bingo! Of course, this all wouldn't be so bad if the story itself was particularly interesting, but, as judicious use of the fast-forward button made clear, it's just your standard tedious French drivel that claims to have the last word about human relationships. Some movie adaptations you can dismiss as "better off just reading the book", but with this one you're better off reading a book on a different topic by a different author. (Note added later: I subsequently have seen a couple of Eric Rohmer films and didn't like those either! So I concede that there's a particular type of movie that I hate: the French philosophical relationships movie).

"Two English Girls" is a lyrical, amusing slice of Truffaut's unique vision and style of filmmaking. Like all great artists, he can shift his tone from lushly romantic to deadpan comic, from poetic to amusingly prosaic without missing a beat, and all the while keeping his story all of one piece. If you love Truffaut's voice, you'll love this film - charming, personal, light-hearted, with a touch of melancholy. Beautifully filmed, ably acted, with Leaud playing his benign cad so well.

Claude (Jean-Pierre Leaud) a French art dealer meets English woman Anne in Paris and the two develop a friendship. Anne invites him back to England where he meets her sister Muriel and a romantic relationship develops. He returns to Paris with a promise to return but goes on a hot streak with women and calls off the long distance engagement. He once again hooks up with free spirited Anne before pursuing Muriel with inconsistent emotion.

"Girls" is director Francois Truffaut's best looking color film attempting to re-capture the free spirit of his outstanding other Belle Epoque work featuring a triangular relationship, Jules and Jim. It doesn't. Leaud gives his usual post 400 Blows mannequin like performance, his stilted ardor for each sister in serious need of rehearsal. Stacy Tender and Kika Markham as the sisters of proper English breeding are both refined and dull, they're restraint and civility tiring. Georges Delarue also does no favors with a rather mawkish score along with Truffaut himself piling on with some insipidly, syrupy melodramatic narration.

There are some wonderful pastoral shots (Nestor Almendros) that only serve themselves to distract but trading solemnity for the vitality found in Jules and Jim, Two English Girls is one dull menage et trois.

Truffaut's this masterpiece is a novel adaptation. Truffaut's skillful story-telling meets with the magnificent performance of Léaud. The story seems to be melodramatic. Truffaut's biggest success in that film is the narrative clearness and "economy". Truffaut uses very subjective plots, but he never leaves the spirit of the story. The contrast of two sisters and the different point of views of English Ladies and the French gentleman creates the brilliant dramatic effect.Truffaut is also very successful about underlining the Freudian relationship of Anne and Muriel and their attitudes towards their mother.

With a thin plot and melodramatic dialog and performances, the film goes on too long.

The two English sisters are as different as night and day. Yet they wear similar costumes. The young man who loves them does a highly believable job throughout the story. The seaside scenery and the young man's acting carry the movie through. The young man's love for Muriel is almost heartbreaking.

Truffaut is at his strongest with this film. He balances French sensitivity with English fullness of personality quite well. I like this better than most of Truffaut's other movies. The movie does not lag at all.

Throughout the movie we are left to wonder. Will it be Muriel? Will it be Anne? The two sisters do good acting jobs. The casting of Muriel was excellent, as her face was very distinctive.

Why Truffaut needed to ruin his story telling mastery with the eventual tasteless camera work is beyond me! Another great story that ruins itself to the viewer by his unnecessary filming the twist that always arrives in his stories...as in "Jules et Jim" Truffaut betrays his audience's trust and betrays his genius as well...sad.

Just forget it...