The Lover (L'amant) (1992)
Average Rating: 4.7/10
Reviews Counted: 15
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 12
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 4
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 8,294
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Movie Info
The Lover is director Jean-Jacques Annaud's adaptation of Marguerite Duras' minimalist 1984 novel. Set in French Indochina in 1929, the film explores the erotic charge of forbidden love. Jane March plays a French teenager sent to a Saigon boarding school, while Tony Leung is a 32-year Chinese aristocrat. They look at each and they both see a blinding white flash; it's kismet. He offers her a ride in his limousine and soon they meet in his "bachelor room" where they revel in a wide variety of
Oct 30, 1992 Wide
Dec 11, 2001
MGM
Cast
-
Jane March
The Young Girl -
Tony Leung Ka Fai
Chinese Man -
Frédérique Meininger
Mother -
Arnaud Giovaninetti
Elder Brother -
Melvil Poupaud
Younger Brother -
Lisa Faulkner
Helene Lagonelle -
Raymonde Heudeline
Writer (end) -
Philippe LeDem
French Teacher -
Xien Mang
Chinese Man's Father -
Do Minh-vien
Young Boy -
Helene Patarot
Assistant Mistress -
Ann Schaufuss
Anne-Marie Stretter -
Tania Torrens
Principal -
Quach Van-an
Driver -
Yvonne Wingerter
Writer (beginning) -
Jeanne Moreau
Narrator -
Frédéric Auburtin
Liner Pianist
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All Critics (19) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (3) | Rotten (12)
Scratch away the steamy, evocative surface, remove Jeanne Moreau's veteran-voiced narration, and you have only art-film banalities.
Top CriticAnnaud and his collaborators have got all of the physical details just right, but there is a failure of the imagination here; we do not sense the presence of real people behind the attractive facades of the two main actors.
Never mind that in portraying passion, the two seem to be demonstrating the proper use of the Salad Shooter.
Too bad that the film is marred by the vices of international productions, as it deals with issues seldom shown in American movies, such as the power of sexuality.
Stylish if somewhat tedious study of a young Vietnamese woman who falls under the spell of an older dandy.
The worst part of the dialog is given to the writer. She has to say one pedantic line after another, and overall, the narrator's part is just too wordy.
The only moderately interesting scene here is a traditional Chinese wedding toward the end, which, of course, is cut short.
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Foreign Titles
- L'amant (FR)
