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13 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
A really good movie about a man who was just crazy about women., 26 March 2000
Author: (staycoolguy@yahoo.com) from France

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.

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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
François Truffaut--The Man Who Loved Women, 16 January 2003
Author: Tamir Mostafa (filmhaven@yahoo.com) from Rockland, New York

During the same year that Close Encounters of The Third Kind came out, in which he played a part in, François Truffaut released The Man Who Loved Women. The title could easily apply to Truffaut himself. Truffaut loved women and in all of his films he explores the theme of love and all the conflicts that can assail when we are in such a state.

In the Man Who Loved Women, Bertrand Morane is the man who loves women and early on in the film Truffaut makes his Hitchcock like cameo. But the character could easily have been played by Truffaut. The film begins with a woman telling us of Bertrand and the many women who loved him. Women who attend his funeral. In fact women who loved him are the only ones at his funeral. Once Bertrand pops up as a living character he narrates his own tale and tells us how he came to write a book entitled "The Man Who Loved Women." It was to resolve all the conflicting emotions he feels for all his loves that he started the book. The "book" is really the film. Bertrand is a man, and yes I may be redundant here, who loves women to the point of obsession. He sees a pair of legs pass him and he follows the legs to a car which he only gets a license plate for. He goes about contacting the driver of the car. In the process he meets another woman and so on and so on. Each woman a tale in his book, each woman he takes very seriously. Every single woman effecting him deeply. Bertrand has many loves but he is not the type of "Romeo" who uses his loves then throws them to the street. It is usually a case of things not working out that leads to a split in his relationships. The women are too strange, such as the case of the women who can only make love in public places or under circumstances of "danger." Or perhaps they feel he does not love them. Or they feel they can not love him in the way he seeks them to.

Bertrand is seldom alone, prompting him to say at one point, while typing his memoir alone in his apartment, "I cherish my moments of isolation." For two hours we follow Bertrand's adventures as he genuinely falls for almost every woman he meets and some that he doesn't, such as the operator who calls him every morning at seven to wake him up. Bertrand is a homely man yet one imbuing a charm and sensitivity that as one woman says, "Feels like it is very important when you ask for something. Like you will almost die if you don't get it." He is hard to resist and so is the funny, charming, deep, introspective, dramatic, sometimes melodramatic, part autobiographical film from Francois Truffaut. I give it a 8 out of 10. It's not as cinematic as some of his earlier films but it certainly is better than the current trends of either domestic or foreign films. Truffaut passed away too soon and it is the cinema's loss in every way.

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12 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
François Truffaut does it again, 14 January 2005
Author: (caspian1978@hotmail.com) from Attleboro, MA

Another terrific character driven movie, François Truffaut creates a story that makes you laugh as well as cry. Charles Denner stars as a fan of the ladies. More than that, he is in great need of woman so much that is ends up to be his doom. The movie begins at the end, with the funeral. Like Hitchcock, François Truffaut makes a cameo at the beginning as his trademark. From there, we begin to see who this man was and why is urge for women caused his death. A very sexy film for 1977, it is still as funny today than it was almost 30 years ago. Unlike American movies, it is very difficult to have a scene with just words and no action. Many scenes in the movie are one shot scenes with nothing but pages of words, words and more words. This is the movie's strong point, besides having several beautiful women. The language (not just French) in the movie is powerful to its audience. It speaks to both men and women.

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8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
a very good movie--particularly the ending, 15 August 2005
8/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

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!

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
narrative details, 21 June 2009
Author: ruiresende84 (ruiresende84@gmail.com) from Porto, Portugal

This is one of the most interesting conceptions of a man who spent all his career and life questioning the very conception of cinema and what it meant in every moment. After the adventure of french new wave of the 60's, Truffaut matured and, to me, he started producing his more focused work. He basically produced some films which were essays on cinema, as well as autobiographical depictions of his thoughts.

So, we have a film about storytelling. A womanizer who writes the story of his life. Every woman in his life is, herself, a story. So the pleasure of being involved with a woman maps the will Truffaut has to tell a story. The fact that Morane writes all the stories, and makes one single big form (a book) with them enhances this.

