At the beginning of the 20th century, Claude Roc, a young middle-class Frenchman meets in Paris Ann Brown, a young Englishwoman. They become friends and Ann invites him to spend holidays at the house where she lives with her mother and her sister Muriel, for whom she intends Claude. During these holidays, Claude, Ann and Muriel become very close and he gradually falls in love with Muriel. But both families lay down a one-year-long separation without any contact before agreeing to the marriage. So Claude goes back to Paris when he has many love affairs before sending Muriel a break-off letter...
It's wonderful how offhand Franois Truffaut's best films feel. There doesn't seem to be any great effort being made; he doesn't push for his effects, but lets them flower naturally from the simplicities of his stories.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
23 Oct 2004
fresh:
A film of such beautiful, charming and comic discretion that it isn't until the end that one realizes it's also immensely sad and even brutal, though in the nonbrutalizing way that truth can sometimes be.
– Vincent Canby,
New York Times,
20 May 2003
fresh:
[A] bittersweet tale of love imperfectly expressed and passion unwisely spent.