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Les deux anglaises et le continent (1971) More at IMDbPro »

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15 comments in total

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
A love triangle between two lady and a gentleman, between an island and a continent, 24 July 2002
Author: hakkikurtulus from Paris, France

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.

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11 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
good movie, could have been a masterpiece, 6 May 2004
Author: snucker

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.

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16 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
Minor Truffaut, minor pleasures, 23 August 2004
Author: TrevorAclea from London, England

The restored 130-minute version of Two English Girls is something of a misfire but not without compensations. For a director who complained about the overly-literary nature of French cinema, his mise-en-scene is very clumsy here, with excessive use of narration not just to fill in gaps but to tell us the characters thoughts and feelings during scenes where, had he done his job properly, we should know. At times it threatens to become a slideshow accompaniment to a book reading.

The plot ambles along directionlessly as Jean-Pierre Leaud's selfish young Frenchman selfishly destroys two sisters' lives without ever finding happiness himself. It's very much fantasy-fulfilment, with the two embodying Madonna and Whore and at times threatens to turn into a distaff Jules et Jim as everyone is oh so civilized about it all. The casting is also problematic. Kika Markham is fine as the free-spirit of sorts, but Stacey Tendeter is less effective as her 'purer' sister and the casting of the minor British roles is haphazard at best - David Markham is fine as a fortune teller, but the next-door neighbour is not exactly a natural actor and one scene features a London Bobby who looks about as English as Raimu on a particularly jowelly day.

It's one of those films that always seems to be on for another hour no matter how far into it you get, and it doesn't reward the effort with more than minor pleasures. But it is nice to see composer Georges Delerue in a small role as an estate agent and for all its clumsiness and overlength it has its moments and a mildly affecting ending. It's just a shame getting there took so long.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Exquisite Experience, Truly Cherished.Truffaut's art, 13 January 2008

Author: Cristi_Ciopron from CGSM, Soseaua Nationala 49

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Two English Girls and the Continent belongs to what I privately call "the other Truffaut"; this wouldn't be the place to specify why I consider some of Truffaut's films (The Four Hundred Blows; Stolen Kisses; The Wild Child; Domicile conjugal; The Story of Adele H; The Man Who Loved Women; The Green Room; The Last Metro) as belonging to a pretty distinct class that I have titled: the other Truffaut. Notwithstanding, Truffaut's corpus is remarkable as one of the most astonishingly beautiful works of his century.

Truffaut's cinema is the complement and the result of a very particular and highly differentiated world-view. In a genuine and authentic way, he was aware of his singularity. One of his aims—or rather of his means—of his deliberate means—was to tell dirty things in an ingenuous, naive and gentlemanly way.

Truffaut used stylized narrative forms to explore the substratum of the couple relations. He did this in even a more deliberate way than the movie authors he promoted in the '50s. Yet his approach is not a spoofing one; his exoticism isn't mock—exoticism; it is related to some ancient forms of the French culture, to some meta—realist traditions. To a certain Renoir (the one that didn't pretend to be naturalistic or Zolist, but who crafted exquisite _divertissements). It's not that Truffaut's picturesque is a fake one; it is strictly subordinated.

In Truffaut's case, a quite peculiar world-view got the chance of a full, direct expression. What is this quality of Truffaut?What is the gist of Truffaut's art?Some have expressed it in indirect or inappropriate or even hostile way;they felt that particular quality; yet their perception is clumsily or inimically expressed—so with Antonioni, who disliked Truffaut's softness and tenderness and feminineness ,if one might say so.Mrs. Deneuve, who was Truffaut's mistress (they had no children together), spoke about Truffaut's feminine side or perception. I do not think this is properly expressed.

What needs to be indicated is his delicacy, subtlety, freshness, fineness, gentleness, mildness, and his frank tactfulness.

His subtle, smooth irony, his civilized ,polished and indiscreet humor, his highly humane quality in exposing and defining in artistic terms the secret substratum of the human relations, of the desire and of the loneliness and alienation—with a sense of the piquant.

As in J&J, whose declared complement it is, this approach helps, enables Truffaut to narrate with due smoothness and finesse a disturbing and twisted story. The same shamelessness, the same suavity.

Truffaut has a very cute topic for his movie:--the feminine masturbation (and a dose of lesbianism), at the little girls (needless to say that such things are still strictly taboo for most of the mainstream cinema …);--then the _defloration.

As some other Truffaut films, TEG … contains some piquant nudity and sexuality.

A word about the beauty of Truffaut's actors:--a beauty that is generally mild and unobtrusive and discreet—yet very physical and subtly sensual and bodily (Jean-Pierre Léaud,Kika Markham,Stacey Tendeter,Marie Mansart).

One more thing to be spoken of:this one is a period movie—and consequently there is a fair amount of a certain _colorist instinct, joy and gusto—that I will leave the pleasure to my fair reader to discover for him/herself. Truffaut flirted here somehow with a certain trend of aestheticism and stylization that are customary in the period films. (One can perceive the trepidation of the _erotography of the epoch—the interest for this kind of literary production.) On the other hand, Truffaut's huge interest in making such period films is the pendant and the complement of his studious love for a certain class of literature. Truffaut was, one knows it, such a good reader …. (On the other hand,when he adapted a book, that book was never a mere pretext; on the contrary—it was the hallmark. Truffaut adapted only things that he respected. One sees that is not true about, say, Welles or Hitchcock—who go beyond the literary pretext; Truffaut reveres the book, he deepens it, he remains true to it.)

The beauty of the main actors; the finesse; the writer loved by Truffaut; the twisted content; the indiscreet topic of masturbation and bodily life; the hidden substratum; the tactfulness—I hope my fair readers will give this very fine movie the esteem it deserves. Truffaut's stylizations are strictly functional; they are never vain, useless decorations; they wholly belong to the style and are directed towards the movie's meaning and are fully adequate.

Truffaut is as true, as authentic as he is smooth and elegant. Through the stylistics of the social life, he reached the stylistics of the inner life.

I would include Two English Girls and the Continent in a list of Truffaut's best ten—or maybe even five!—movies—with Jules et Jim (1962), The Soft Skin, Mississippi Mermaid, Vivement Dimanche! (1983) ….

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Melodramatic Triangle of Love, 14 June 2009

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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")

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
A great film about love, 29 March 2003
Author: Lalit Rao (cpowerccc@yahoo.com) from Paris, France

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.

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10 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Not bad, but shame about that voice-over..., 20 April 2006

Author: Asa_Nisi_Masa2 from Rome, Italy

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?

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
A lyrical, amusing slice of Truffaut's unique vision, 22 December 2002
Author: Suzanne Griffin

"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.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Very moving, 24 April 2001
Author: LeRoyMarko from Toronto, Canada

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.

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6 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
One of Truffaut's best, 11 June 2002

Author: Daniel Karlsson from Sweden

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

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