The woman editor has an important role. She is the key character that Truffaut places above Morane, and she annotates and comments on the whole structure. Her remarks on Morane's book and personality may as well be taken as commentaries on the very film, and of its director. She is self-reference, she is Truffaut commenting on himself, thus adding reflexivity to the film. That's why she observes that Morane, the writer, doesn't reject the "details" others wouldn't notice, and she literally says that he is basically a storyteller. Also, she is the one who remarks the fact that Morane's funeral is the perfect ending to the story. I saw all this as reflexive annotations on the very structure of the film and, more generally, on the nature of Truffaut's cinema. He was through all his life a storyteller, and above any pleasure he took in making a film, there was the pleasure of narrating. Also he took a special interest in filming details, something i think he took from Hitchcock. The hand dialing phone numbers, or turning the pages in the address book, that sort of thing.

Morane's funeral, which opens and closes the film, gathers all the women around him. It is, like the editor (the second narrator) told, a praising of Morane's life, the recognizing of his qualities, the celebration of his life (cinema).

This and "La nuit américaine" are so far the best built films by Truffaut that i saw. Many times i think that Truffaut (and Godard!) has spent to much time around things which were not that important, like school kids discussing football teams. But in certain points, he made important contributions to the evolving of cinematic narrative. This is one of them.

My opinion: 4/5

http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Truffaut's love for women in film form, 29 May 2007
8/10
Author: skcampbell from Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The first half of The Man Who Loved Women is absolutely wonderful it is picture perfect. The second half, especially a large chunk about Bertrand's (Charles Denner) love affair with a somewhat unstable married women drags a little bit. This dose not mean that it is a boring film, on the contrary, it is a joy to sit through. Bertrand loves women (as the title hints at), he loves women so much he cant stop himself from going too great lengths to talk too a beautiful women. He will do anything necessary, he dose not care about the way he is perceived or if he will be rejected, he goes completely on instinct without thinking about any outcome or what might happen, he just must talk to any women that peaks his interest. Bertrand is not Don Juan he just has a natural, and somewhat unstoppable way of falling in love with every woman he sees, or in the case of his wake up telephone service, hear. Women are intrigued or attracted to his non-threatening natural nature. In fact at one point one women says that she could never refuse him of anything because of the "way he asks for it". Truffaut creates a complete dream world were every women it beautiful, every women has a perfect figure, every women walk and moves like a ballet dancer. Truffaut obviously loves women he loves everything about them, everything! He creates this world that all men would love to be a part of. Truffaut (and his writing partners) do a wonderful job of creating a character that we can love while at the same time be fascinated by his whimsical attitude to life. He has no friends, he dose not associate with any men outside of a work environment. He has one interest, one hobby, one passion, that being women. Charles Denner plays this role perfectly, he has the sort of absent minded professor quality, Bertrand has one thing on his mind only and its written all over his face. Though there are uneven moments and some situations feel contrived, this is a beautiful, funny, touching and at times though provoking film. Enthusiastically Recommended !!

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Superb!, 20 April 2006
9/10
Author: dbjmoore from United Kingdom

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.

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4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
A brilliant movie, about the thoughts of a man that loved women., 24 October 1999
9/10
Author: DrBanana (cremebanane@yahoo.com) from Boston, USofA

The first time I saw this movie, I hated it. The narrative structure wasn't what I was used to, and the movie as a whole seemed distorted and I wasn't sure what it is going too.

Three years later, haven deepened my culture with books such as "L'amant" de M. Duras, movies such as "Emmanuelle". I started really to appreciate this movie. It is about reality, a man who isn't afraid to scribble down all his memoirs and thoughts. Of cause, at first it seemed very self contradictory, but life is full of contradictions. It is hard to find someone nowadays to have the courage to share all his feelings and thoughts despite all the social values we have been raised with.

A brilliant, brilliant movie, only if you could understand the whole of it.

