L'homme qui aimait les femmes (1977)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

François Truffaut

Writers:

Michel Fermaud (writer)
Suzanne Schiffman (writer)

Release Date:

25 August 1977 (Sweden)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Many women are attending Bertrand Morane's burial. They are all the ones that 40 years old engineer loved...

Plot Keywords:

Novel | Womanizer | Adultery | Swinging | Rental Car

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Charles Denner	...	Bertrand Morane
Brigitte Fossey	...	Geneviève Bigey
Nelly Borgeaud	...	Delphine Grezel
Geneviève Fontanel	...	Hélène (as Genevieve Fontanel)
Leslie Caron	...	Véra
Nathalie Baye	...	Martine Desdoits
Valérie Bonnier	...	Fabienne (as Valerie Bonnier)
Jean Dasté	...	Docteur Bicard
Sabine Glaser	...	Bernadette
Henri Agel	...	Lecteur
Chantal Balussou
Nella Barbier	...	Liliane, la Karateka
Anne Bataille	...	La jeune femme à la robe frangée
Martine Chassaing	...	Denise
Ghylaine Dumas	...	La seconde employée 'Midi-Car'

Also Known As:

The Man Who Loved Women (USA)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White | Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M (DVD rating) | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Montpellier, Hérault, France

Company:

Les Films du Carrosse

Trivia:

Director Cameo: ['Francois Truffaut']man outside cemetery at the beginning of the film.

Quotes:

Geneviève Bigey: [final line] Bertrand pursued an impossible happiness through quantity, through multitude. Why do we have to seek with so much people, what our education claims we shound find in only one?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Day for Night: An Appreciation (2003) (V)

Sleazy Truffaut Trifle

Don't believe all the fawning, obsequious other reviews praising this movie as one of Truffaut's best...It isn't.

Here's the premise of the film: an ugly Frenchman with hangdog features lusts after every attractive woman he meets in his life (oh, and they all have to have great legs--that's his main obsession) and without the benefit of any particular charm or suaveness, manages to bed them all. I suppose because he happens to be bluntly honest, both to himself (as he narrates his story to the audience) and to the objects of his affection, THAT is supposed to be the secret to his amorous successes.

Yep, this homely Pepe LePew of a Ladies Man is such a lady-killer that in order not to disturb the fantasy of this piece, when his physician informs him he's contracted gonorrhea and should make an attempt to contact all his most recent lovers, he dismisses the task because there's been too many and he can't remember any of their names. What a Romeo! How noble and conscientious! Too bad Truffaut didn't live long enough to remake this in the age of Aids...his main character could be a real prince then. Ladykiller, indeed.

It's not without total believability that such a troll (notice I didn't use the term "Frog"--hey, I can be politically correct when I put my mind to it) could maybe score with a few model type babes at some point in his lifetime (since, after all, you do see foxes all the times with guys so ugly you have to do a double-take and ask yourself, "what the hell does she see in him?! But almost immediately the actual answer quickly pops into your head--oh, he must have money).

I can see how some viewers might have fell for the charms of this frog of a picture (ok, I'm weak). It's a complete fantasy, and like all fantasies, there are those for whom the fantasy charms and captivates, and those who think the whole schlemiel is ridiculous and contrived. I was one of the latter.