'A Sculptural Moment: The Epilogue of Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent (1971)'

Abstract

Like the other pieces in this collection, this essay focuses on a film moment: in this case, the epilogue of Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent (Francois Truffaut, 1971). Its main concern is with how the epilogue engages with its location: the sculpture garden of the Musee Rodin. By analysing the way four Rodin sculptures are shot and woven into the film's narrative, the essay opens up questions about the way the film reflects on history, storytelling and the materiality of film. At the same time, the essay considers the label ‘epilogue’ and how this sequence compares with other cinematic epilogues. My exegesis of Truffaut’s use of a sculptural garden location is supported by secondary-source research on: Truffaut’s oeuvre; the history of epilogues in cinema; sculpture in film; the history of sculpture; and the history of the Rodin museum’s garden. While the film has been discussed by French and Anglophone Truffaut specialists in relation to his oeuvre, it has not been examined in relation to other contexts. My essay breaks new ground both in comparing the film to key 1960s cinema by other directors and in its emphasis on sculpture in cinema. There has been very little attention in film studies to the presence of sculpture in fictional films’ mise-en-scène.