THE MAN WHO UNDERSTOOD WOMEN

US, 1959, 135 minutes, Colour.
Leslie Caron, Henry Fonda, Marcel Dalio.
Directed by Nunnally Johnson.

The Man Who Understood Women was based on a novel by Romain Gary. Gary wrote a number of screenplays adapting some of his novels like Lady L. He also directed his wife, Jean Seberg, in Birds Come to Die in Peru.

This film has a Hollywood setting, an insight into the lives of a director, an actress – and with the usual exploration of themes of marriage and fidelity and infidelity.

The film was directed by screenwriter Nunnally Johnson who, from 1954 to 1960, directed a number of films including The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit.

1. The meaning of the title in its context? The irony of this title and its tone for the film?

2. How well did the film explore its sharp theme about Hollywood and human relationships and careers? Was there too much lost in the romantic and lush style? The colour, music, widescreen, locations etc?

3. Was the flashback technique successful? Arousing audience interest in Anne and the falling for Willie? Sympathies and values at the beginning of the film and their changes during the film?

4. Was it easy to identify with Anne at the beginning of the film? Her sympathies at the hospital, her being told the truth, the flashbacks to the test, to her drunkenness, the Cinderella overtones of her rise to fame, success and its effect on her, her falling in love with Willie, her disappointment in him, the choice about career and marriage, the marriage itself, her growing hardness towards Willie and its cruelty, the growing success over the years, the romantic love and its appeal to her, its effect on her and hurting her, coming to a knowledge of her real self via all this trouble and the melodrama of Willie's murder attempt? Was Anne a real character and was she well explored?

2. Did the film explore Willie well? Initial sympathy for his injuries, his career and its outline, Academy Awards etc, his interest in Ann, his kindness to her, the irony of his prediction about the telephone calls, masterminding her success, the effect on him, his response to her love, his verbalizing his feelings and yet the contrast of his actions, his deals and his not fulfilling the marriage? the clash of personalities, his continual concern? The jealousy and the murder attempt? How melodramatic was this? The irony that true knowledge had to come through such suffering?

6. The theme of wasted time, whose fault was it, the fact that it came to near-tragedy for love and understanding?

7. The character of Marco? His typical romantic fear? His reason for the affair with Ann? The reason for his leaving her? Its effect on her?

8. Willie and his relationship to his adviser? The irony of his not being able to listen to advice? The ironic way in which it was given?

9. How interesting was the Hollywood background of the film? Hollywood society which proclaims the phoney? The producer on the alert for deals, the signing, of contracts, the life of the pictures themselves compared with real life etc?

10. How much insight into people, love, hurt, and using people, knowledge and suffering did the film give?