Search - Two English Girls (Les deux anglaises et le continent) on DVD

ANN & MURIEL

wdanthemanw | Geneva, Switzerland | 03/18/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of Truffaut's favorite movies of mine, TWO ENGLISH GIRLS is an adaptation of a novel from Henri-Pierre Roché, the author of "Jules & Jim", a book Truffaut had adapted 10 years before.Two women, one man and the waltz of the misunderstandings and the hesitations dancing between the walls of a love that doesn't dare to speak. The movie features a romantic love story happening a hundred years too late, so, as always in Truffaut movies, the characters are out of focus, they live a virtual passionate love that could fill hundreds of pages of a novel but are doomed to suffer in the trivial reality of the beginning of the XXth century.A superb musical score by Georges Delerue and a Jean-Pierre Léaud lunar as usual should tempt you even if the quality of the DVD presented by Fox Lorber is no more than average.A DVD zone your library."

Excellent film, but flawed DVD

wdanthemanw | 07/28/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Undoubtedly, the film is excellent, though I don't call this a masterpiece (I'm still not sure if the narration is too much in this film). But the DVD... not too bad, but when the box tells you that it is FULLY RESTORED, you should expect more from this. A brief scene (about 1 minute) is deleted. When Anne meets Claude again, it takes quite a few days before Anne takes off her bra and goes to Claude's bed. Their conversation on the bed (in which Anne is shown topless) is missing. Some scenes also turn too dark. If you don't mind these, this is still an OK DVD."

A BEAUTIFUL SENSITIVE MOVIE

ALAIN ROBERT | ST-HUBERT,QUÉBEC | 10/06/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Arguably the director's best movie,LES DEUX ANGLAISES ET LE CONTINENT is both charming and moving.TRUFFAUT always loved stories about love triangles(his own life was like that).It is not surprizing that he added the scenes that were originally missing when the film was first presented in 1971.He was obviously very fond of that movie.JEAN-PIERRE LÉAUD his alter ego from the DOINEL series was miscast to be sure,but it doesn't diminish the quality of the storytelling.A common TRUFFAUT device here is the use of the voice over that comes off perfectly.Very few films have succeeded in presenting the theme of love in all it's cruelty and physical aspects.MURIEL and ANNE the héroines are reminiscent of the BRONTÉ sisters.A good choice for anyone who wants to understand the psychology of women."

Minor Truffaut, minor pleasures

Trevor Willsmer | London, England | 11/15/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"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.

The DVD transfer is respectable rather than outstanding, with a gallery of French trailers from most of Truffaut's films."