The Man Who Loved Women (1977)
Directed by François Truffaut
There’s “not a man in sight” at Bertrand Morane’s (Charles Denner) Christmastime funeral; a tracking shot shows several women exiting their cars to pay their respects. The rest of the movie unfolds in flashback, depicting Morane’s philandering lifestyle. Wearing a brown leather jacket, he pursues the opposite sex with a compulsion that knows no bounds: his frenzied relationship with a married woman (a scene-stealing Nelly Borgeaud) is as intense as his infatuation with the lady who gives him his 7am wake-up call. Truffaut conveys this obsession through sensual superimpositions and recurring, fanatical glimpses of women walking. Once Morane starts translating his experiences into a memoir, the film’s disturbing autobiographical quality surfaces: black-and-white flashbacks show the profound influence of Morane’s manipulative mother. Some may dismiss this as self-indulgent, but the tone—forever hovering between comedic and traumatic—is fascinating, and the sequences of Morane following women through Montpellier contain a gripping voyeuristic pull. Danny King (Dec 16, 4pm, 7:30pm at FIAF’s “The Art of Sex and Seduction”)