Rating: 
Summary: A BEAUTIFUL SENSITIVE MOVIE
Review: Arguably the director's best movie,LES DEUX ANGLAISES ET LE CONTINENT is both charming and moving.TRUFFAUT always loved stories about love triangles(his own life was like that).It is not surprizing that he added the scenes that were originally missing when the film was first presented in 1971.He was obviously very fond of that movie.JEAN-PIERRE LÉAUD his alter ego from the DOINEL series was miscast to be sure,but it doesn't diminish the quality of the storytelling.A common TRUFFAUT device here is the use of the voice over that comes off perfectly.Very few films have succeeded in presenting the theme of love in all it's cruelty and physical aspects.MURIEL and ANNE the héroines are reminiscent of the BRONTÉ sisters.A good choice for anyone who wants to understand the psychology of women.
Rating:
Summary: One of Truffaut's best.
Review: Godard thought Truffaut had finally sold out with this movie, and I guess their friendship ended there. Compared to Godard's own movies, I suppose he had a point, but Truffaut made some films that were far more mainstream that this one, and today, Two English Girls seems pretty innovative. I talk to people who say "Jules and Jim" is their favorite movie, but when I ask them about this one, they say they've never heard of it. It's a shame that this film, written by Henri Pierre Roche, who wrote Jules and Jim (the plot is similar), is pretty much ignored (it seems Truffaut's first 3 films are the only ones that get seen...I don't understand why someone who says "Jules and Jim" is his favorite movie wouldn't want to go out and see some more films by the same director. I think all of them are available). "Jules and Jim" is certainly more of a landmark film, but "Two English Girls" is a total joy to watch. I've seen it six or seven times. George Delerue's score alone makes it worth seeing, and the same can be said for Nestor Almendros' cinematography. Generally, shots of green landscapes don't do anything for me, but Almendros (who shot the wonderful-looking "Days of Heaven," and many of Eric Rohmer's movies) had a great gift. This is one of the great-looking color movies that I've seen.But beyond all that, this movie is complex, psychological, oddly romantic, creepy, impressionistic, quite funny and very tragic. They don't make movies like this anymore. The first time I saw it I wasn't really sure what the hell was going on. There's nothing histrionic here; we're never told what to feel; months pass between scenes, and it throws us off; characters pop up out of nowhere and then disappear; in short, it's got all the characteristics that I like about films from the 1970s. But I've never seen a movie with an atmosphere or pace quite like this one. It resembles the earlier films of the French New Wave in some ways; there's something classical about it at the core; and in other ways, it seems to break new ground. It's probably Truffaut's most emotional film, his most personal ("The Green Room" may be more personal, but it's not that good). I wish more people would see it. As for the DVD, I have not seen the transfer; my copy is the Criterion Laserdisc, which I think is the same transfer used for the DVD. The print is a little more faded than it was when I saw a recent print last year at the Nuart in Los Angeles, but it still looks pretty amazing.
Rating:
Summary: ANN & MURIEL
Review: One of Truffaut's favorite movies of mine, TWO ENGLISH GIRLS is an adaptation of a novel from Henri-Pierre Roché, the author of "Jules & Jim", a book Truffaut had adapted 10 years before. Two women, one man and the waltz of the misunderstandings and the hesitations dancing between the walls of a love that doesn't dare to speak. The movie features a romantic love story happening a hundred years too late, so, as always in Truffaut movies, the characters are out of focus, they live a virtual passionate love that could fill hundreds of pages of a novel but are doomed to suffer in the trivial reality of the beginning of the XXth century. A superb musical score by Georges Delerue and a Jean-Pierre Léaud lunar as usual should tempt you even if the quality of the DVD presented by Fox Lorber is no more than average. A DVD zone your library.
Rating:
Summary: Worth seeing, one of Truffaut's best
Review: One of Truffaut's most ambitious and explicit films. Exquisitely photographied, superbly played. At the turn of the century, an aspiring young writer spends a holiday on the welsh coast with 2 english sisters, and falls in love with them both. Not as good as "Jules et Jim", but definitely a must see if you are a Truffaut fan.
Rating:
Summary: Worth seeing, one of Truffaut's best
Review: One of Truffaut's most ambitious and explicit films. Exquisitely photographied, superbly played. Not as good as "Jules et Jim", but definitely a must see if you are a Truffaut fan.
Rating:
Summary: Truffaut's Best Film
Review: Only Truffaut could have made this film. It is very sad, but it has all his charm and tenderness, his very French appreciation of love and happiness, and his literary cast of mind. He said that he liked to make films about "the sentiments". If that was his goal, this was his best film.
