(Les deux anglaises et le continent). Truffaut explores desire as the obscure object in this story of two English sisters who fall in love with the same Frenchman, a position the Léaud persona knows well, whether it is post-1968 or, as here, the turn of the twentieth century. Raised as “my monument” by his doting mother, Claude (Léaud) is a bit broken when we meet him, having fallen off a swing. He is mended by an English sculptress in Paris, Anne (Kika Markham), eventually to go to Wales to meet her sister Muriel of the “shy, untamed look” (Stacey Tendeter). Marriage is proposed, passion postponed . . . Monuments, once acknowledged, are easily walked around, and in this adaptation of a story by Henri-Pierre Roché, author of Jules and Jim, the women do just that as they enter a new century pulsing with sexuality, liberating and horrible. Truffaut has created a modernist film of a period piece, as delicate and tense as a tennis match.

—Judy Bloch

• Written by Truffaut, Jean Gruault, based on the novel by Henri-Pierre Roché. Photographed by Nestor Almendros, Jean-Claude Rivière. With Jean-Pierre Léaud, Kika Markham, Stacey Tendeter, Sylvia Marriott. (116 mins, In French with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Janus/Criterion Collection)