I had this for so long on my DVR, it was hard deleting it to make room, finally. At least I saw it three times, and the third time I did learn more from it, so I probably would have benefitted from seeing it yet again. But now...
Anyway, I thought this was a near excellent film. As others have noted, the episodic nature of it felt at times as if Truffaut was not sure where to go exactly. Compared to his other films, the editing was not as tight, and as many of his fans have noted, he often game homage to Hitchcock. This does not feel like a Hitch influenced film.
SPOILERS
But at the same time the episodic encounters with women were very much part of the story. The book editor at the film's end says she knew Bertrand's entire story in a way that none of the others did. But she did not really understand the meaning of his encounter with the woman he really loved, but lost. Those episodes in effect showed him to be trying to fill a hole in himself through endless encounters. On one level he knew that was not the way to actually fill that hole and make himself whole, but he feared, or did not know any other way, not pursuing those encounters.
And yet... we do not judge too harshly, since he did love women, the ultimate woman in each of the women, trying to get close as he could to such ultimate. Perhaps what prevented him from finding that essence in any of the women he encounters is quite simply that he knows he will not find anyone like his one true love.
In the end I thought the film, despite its humorous moments, was rather depressing. In effect he failed on one level despite having (if one accepts the conceit, which one must in order to enjoy the film and make sense of it in an overall respect) a remarkable ability to entice women into sexual encounters, one that no doubt most men would envy, at least to some extent. That ability in other words did not provide an answer for what can, and I think should, be seen as a form of existential anxiety for Bertrand.
His ability did not so much become a trap as a form of proof for him that even that would not give his life any greater meaning than it had. Sure, the film can be understood as saying that Bertrand did provide pleasure, and even meaning from a human encounter, however fleeting. They cared about Bertrand, and care is the essence of human meaning and purpose. But it also did not overcome what absence led him to pursue his search for an answer to his anxiety.
I gave it 9 out of ten.
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