Rating: 
Summary: Minor Truffaut, minor pleasures
Review: The restored 130-minute version of Two English Girls is something of a misfire but not without compensations. For a director who complained about the overly-literary nature of French cinema, his mise-en-scene is very clumsy here, with excessive use of narration not just to fill in gaps but to tell us the characters thoughts and feelings during scenes where, had he done his job properly, we should know. At times it threatens to become a slideshow accompaniment to a book reading.
The plot ambles along directionlessly as Jean-Pierre Leaud's selfish young Frenchman selfishly destroys two sisters' lives without ever finding happiness himself. It's very much fantasy-fulfilment, with the two embodying Madonna and Whore and at times threatens to turn into a distaff Jules et Jim as everyone is oh so civilized about it all. The casting is also problematic. Kika Markham is fine as the free-spirit of sorts, but Stacey Tendeter is less effective as her 'purer' sister and the casting of the minor British roles is haphazard at best - David Markham is fine as a fortune teller, but the next-door neighbour is not exactly a natural actor and one scene features a London Bobby who looks about as English as Raimu on a particularly jowelly day.
It's one of those films that always seems to be on for another hour no matter how far into it you get, and it doesn't reward the effort with more than minor pleasures. But it is nice to see composer Georges Delerue in a small role as an estate agent and for all its clumsiness and overlength it has its moments and a mildly affecting ending. It's just a shame getting there took so long.
The DVD transfer is respectable rather than outstanding, with a gallery of French trailers from most of Truffaut's films.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as Jules & Jim, but still worthwhile...
Review: This is the story behind Jules & Jim. It is a fictionalized account of the author who wrote it. So, instead of being one woman for two guys, it is one guy for two girls. Let me say this right off the bat - this is not in the same league as Jules & Jim. The other reviews of this movie which cite it as one of Truffaut's best are overly generous. Even the look of this film cannot compare to J&J, which was shot in timeless, glorious black and white and it still looks just as fresh today. Two English Girls is shot in color, which has faded somewhat and it makes the picture look cheaper. In his book, The Films in My Life, Truffaut pledges his admiration for Henry Miller. He has a fascination with eroticism and it always troubled him that Miller could be frankly erotic in prose, but on screen it loses something and becomes [more erotic]. This movie is an exercise in testing the boundaries of artistic eroticism. It is a hit and miss affair: sometimes it comes off as a letter to Penthouse Forum and there is a scene which is disturbing to modern sensibilities involving two little girls. However, at its best I do think the film captures some of the awe of physical love that it aspires to. I hope I don't seem too down on this film. It is still a Truffaut film, which means that it is better than anything you are going to see in theaters now. It's just that he is competing against himself, which is alas, too much competition.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as Jules & Jim, but still worthwhile...
Review: This is the story behind Jules & Jim. It is a fictionalized account of the author who wrote it. So, instead of being one woman for two guys, it is one guy for two girls. Let me say this right off the bat - this is not in the same league as Jules & Jim. The other reviews of this movie which cite it as one of Truffaut's best are overly generous. Even the look of this film cannot compare to J&J, which was shot in timeless, glorious black and white and it still looks just as fresh today. Two English Girls is shot in color, which has faded somewhat and it makes the picture look cheaper. In his book, The Films in My Life, Truffaut pledges his admiration for Henry Miller. He has a fascination with eroticism and it always troubled him that Miller could be frankly erotic in prose, but on screen it loses something and becomes [more erotic]. This movie is an exercise in testing the boundaries of artistic eroticism. It is a hit and miss affair: sometimes it comes off as a letter to Penthouse Forum and there is a scene which is disturbing to modern sensibilities involving two little girls. However, at its best I do think the film captures some of the awe of physical love that it aspires to. I hope I don't seem too down on this film. It is still a Truffaut film, which means that it is better than anything you are going to see in theaters now. It's just that he is competing against himself, which is alas, too much competition.
Rating:
Summary: Truffaut's Best
Review: Truffaut made lots of great movies, and lots of mediocre ones. "Two English Girls" stands out, I think, as his best.
Like "Jules and Jim," this film involves a love triangle, only instead of two men and woman, as the title suggests, this triangle is made up of two women (sisters) and a man named Claude (Jean-Pierre Leaud).
Initially, during an extended stay at the girls home in England, Claude falls in love with Muriel (Stacey Tendeter), but after a period of separation, he decides to "play the field." When Muriel's sister Anne (Kika Markham) moves to Paris, Claude begins a relationship with her, only to find that she can play the field too. Eventually, Claude and Muriel come together for one night, and the experience rekindles Claude's love. But it is not to be. I won't spoil the films ending, but will say that it leaves only the most unsentimental viewers without tears in their eyes.
The films sole flaw is a short part in which Muriel confesses to masturbation in a letter. This detracts from what is otherwise a supremely sensitive and touching film.
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