The Lover

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Cast & Crew

Jane March
The Young Girl

Tony Ka Fai Leung
The Chinaman

Frédérique Meininger
The Mother

Arnaud Giovaninetti
The Elder Brother

Melvil Poupaud
The Younger Brother

Lisa Faulkner
Helene Lagonelle

Jean-Jacques Annaud
Director

Jean-Jacques Annaud
Screenwriter

Gérard Brach
Screenwriter

Claude Berri
Producer

Robert Fraisse
Cinematographer

Noëlle Boisson
Film Editing

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Audience Reviews for The Lover

• Jun 16, 2010

  This movie is set in 1920s Saigon. On a chance encounter on a ferry crossing a rich Chinese man in his 30s meets a French school girl. They start an affair. He loves her but she seems to stay with him for his money as her family are poor. He wants to marry her but is forbidden because of their race and his father has planned an arranged marriage for him. She leaves for France but he never forgets her. Movie content is a little uneasy at times. Also sexually explicit.
  Candy R Super Reviewer
• Sep 03, 2009

  The Lover, originally released in France as L'Amant, is a 1992 drama film produced by Claude Berri and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Based on the semi-autobiographical 1984 novel by Marguerite Duras, the film details the illicit affair between a teenage French girl and a wealthy Chinese man in 1929 French Indochina. In the screenplay written by Annaud and Gérard Brach, the girl's age is changed from 15½ to 18 and is portrayed by actress Jane March, who turned eighteen shortly after, filming, began. This film which was treated by critics is worth seeing and delights. It suffers from different styles of acting and various accents. But also deals with interesting issues like first love ? sexual politics ? the power of sexuality which is still taboo for some people. The wrong with this movie is that received excessive publicity for its graphic sex which is to the narrative and progression of its two characters. Its dubious reputation has also contributed that the writer Marguerite Duras has repudiated the film. After all these I still found The Lover one very good film and the affair between a young French girl with an older rich Asian is not only about sex but about power, pride, and the subtle relationship of identity and politics. You can see how an erotic affair turns less and less passionate how a young girl feels of a first romance. One of the most sensual film I have ever seen.
  Arianeta L Super Reviewer
• Apr 04, 2009

  Another great Annaud oeuvre. I love the book and this film was very faithful to Marguerite Duras's wonderful, evocative narration. I was very skeptical because so much of Duras's sad, beautiful work is often too abstract, contradictory, ambiguous, and yet Annaud did manage to make episodes linear, comprehensible, but not trivial. There's still so much properly left unsaid about the relationship of a 15 year old French girl and a 32 year old Chinese man. It was quite a relief, actually, to have so much vague, fascinating content put in images, and feelings incarnated in real people. Jeanne Moreau's voice was exactly the type of voice I wanted to hear in an adaptation of L'Amant. Contained, breathy, grave. Tony Leung Ka Fai was also, quite honestly, an accurate choice to play the lovesick man. His performance is one of the most captivating things about the movie, apart from the cinematography and the richness of the story itself. It was a very pleasant surprise, I didn't think I would like it. It's beautiful.
  Elvira B Super Reviewer
• Mar 26, 2009

  The sex scenes are indeed graphic, but by no means done in bad taste or just for the sake of sex. The film is much more than about lust, it is about two lovers who found refuge in each others arms. Jane March and Tony Leung gave great performances, showing the conflict of emotions that they had to endure. Beautifully paced storyline with great atmosphere and soundtrack. It will make this a worthwhile movie experience. Very highly recommended.
  Daisy M Super Reviewer