The Lover (L'Amant) (Uncut) [DVD]

 

 

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Jean-Jacques Annaud (Two Brothers, Enemy at the Gate) made L'Amant (The Lover) in 1992. He wrote the script, but the story is from an autobiographical novel by Marguerite Duras. Anyone who has heard the narrator from Hiroshima Mon Amour, the film Duras scripted for Alain Resnais, will know what to expect from the book, and from the film as well, for Annaud is faithful to it. Duras writes some of the most beautiful, most precise prose of any modern writer, and preserves a tone of ironic detachment that draws the reader deep into the emotional process she is describing.

Annaud takes a risk in following the book so closely, for his film becomes literary rather than cinematic, and viewers sometimes find it empty, lacking in the kind of melodramatic intensity we've become used to in movies. In a reference to Hiroshima Mon Amour perhaps, Annaud has two parallel narrative streams throughout the movie, and this device succeeds in making it a great movie.

Viewers, especially in puritan America, are taken aback at the intensely erotic lovemaking scenes, which comprise most of the visual content of the movie. The lovmaking is so real that one wonders if the actors were really doing it, and not acting at all (I think they were). Other components may be dwarfed by this content, but they are there: the magnificent photography of landscape and city which expresses the love the characters have for their home; the racial divide between Asian and European; and the overriding theme of growing up.

The second narrative stream is the reflections of the elderly Duras (spoken by Jeanne Moreau in a non acting but important role) as she comments on the actions of her younger self as they are depicted in the film. This is the essence of both book and film. The tender, nostalgic tone of the elder Duras discovers both innocence and ignorance in the younger one; this is an experience everyone (except the very young) can relate to. The grandiose, empty generalisations (all women are prostitutes, the young girl tells her friend: I wouldn't mind being one). The eagerness for sexual experience, for losing one's virginity and becoming 'adult'. Focusing on one's own overwhelming reactions and cultivating a kind of blindness to the reactions of others. It is by looking back that Duras discovers the depth of the passion she has inspired in her lover. It is by looking back that she also discovers her feelings, on the surface so self confidently detached, were deeper than she realised. The lover loved her all his life. L'Amant is a love letter both to him, the lover, and her younger self, an attempt to bring the love more perfectly to life in fiction than it was in real life, an appeal to all of us to understand more fully what we are feeling, even though Duras realises the ironic truth that to learn from our mistakes we first have to make them.

Postscript
I recently read a review of this film in which the reviewer said the film was weakened by the fact that Jane March couldn't act. The comment made me reflect on how often actresses who do nude scenes are said to be bad actresses. It's always sounded like puritanism to me: instead of saying it's bad to be naked you say the acting's bad. I thought the acting was good throughout this film. You cannot fault Tony Leung, one of the greats of the HK movie industry. Jane March was asked to play a young, inexperienced girl and her own acting inexperience helped her do a good job. She played a stranger in a strange land who was also a stranger in her own family slowly coming to self realisation through her own sensuality. March was believable through all this, and not only because she looked the part. But to get the most from the movie you can't just focus on Jane March, just as you can't just focus on Jeanne Moreau as she speaks Duras' words. You have to focus on both actresses at the same time. And if you do and you're a male you'll learn a lot about women.

This film is currently unavailable on PAL, which is a pity as it deserves a wider release. 'The Lover' is perhaps best remembered for being Jane March's first role, and for being 'erotic'. It is both these things, but also an excellent film. Based on a Marguerite Dumas novel, the film concerns the relationship between a young, poor French girl and a local Chinese playboy. It is one of the few films to really tackle the subject of a strongly sexual relationship in a way which is both believable and yet not tacky. Jane March's performance brings the strong character of the novel vividly to life, and is backed by some marvellous photography and sets, which reek of post-colonial decay. A marvellously weighted narration (of passages from the novel) by Jeanne Moreau lends the film a serious and literary tone that balances the high eroticism of the sex scenes, and her weary, cracking voice back up the sense of realistic autobiography.

In all, a film which is evocative, spicy and intelligent, and worthy of a PAL DVD release some day soon.

'The Lover' is perhaps best remembered for being Jane March's first role, and for being 'erotic'. It is both these things, but also an excellent film. Based on a Marguerite Dumas novel, the film concerns the relationship between a young, poor French girl and a local Chinese playboy. It is one of the few films to really tackle the subject of a strongly sexual relationship in a way which is both believable and yet not tacky. Jane March's performance brings the strong character of the novel vividly to life, and is backed by some marvellous photography and sets, which reek of post-colonial decay. A marvellously weighted narration (of passages from the novel) by Jeanne Moreau lends the film a serious and literary tone that balances the high eroticism of the sex scenes, and her weary, cracking voice back up the sense of realistic autobiography.

In all, a film which is evocative, spicy and intelligent, and now finally available on PAL release.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic portrayal of explicit sex, racial predudice and colonial society
This multi-dimensonal love story between a French girl and a local Chinese man was enhanced by the very well presented background of the French colony of today's Viet Nam. Read more

Published 7 months ago by ivan

4.0 out of 5 stars good
good can watch once my dvd was of poor quality but unfortunately i lost my dvd cover So i couldnot return it back movie was good but quality of the dvd was poor

Published 13 months ago by rusky

3.0 out of 5 stars Jane March bares all
I purchased this because I had Jane March's other film, Color of Night on DVD, and wanted to see what 'The Lover' was like. Read more

Published on 17 Oct 2009 by DanielB1982

3.0 out of 5 stars The sex is more dominant,than the script
I can see why reviewers called it a porn film the film starts of well artistically which i thought this is going to be good but i'm with reviewers on this one jane march's lack of... Read more

Published on 27 Mar 2009 by Ms. A. N. Akuffo

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for PAL soon
I have seen this on VHS. A sensitive and intimate film. I cannot understand why it is not available on DVD in europe!.

Published on 3 Nov 2008 by N. Clark

4.0 out of 5 stars Steamy and evocative
Other reviewers have effectively described the plot, the sex and the setting. As well as all this I was especially impressed by the cinematography. Read more

Published on 1 Oct 2008 by Jason Mills

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Cinematography and More
The film brings more varied nuances to the novel by Marguerite Duras, who wrote The Lover when she was seventy. Read more

Published on 28 May 2008 by Well Read

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