|
Published denials to the contrary, François
Truffaut is the most autobiographical of filmmakers,
so The Man Who Loved Women (L'Homme qui aimait les femmes) could
very well be scripted from Truffaut's
private journals. In essence, the film provides
a visual journal of a womanizer, and there is no
denying that the famous director likewise appreciated
a plethora of beautiful women the same way connoisseurs
take to fine wine. Indeed, he had love affairs with
nearly all the leading actresses he worked with
(including Jeanne Moreau, Julie Christie, Claude
Jade, and Catherine Deneuve!), and his infidelities
eventually led to divorce.
But like leading character Bertrand Morane, beautifully
underplayed by Charles Denner (who plays Manuel
in Costa-Gravis' Z),
Truffaut
thinks he might find happiness in quantity instead
of restricting himself as society teaches:
Why do we have to look at so many people for what we're taught can be found in one person alone?
One of the most surprising aspects to Truffaut's
film is that it was made at all, created in 1977 during
the height of feminism. Originally titled The
Skirtchaser, predictably the film was open
to attacks from politically correct critics for being
macho and misogynistic. Pariscope's
Claire Clouot likened it to "an inventory of spare
parts exhibiting broads like veal scallops."
Such criticisms can be overlooked if the film is seen
as Truffaut
intended--a character study of a sensitive womanizer
who appreciates woman for differing qualities--one
for her myopic look, another for her intensity and
passion, a girl that looks like an orphan, another
for her gentleness, another that looks like she strayed
from a Russian novel, etc. It may appear to some dated
from the 1950's, and that's exactly what Truffaut
attempts since this is a pivotal era for him.
Truffaut
conceives this as a portrait of a man who strives
to get through to his first true love--like a true
Freudian, this is his mother. His whole life focuses
on seeking this mother love, causing him to persistently
be on the hunt and appear to be unfaithful to any
woman who expects exclusivity. Morane reveals flashbacks
showing his unhappy childhood, in which his mother
both entices and rejects him. Dressed scantily about
the house, she makes no secret of her lustful nature
and attempts to involve her son with her numerous
love affairs by having him drop love letters by the
Post Office.
Structured as one two-hour flashback since the film
begins with a cemetery burial, curiously attended
only by women (in a homage to Hitchcock, Truffaut
appears briefly in a cameo, headed in the opposite
direction of the funeral party). Geneviève (Brigitte
Fossey) muses on the unusual collection of mourners,
but she understands Morane better than any of them.
Not only was she his last lover, but she is his book
publisher--the title of his only manuscript matching
the film title. Thus, the flashbacks come from what
she knows from his journalistic memoir.
For Morane seduction is no Don Juan game--it's an
all encompassing obsession, made plain with the initial
scene in which he is drawn to a beautiful woman's
legs (as is Truffaut's
camera in true Bunuel fashion). Mesmerized by the
mystery woman's legs ("the legs of women are compasses--they
circle the globe, giving it balance and harmony"),
Morane pursues the woman into the street but can only
record her license plate number. After a circuitous
route that requires him to bust out his right headlight
to involve his insurance company, Morane traces the
renter of the car to a village outside of Paris, only
to discover that the object of his desire has flown
to the U.S. This marks only the first quest of many.
Classifying women as either "kittens" or "fillies,"
the protagonist seems most intrigued with the hard
to get women. He persistently pursues the enigmatic
"Aurore"--the telephone wake up caller service operator,
who puts him off until learning that he's written
a book, and Hélène, the red-haired lingerie shopkeeper
attracted to him but turns his affections down because
she desires younger men. Véra (Leslie Caron) represents
Morane's great unattainable love, into whom he runs
one evening by accident but, presumably fearing rejection,
fails to pursue. (Truffaut's
wife, Madeleine, believes this character represents
Catherine Deneuve in real life)
Although touches of comedy make it through, Truffaut's
film has an overall melancholy tone--something Truffaut
didn't realize until he reached the cutting room.
In fact, at one point he considered changing the title
to The Man
Who Was Afraid of Women. In 1983 Blake
Edwards remade Truffaut's film in a forgettable American
fashion with self-assured Burt Reynolds lending none
of the sensitivity of Charles Denner's womanizer.
Edwards' script is perhaps more in tune with original
screenwriter Michel Fermaud's hedonistic ideas, but
Truffaut
continually toned these down to agree with his more
discreet romantic nature. As obsessed with women as
Ahab is with the white whale, Morane is no macho rake,
determined to deflower every beautiful woman he sees.
Truffaut's
scripting choices work as well in the tightly drawn
drama as his trademark tracking shots that often follow
the legs of the actresses, and French audiences responded
positively upon the film's release, despite the feminist
controversy. It didn't do as well in the United States,
where such a serious study of a skirtchaser doomed
the film to small arthouse crowds. How well the film
succeeds with the viewer will depend on how much he/she
can accept and understand Morane's point of view and
the motivations of his character. The
Man Who Loved Women actually
represents one of Truffaut's
better scripts and provides some insight into the
director's own psyche--a melancholy soul that also
continually sought the same love that his protagonists
searches for. In the wake of the eternal quest, he
left behind a body of work that will endure--and this
film is a worthy token.
|
