Two English Girls (1971)

 Francois Truffaut's "Two English Girls"


Francois Truffaut's second commercial failure, after 1963's "The Soft Skin," was his 1971 film "Two English Girls." Personally, I understand the lack of enthusiasm for the film, given that I feel its affects are as comparable as "The Soft Skin," which I found moderate-to-middling. I could tell "Two English Girls" was an adaption from a novel, given the story framework that Truffaut uses. However, I couldn't quite connect myself to his rendition of these characters as much as I do in his other films.

"Two English Girls" continues his collaboration with Jean-Pierre Leaud in a role that Leaud seems to flourish in under Truffaut's hand. The 'role' being a young adult man fumbling and middling his way through awkward and uncertain romances. In this case, he plays Claude, whom juggles back-and-forth romances between two English girls over the course of seven years.

While the consistent and constant dramatics do well to entice the viewer into the rollercoaster of a love triangle, Truffaut fails to engage with me, personally (something he never manages to accomplish, however). Maybe it is meant to share a similar palette for being dizzyingly emotionally untethered, like its sister film, "Jules and Jim." But, where "Jules and Jim" felt like it was occupied by insatiably complex characters, "Two English Girls" seems to lack the quenching of said appetite.



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