I continue to get acquainted with the filmography of François Truffaut, this time it is the film “The Man Who Loved Women” / L’homme qui aimait les femmes, 1977. The main character of the film, Bertrand Moran (Charles Denner), does not miss, as they say, a single skirt, especially if you can see beautiful legs under it, on which he especially falls. He is literally obsessed with women, but almost none of them he is not associated with any long-term relationship, most often it is one-time sexual contacts. And then one day, digging into the deposits of women's letters and photographs, of which he has accumulated a huge amount, he decides to write a book that will essentially be his confession, in which he will tell about everyone he remembers, or he already forgets their names, although he remembers faces. The film begins with the scene of his funeral, and all we see is the story of Genevieve (Brigitte Fosse) - one of the women present at the funeral, and there only they, the only woman who knows almost everything about him, it is thanks to her that his book should see the light of day, she works in a publishing house, she convinced the publisher to do this, because she saw in it not just a womanizer's story about countless connections, but something more. Perhaps Truffaut, also known for his many connections with women, contributed to the film some autobiographical motifs, there is quite a lot of reasoning that suggests such thoughts. I liked the film, it was shot without any vulgarity, with some irony, although there is a human drama, partly caused by the peculiarities of the upbringing of the boy, partly by the love drama, which we learn about almost at the end of the film, that is, nothing in people’s lives happens without reason, they all have. And the death of the main character is quite in the spirit of his chosen path.
François Truffaut has made many good (if not beautiful) paintings, and in many of them women are central. As in the life of Truffaut himself: once at the age of 17, having met the incredibly beautiful Lillian Litvin, he had to compete with Godard and Gruaud to win her attention. Moving to Paris, staying in a hotel right in front of her house... It all ended with a suicide attempt, and young Francois calmed down only when Litvin became pregnant by another man. By the way, a similar scenario formed the basis of “Antoine and Colette” – a small film sketch, shot by Truffaut 11 years after all these events.
The director himself in one of his interviews said: "In love, I think women are professionals, and men are always amateurs."
Bertrand Moran works as an engineer, lives alone and can not pass by any woman, whom he divides into “mares” and “cats”. The subject of his special love is women’s legs. They are like a “circle that measures the globe in all directions, giving it harmony and stability.”
Is he a womanizer? No, he's not a womanizer and he doesn't like womanizers. Looking through old photos and letters of women he knew (he kept them in great numbers), Bertrand is inspired by the idea to write a book about his rich life experience in relationships with women. His memories, feelings and experiences of the past years will form the basis of a book with a rough-categorical title "Babnik" (" Male).
The film is not about a book, not about writing or even about women. Truffaut made a curious and fascinating story about a man who loved (women? the very concept of love?) and lived with his heart - feelings, emotions were like air for him, he could not live without them and without women who gave these feelings to him to the fullest. What did he want? What was he looking for? The only one that can give him peace and quiet for the rest of his life? Impossible, just can't believe it, because Bertrand is not one of those who will find peace with one woman. Who knows, though...
Someone scolds and insults Don Juan, they say, you can not be so windy and unstable. But what do you have to be? Hard and unshakable like a lamppost? Don Juan and Bertrand, could they have lived differently? Every day they were looking for something: a new feeling, a new feeling, trying to touch life, to “breathe” it into themselves, they tried to remember it bright and diverse. What is it for? – Unanswered question, but is it bad? – No.
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Actor Jean-Claude Briali recalled that Truffaut often liked to watch, standing by a glass window on the inside, as endless pairs of women’s legs walked along the pavement, and sighing, he said: “Another one that will never be mine!”
Hardly anyone other than "the most French director" could have produced a film with such a promising title. Tragicomedy, dedicated to the art of seduction, is built as a chain of love hobbies and tells about a person who devotes all his free time exclusively to women. After many romance novels - long and super-short, which we witness, hydraulic engineer Bertrand Moran decides to summarize and present his experience in the novel, which gives a rough-categorical title "Male".
