Customer Reviews

The Man Who Loved Women / L'Homme qui aimait les femmes [VHS]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of Truffaut's best films and it is an excellent exploration into the impulses that drive men to seek out a woman. The main character falls in love with any woman who catches his eye and in one case is so attracted to a pair of legs that he seeks out the woman with a very devious - but innocent - system that will ring true to many a romantic Casanova. the man is so obsessed by women - never in a bad way - that he decides to explore his feelings through a book. as he looks for the publisher he ends up finding t=yet another interest. the film, however, in no way presents women in a degrading way and is very thoughtful in its respect of women in fact. The main character could be compared to Casanova as he too loved and respected women. the film has a comedic tone and almost comes across as a personal documentary as the scientist narrates his feelings and motivations. The subject matter and its portrayal are still relevant today. excellent.

Charles Denner plays a seemingly mild mannered engineer who has a fatal attraction to beautiful women. The story begins by showing the length he will go to track down an elusive beauty, then spins a wonderful array of thoughts and observations on the nature of relationships as Bertrand tries to come to terms with his obsession. This leads him to pen a book that more or less forms the backbone of the movie as he drifts back in time to chart some of his early relationships, including the Oedipal one with his mother. However, the movie maintains a firm focus in the present, ultimately leading to an engaging relationship with his editor. Along the way there is the playful banter between Bertrand and the operator who provides wake up calls each morning; an older woman who runs a lingerie shop at which Bertrand gazes at the new window displays; and a couple of relationships from the past which come back to haunt him. Unlike the 1983 remake featuring Burt Reynolds, this movie doesn't devolve into middle age angst. Bertrand is modest and relatively honest with himself, which is what ultimately wins over his editor. The only problem is that Bertrand still has one woman that has managed to elude him leading to a fateful closing scene where he rushs headlong into traffic after the perfect pair of legs.

All I can say is ... great! But do NOT see this film with a date ... or even your wife! Most women I've known don't get the poignance of the hero's obsession ... not at all!

Truffaut's pseudo-autobiographical romantic comedy concerns a man who, at least outwardly, has no particularly exceptional qualities. And yet his persistence, frankness, and attentiveness to the physical attributes of the various women he encounters--played by Fossey, Natalie Baye, and Nelly Borgeaud--result in his becoming a rather roguish ladies' man. Denner--unsmiling, helplessly leering, yet somehow charming--was a perfect choice for the role, and there's a lot more to the story than conquest. As Bertrand writes about his life, he discovers dissatisfaction at the heart of his enterprise, a revelation Truffaut turns into bittersweet irony. For a witty take on the frustrations of love, hang with "The Man Who Loved Women."

Somehow it's difficult to say anything useful about this film. It is so well made, so well told, that it leaves me merely with a sense of completeness. There is no real "plot", and it is senseless to give a pedestrian outline of what does or does not happen. I must have seen it when it came out, perhaps about 1977, and have not been able to forget it. It is, somehow, a perfectly made presentation of one man's life: insignificant yet universal, simultaneously realistic, surrealistic, artistic, fantastic, true yet imaginative. I was staggered to see that an apparently bone-headed remake by Blake Edwards, a clumsy and insensitive film-maker --- think of what a misuse of Peter Sellers' talents the Pink Panther series was! --- had attempted either to spoof it, or to exploit it. Well, I haven't seen his remake, but I can imagine it as the crudest possible American bludgeoning of French finesse. This masterpiece by Truffaut is an utterly fascinating account of the enigma of the male-female human relationship --- far, far superior in its own terms to anything produced in the English-speaking world.

Only a director's with TRUFFAUT's sensibility could actually manage to make an interesting movie with a subject like this.BERTRAND MORANE, the character like his creator had plenty of women in his life.Read the biography written by ANTOINE De BAECQUE for details.This film can be considered as his last personnal film, even if it is not related to the DOINEL series.It is not surprizing that TRUFFAUT likes the voice off device which reached it's zenith with TWO ENGLISH GIRLS and SUCH A GEORGEOUS KID LIKE ME.His ironic nature almost commands such a device.THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN is a medium TRUFFAUT ,worth seeing as a funny explorations of his themes.You can actually see the director rapidly passing by at the beginning of the movie.I would have liked BRIGITTE FOSSEY's character more fully developped.To resume TRUFFAUT in a simple way,one can say that he often created strong women characters over weak men who are often survivors or victims.But nothing is never that simple...

Francois Truffaut depicted a clever and brilliant sociological study about the huge emotional impact that one far descendent from Don Juan in the modern times caused in all the women he loved through his life. Despite the surrealistic plot, the smart dialogues illuminate the essential female soul.
Made in 1977 , this movie contains, nevertheless, the conceptual roots of the renewed New Wave and it's a very funny and carefully well made film. Oskar Werner and the always beautiful Brigitte Fosey give all their best so the whole cast.
Another triumph in Truffaut's career.

Bertrand Morane (Charles Denner) in Francois Truffaut's "The Man Who Loved Women" wants every woman he sees and usually gets and beds them and then writes a book about his conquests. And that's most of what happens in this amusing film by one of the great film directors. Morane is likeable and perhaps lovable and certainly is never cruel to the women he meets. He just is determined to continue making notches on his gun. There is some indication that he was hurt when Vera (Leslie Caron) broke up with him four, five years ago although we are never completely sure-- at least I wasn't-- as to why he seeks quantity over quality. Certainly, however, the women he gets involved with, if just for a night, are for the most part lookers.

The movie is beautifully filmed as we see frame after frame of women's gorgeous legs for Morane sees them everywhere. Both the beginning and ending are quite brilliant.

A pleasant way to spent two hours of your life.

The one thing that really struck me about this film is that it didn't have a laugh track. Movies never do, of course, but at times "The Man Who Loved Women" is so side-splittingly funny that you kind of wish you were in a movie theatre with a bunch of people roaring with laughter, rather than just sitting at home watching a DVD.

But then again, the main character is not funny but really creepy. Or is he? Is he a heartbreaker, or just a victim himself? The film's director, the brilliant François Truffaut, doesn't tip his hand.

The story concerns a 40-something aerodynamics engineer who lives in the beautiful French town of Montpellier. The movie is set in, and was made in, the mid 1970's. The main character has a long string of empty, meaningless trysts. But there's something more to him than just that, as he fancies himself a philosopher of women and of love. Oddly and counterintuitively, he becomes a sympathetic and intriguing character--but only partially--as the movie moves towards its conclusion.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the movie seems as light and simple as a soufflé, but there's actually a lot going on. On the witness stand, throughout the movie as it turns out, is the question of "Does everyone need to be loved?" Truffaut, in a very subtle and almost invisible way, weighs in.

Note: this movie is very heavy on conversation and very light on action. It's also very subtle, almost quiet. Probably not a good choice for someone looking for a lot of tension, drama, or swashbuckling.

The adventures of a womanizer in France. There are many interesting elements here, some too subtle, about human nature. How women fall for him so quickly. When he asks them something it's like his life depended on it, and they can't refuse. They love to be desired with such intensity, however short that relation will last. And he goes from one to another; every woman has something different that no other woman has, and he wants them all. He can't settle with one.

It's all very funny, but at the same time it makes one think of a great void that nothing and nobody can fill. It may be women, or anything else; but there is never enough of it to fill that void.

The film is a bit too long (2 hours,) and has its ups and downs, but overall is a good entertainment.