L'homme qui aimait les femmes

This movie is just wonderful, a kind of masterpiece as for its construction, its dialogues and the actors' performances. The first image sets the scene very clearly : Bertrand Morane's burial attended only by women. No guys in the funeral procession. Twenty or so lovely middle-aged females are following their (former) lover's last trip. One of them, Brigitte Fossey, Bertrand's last girlfriend, comments, from backstage, on this unusual situation and explains, incidentally, what the film 's gonna be : a flashback to Bertrand's life. How does she happen to know about it ? Thanks to Bertrand's book she has recently edited for him and called "The man who loved women" (passed tense works here as a premonition). The author describes his passion for women and focuses on some of them. Inspired directly from the Bertrand's life (and from the director's life as well), his narrative is informal, genuine, sometimes contradictory but never pedantic nor rude. He remembers his love affairs, his bad and good times, and, most of all, tries to express his feelings to such an extent that is story must be seen as an auto-analysis, the writer's personal attempt to understand his personality rather than a woman chaser's curriculum vitae. Come to that, Charles Denner, the lead, shows us very well that his character's everything short of a sexist and self-confident womanizer. He fell in love once, but this experience turned out to be a real disappointment. Now, he feels as if he were unable to love anymore. So, he's `collecting'. He may have shortcomings, he may have fun picking up beautiful girls wherever and whenever he can, he may not be the kind of faithful and steady guy a good many girls usually like, his behavior might be considered as outrageous by some, the thing is he's a sensitive, affectionate, simple and nice person who knows how to make women happy and comfortable. Each mistress's chosen for a particular reason, a physical standard (behavior, way of walking, voice..) but all share one thing : they have long, smooth and attractive legs. All in all, `The man who loved women' is a mighty good film, worth watching it.

If this movie had JUST been about the sexual escapades of the main character, I would have hated it. After all, this is a man whose entire existence is based on bedding women--and this alone would have made a boring movie. Instead, it shows the emotional shallowness of this character and his complete inability to be close to another person--and its ultimate impact on him. He doesn't see this as a problem, but during the latter part of the movie, its impact on him becomes apparent. I particularly liked the unexpected ending. As the movie begins, it is at his funeral, so you KNOW he will die but HOW is the real interesting twist.

About the only thing I did not like about the movie was the episodic nature. Sometimes it was a little hard to keep track of all the women. Perhaps this was unintentional, as there were a LOT of women in this man's life! Of course, it did serve to illustrate his problem!!

Towards the end of the film, the main character, Bertrand, a singular individual obsessed with women (a lot) and literature (a little), says, in a serious voice-over at night, in a room whose only light comes from a fireplace, the very soul of the film: "Then the desire took me to read the memoirists of the last century. How should you write when you talk about yourself? How had the others done? What were the rules? I realized that there are no rules, that each book is different and expresses the personality of its author. Every page, every sentence of any writer belongs to him. His handwriting is as personal to him as his fingerprints." The film, not very easy to like at first due to its repetitive side (Bertrand remembers different women he has known in his life) and a little bland (not much happens, really), captivates and gradually fascinates by its idiosyncratic nature, by a half-energetic, half-melancholic tone which cannot be anything else than the intimate expression of the work and personality of François Truffaut, by its subtle fade to black shots emphasizing the proud independence of the main character, by its rich literary tone. This is, for me, an inferior film to the magnificent 'The Mississippi Mermaid' which successfully combined this level of inner depth with an exciting film noir storyline, but it is no less a fascinating film due to its intimate authenticity. At one point a doctor says to Bertrand: "Nothing is more beautiful than seeing the publication of a book that you have written, nothing is more beautiful. Except perhaps giving birth to a child that we carried for nine months in our womb. But we are not capable of that, well, not yet." A fade to black shot deliciously placed there underlines the beauty of this profession of faith by François Truffaut on the essential importance of artistic production. He is no longer here, but his work speaks for him...

Each film by François Truffaut is like an antithesis for its predecessor (Shoot the Piano Player for The 400 Blows, Jules et Jim for Shoot the Piano Player etc.) but The Man Who Loved Women (1977) isn't really the opposite of Small Change (1976) but more like The Story of Adele H. (1975) turned upside down. First of all, the protagonist of The Story of Adele H. is a woman and the protagonist of The Man Who Loved Women is a man. However, despite the tragical intensity of The Story of Adele H. and the light comedy of The Man Who Loved Women both films deal with sexual obsessions. In the former film, the woman is madly in love with a man from whom she can't get response. In turn, the latter is all about a man who doesn't believe in true love and therefore goes from one brief relationship to another.

The Man Who Loved Women (1977) might just be Truffaut's funniest comedy but, what is more, it also presents an insightful picture of an obsessive womanizer Bertrand, brilliantly played by Charles Denner. Just like The Story of Adele H., it is also a story about an independent character who is a victim of his own obsession. In addition, in the background of both stories there is an abandonment (made by a mother or a lover), both protagonists try to imitate their parents in one way or another and are inevitably going to face destruction, both stories are also recorded to personal memoirs and both of them have separate prologue and epilogue sequences.

Already in the very beginning of The Man Who Loved Women we are told that the protagonist has died and at the cemetery we enter a long flashback which equals most of the film. However, before we enter this flashback we see women walking to the cemetery but also Truffaut himself passing by, which is a clear statement that the film knows that it is fiction. As if he was sealing the deal. It is consciously exaggerated romanticism, so to speak. This idea is also highlighted by the fact that the protagonist starts to change his memories when he decides to write an autobiographical novel. His whole life is fiction.

Usually, Truffaut portraits fatal women who lead their lovers to death and destruction (Jules and Jim, The Bride Wore Black) but in this case the man is the dangerous character who lures women. However, in reality he is much more destructive for himself than for the women he loves. His obsession seems to be some sort of a defense mechanism against the vulnerability which hunts many of Truffaut's characters who are often abandoned by a cold mother (The 400 Blows).

As said, Bertrand is a victim of his own obsession and just like the dogmatism of Catherine, from Jules et Jim, so is the obsession of Bertrand an absolute prelude for death. He is constantly tied to his own madness. He loves to watch women and even points out that "women's legs are like compass points, circling the globe." Although, this rather plain concept gets an intriguing twist because Bertrand actually sees the seductive legs of women everywhere -- even where there aren't any; like in the outrageous scene at the airport -- and they also seal his destiny.

Besides youth and innocence, love was a repeating theme throughout Truffaut's career and that is why he is often called the romantic of the French New Wave. In his world, love was a dominant force which restricted the lives of people. But it also appears to us as kind and patient. The Man Who Loved Women was Truffaut's tribute, not only to women, but to love. In the director's personal love life, he had several lovers but no life partners. Although, Truffaut wasn't a womanizer by any means he said that he never stopped loving his former lovers. As if relationships were transient but love was eternal.

Far superior than the shoddy and self promoting Burt Reynolds remake. Excellent performances and a classic. Anyone interested in NLP and Speed Seduction should watch this as it is a great reference resource of "Unconscious Competence". The guy knows what he is doing...but doesn't know how he does it. Shame the ending is given away at the start but that only compounds the deep impact the guy had on all of the women. The fact that he is over fifty gives hope for us all. I have no issue with the amount of women involved. If it was the other way around, in these so called 'enlightened' times, when women have so much focus, she would have been applauded as a woman who takes control! Pour a glass of red wine and enjoy.