The book delights the editor of the publishing house, and she asks only to change the title to a softer and more disposing, eventually, and the title of the film. However, the writing of the novel does not sublimate Bertrand’s desire for women: the publisher becomes his next voluntary “victim”. But Moran does not stop there: once looking at a lady standing by the side of the road, he can not cope with the control of the car and gets into an accident. And already in the hospital, being under an IV, sees the attractive legs of the nurse, reaches for them and ...
In the finale of the prologue, Bertrand’s lovers come to his grave to bid farewell to the man who loved them. With an unprecedented abundance of large and super-close plans for previous Truffaut films - especially the characters' faces, it is the female legs that become the main leitmotif here (as well as the cause of the hero's death). Despite the “grounding” of aspirations caused by the passion of the hero, director and cameraman Nestor Almendros try to actively use all sorts of finesse, which makes the film not just poetic, but gives it a special spirituality and at the same time a unique French charm.
Well, hand on heart, the film evoked conflicting feelings. On the one hand, a good scenario, which includes interesting dialogues and sparkles a number of aphorisms, and on the other hand, it is not bad. In general, everything in order.
With your permission, I'll start with the minuses. The main character Bertrand, played by Charles Denner. With all due respect to the efforts and merits of this actor, well, this is not his role, not his and everything here. Although you can get out of your skin, Charles does not pull on the role of a man who has a lot of women. Wrong type, wrong texture. I don't know why François Truffaut didn't invite Alain Delon, but that would be a role for him. Yes, Pierce Brosnan was 25 at the time and George Clooney was 16, but Truffaut had to find the right kind of man. Moreover, I have the idea that Charles Denner himself, in a conversation with Truffaut, refused this role, because he did not feel quite comfortable in it, which we, in fact, will see in the film.
Let's go to minus number two. At the very beginning of the film, a voice-over tells us that there are female legs, from the perspective of the main character:
Female legs are a compass that measures the globe in all directions, giving it harmony and stability. Bertrand, the name of the main character of the picture, looks only at the legs, and only then his gaze turns to the face of a woman. Of course, we are all not without sin, but there is some kind of mental disorder in this, when the hero is completely absorbed in the contemplation of female ankles. He is not interested in the inner world of women, do not want to have a family, children. He only looks at his feet, and then, safely seduces his victim. Have as many women as possible and you will be cool as no one?I apologize for the overly moralizing tone, but what the film is, and the tone.
In fact, the beautiful half of humanity for him is divided into two categories: these are mares and cats. Well, perhaps with such films and began the tendency to emancipate and preach free love. After all, it is not by chance that one of his women throws the phrase:
If this couch could talk, it would say all the names in the phone book.
Now I understand where legs grow when young people invite home a nanny.
-Hello! I'm a nanny.
- Please come in.
- Where's the baby?
- It's me.
I don't know what Truffaut wanted to do with his confessional film. Don't know. If the call to emancipation is not the noblest goal, and if you show a person mentally ill, it may be justified.
Now for the pluses. Of course there are. This is wonderful music and a kaleidoscope of beautiful women and the dialogues already mentioned. For the first time, I'll give the film a seven. Maybe I didn't understand something when I was young. Someday I will definitely review this film and maybe I will discover something more than the first time I see it.
7 out of 10
The film “The Man Who Loved Women” is the confession of the “lyrical womanizer” and the memories of the heroine who is one of these women. She analyzes, gives the book an opportunity to come out and shares conclusions about the hero: who he was and why.
Truffaut here appears as a good psychologist and connoisseur of the subtle nuances of the relationship between a man and a woman. The image of the hero created by him is paradoxical, at first the image of a typical hanger, who wants to have fun with ladies, appears before the viewer. He devotes all his free time to women, looks at them on the streets, classifies them, invites them on dates. But then this image is destroyed, revealing the loneliness and longing of the hero. He is not an egoist whose aim is to get pleasure, he does not want to hurt anyone, he does not lie, and he strives to give his lovers much warmth and tenderness, although there are too many of them, and names are forgotten.
There is also an answer to the “why” question. He seeks love in every new woman, seeks a non-existent ideal, but cannot love anyone, as he does not love himself. A difficult relationship with his mother and the only woman who managed to make him suffer caused the disease of dislike.
A man who loved women and didn’t love any of them.