# Deux anglaises et le continent, Les (1971)

### reviewed by
Michael Har-even

                            LES DEUX ANGLAISES ET LE CONTINENT
                        A Film Retrospective by Michael Har-even
                             Copyright 1993 Michael Har-even

LES DEUX ANGLAISES ET LES CONTINENT also known as TWO ENGLISH GIRLS is one of the most beautiful films of the director Francois Truffaut. The script is based on a novel by Henri-Pierre Roche, who also wrote JULES ET JIM. The film was released in France on 1971 and was a big failure.

The film is the story of the love between a young Frenchman called Claud (Jean-Pierre Leaud) and two English sisters, Anne (Kika Markham) and Muriel (Stacy Tendeter). The story takes place in England and France before WWI. The characters of Claud, Anne and Muriel are presented by Claud and by the "author."

The complicated love story is surrounded by two different atmospheres. On one hand, there is puritan and peaceful England in the end of the Victorian decade. On the other hand, there is imaginative French with its freedom and impressionism on the horizon of a new decade. The two opposite environments are portrayed with soft colors, authentic lighting and realistic decor by the "mise en scene" of Truffaut and the camera of Nestor Almandros. The result is a magical restoration of that period. It is easy to notice throughout the film paintings of Cezane and Renoir transformed into their cinematographic equivalence.

The main theme, however, is about love. Many films about love were made, but only few of them handle this subject well. We may recall LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS (tragic love), L'ATALANTE (sensual love), LOVE ME TONIGHT (romantic love), CITY LIGHT (pure love), LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (absolute love), THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (impossible love) and other films.

Early in the film, Claud said that true love must be physical. Truffaut also told that he wanted to create a film about physical love but he did more. The feelings between Claud and Anne and Muriel and Claud reflect tragic, sensual, romantic, pure, absolute, impossible, physical and other forms of love. The plot consists of a climax followed by another climax and so on. As the events become more tense, the true love between Claud and one of the sisters grows. After the last climax, Truffaut could have ended the film but Truffaut was honest.

The last scene is truly impressionistic. It gives the film its final perspective. In the end, we are sad for all the pain, we are excited by the beautiful story but the most outstanding thing, in my opinion, is the sensitivity and sincerity which dominate the whole film, the sensitivity and sincerity of a great director.

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