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1 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Loved??, 15 February 2008
7/10
Author: jcappy from ny-vt

Another good film by Truffaut (as with DW Griffith, Leni Riefenstahl) in the sense of a good watch, but why does it seem so gloomy and weighted down--at times even like a horror film.

Is it because Bertrand Morane is a solitary? Or because he draws us into a world (through his low key, partly sympathetic rendering) that is somehow upsetting and/or even detestable? Is it because the view here is hothouse psychological? A kind of Freudian mind drama in which a mother-son dyad subsumes everything outside itself to its own ends? (see "Alfie" for a social view of a similar womanizer) Is it because of the extent to which this fantasy is carried out---that it finally seems deranged, and sick, as if the product of a puerile mind in an adult? Or is it all the concealment techniques used to paint Bertrand as so exceptional a male that he might even find acceptance on an all-female island?

I think all of the above count but for my part the real source of gloom is the absence of women in "The Man Who Loved Women." No matter the angle, the multiplicity of women (one arguable exception) are singularly available to Bertrand Morane. They are inspected (their entry into his world and our screens), pursued, consumed, and disposed of--all to their immense delight. This is their invisibility Oh yeah, they have their fleeting stories, but these are invariably subsumed by Bertrand's script, which is all about pleasure, appetite, and some trumped up memory of a delinquent promiscuous mother.

But the big lie in all this and what Bertrand is most convinced of is that women want and need sex--and specifically from him. This availability is so patently confirmed as to be pornographic. Each step of his lovers' butterfly-like life span with him is not only accepted, but savored and yearned for. It's as if his sexualizing puppy-love has incapacitated them, cutting them off from both their own minds, and their own worlds. No way they're drawn to him for social reasons (this is not "Alfie")---but an irressistable urge which speaks for the social power (cleverly hidden by Truffaut) behind his very personal power trip. And accounts for Bertrand's capacity to transform live, often tall, world-aware women into fun sex toys.

The real convincer in this schema of availability, though, is Genevieve, the editor publisher. You expect her to be the point woman for exposure, given her position and her inside view of Bertrand's story, but no--she is the ultimate patsy. She not only loves his refreshingly honest take on his use of women---which she convinces herself is so modern, and contains a tendency toward equality, but converts five resistant male co-publishers to her view. Which makes it just a matter of time--she's lucky to be leggy-- before she expresses wimpish longings for the said Bertrand Morane and jumps into bed with him. And her love, like that of all his others, will soon become eternal and confer a kind of sainthood on the late Bertrand. If this seems astonishing than her role in the burial scene confirms it to be nakedly true. Surrounded by dozens of Saint Bertrand's lovers, she supplies the voice over as each woman approaches to toss dirt on his coffin. She touts each as an example of Bertrand's diverse taste for women... like shy, myopic, gentle, passionate, orphanish, funny, and so forth, ad nauseam as if even greater holiness might be bestowed on a male who has slept with Asians, Blacks, Latinas, Russians, and Native Islanders. Anyway, a "fitting" end indeed to a man who classified all women as either "kittens" or "fillies."

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2 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Much better than some of Truffaut's other, overrated stuff., 30 January 2007
7/10
Author: fedor8 (fedor8@yahoo.com) from Serbia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Unlike Truffaut's other movies, this one doesn't have dull bits, and the bits that are supposed to be funny sometimes are. A French comedy with some funny/amusing moments?? Is that possible? Apparently, yes. Once in a blue moon, of course. Apparently there was a blue moon in 1977. It's about a guy who has affairs with countless women, is literally obsessed by them, eventually deciding to write a book about his sexual exploits. At first glance, it's hard to accept the little hook-nosed Morane as being some sort of Casanova. However, you get used to that quickly, partly because a lot of the women he gets aren't that great-looking, either. (Although, I'm sure this was neither Truffaut's point nor intention.) The movie is quite pleasant to watch, the dialog and the narration are interesting. The only drawback, and it's not a major one, is that occasional situations and supporting actors aren't too convincing, but this is to be expected from a European movie (UK films not included).

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