Les deux anglaises et le continent
I went a little risk and decided to watch this little piece of ménage à trois, only to realize that my fears were entirely obsolete. If there is a movie that did not touch me unnecessarily, it’s this one. I like period dramas for the way they look (and this one looks lovely!) but at the same time, I dislike them because the looks distract me from the characters, their somewhat weird acting and even their story.
The voice-over that I am so used to is a beautiful addition because it explains the characters some, and Muriel’s monologues are extremely annoying and feel quite unbelievable. Isn’t it weird that though, considering that I normally hate voice-overs whereas I love monologues?
This film is so much more than just a mirror of “Jules et Jim”, or perhaps I should hav said much less. The actors are somewhat less attractive, with the exception of Jean-Pierre Léaud, the love triangle is entirely different (two women are not openly in love all the time and Claude is not a womanizing free spirit). “Jules et Jim” is a film about jealousy whereas “Two English Girls” is a film about morals. For the majority of the film, jealousy between the girls is not even an issue, and for the whole film, morals are never an issue in “Jules et Jim”. Perhaps that is why I prefer it, I could feel with all my heart how every single character in “Jules et Jim” suffered through their own actions. It is much easier for me to take a liking to a film that emphasizes on the feelings themselves, not so much on they were right or not.
Seriously, Jean-Pierre Léaud looks exactly the same throughout the whole movie too. I love this face and I know that he was immensely brilliant as a little boy in “Les Quatre Cents Coups”, but something is very weird here, even though he was working with Truffaut again.
My favorite part of the whole film, which is the same for “Jules et Jim”, are the scenes where all three main characters are together. The very short scene showing their friendship at the beginning were quite nice and I would have loved to see that fleshed out some more.
My second favorite part is how Muriel pulls of a Tatiana on Claude, maybe that was the closest I got to feeling anything while watching this film. I also like the epilogue and the motif of the Musée Rodin very much, even the music fits perfectly into these wonderfully directed scenes.
“Two English Girls” definitely falls into the category of films with an engaging storyline that I liked and I enjoyed, and for some reason, it left me with a good and somewhat happy feeling at the end (why is that?). Yet, I cannot recommend it because I was entirely incapable of feeling anything. How can I recommend a film where every single kiss feels immensely fake to me, right?