Plot
In 1929 French Indochina, a French teenage girl embarks on a reckless and forbidden romance with a wealthy, older Chinese man, each knowing that knowledge of their affair will bring drastic consequences to each other.

Release Year: 1992

Rating: 6.7/10 (7,631 voted)

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

Stars: Jane March, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Frédérique Meininger

Storyline
It is French Colonial Vietnam in 1929. A young French girl from a family that is having some monetary difficulties is returning to boarding school. She is alone on public transportation when she catches the eye of a wealthy Chinese businessman. He offers her a ride into town in the back of his chauffeured sedan, and sparks fly. Can the torrid affair that ensues between them overcome the class restrictions and social mores of that time? Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Maugerite Duras.

Writers: Jean-Jacques Annaud, Gérard Brach

Cast:
Jane March - The Young Girl
Tony Leung Ka Fai - The Chinaman
Frédérique Meininger - The Mother
Arnaud Giovaninetti - The Elder Brother
Melvil Poupaud - The Younger Brother
Lisa Faulkner - Helene Lagonelle
Xiem Mang - The Chinaman's Father
Philippe Le Dem - The French Teacher
Ann Schaufuss - Anne-Marie Stretter
Quach Van An - The Driver
Tania Torrens - The Principal
Raymonde Heudeline - The Writer (end)
Yvonne Wingerter - The Writer (beginning)
Do Minh Vien - The Young Boy
Hélène Patarot - The Assistant Mistress

Taglines: She gave her innocence, her passion, her body. The one thing she couldn't give was her love.

Release Date: 30 October 1992

Filming Locations: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Gross: $4,899,194 (USA)

Runtime: 115 min  | USA: 103 min (R-rated version)  | USA: 115 min (unrated version)  | Germany: 111 min (25 fps)

Trivia:
Cécile Fleury said that she was the body double of Jane March for some nude scenes of this film. But the spokesman of Renn Productions (which produced this film) said to Daily Mail that Cécile Fleury was only a stand-in for technical purposes - a common practice to spare a film's stars from tiring sessions under studio lights while scenes are set up. "This girl was only used for lighting purposes when scenes were being set up. She has not been used in the shooting at all," the Renn Productions spokesman said.

Quotes:
[first lines]
Narrator: Very early in my life, it was too late. At eighteen it was already too late. At eighteen I aged. This aging was brutal. This aging, I saw it spread over my features, one by one. Instead of being frightened by it, I saw this aging of my face with the same sort of interest I might have taken for example in the reading of a book...

sex blinds you and you do not see the film

Rating:

L'Amant is a very beautiful, haunting and sensual film. The characters are perfect and acted in a minimalist way that's refreshing.

I see here that the main objections to this film are: 1 .. Not enough character development 2 .. The film does not have a clear direction to where it's going 3 .. Too slow 4 .. Too much sex (for some people if a film has explicit sex it can't be good)

All these objections are pointless:

1 .. The characters here are ordinary people, not that interesting by themselves. It's the love story that's interesting. Both of them know they have no future and try to pretend it's not love. I am sick of films in which the characters are sure they love each other after 30 minutes of "character development".

2 .. The fact that this film does not follow a clear path it's one of it's qualities. It adds more drama and the characters themselves are confused and don't know where they're going. The whole film plays like a dream of love and to request "clear direction" it's pointless.

3 .. Ahh! The "too slow" argument. There are films in this world that make you think about you, your life and the world that's around you. Surely you need some TIME to reflect on that. Short attention-span is a bad thing :).

4 .. This film is about love. The fact that they are shown having sex makes them real persons, with real bodies not some film characters. Sex is an escape from the world around them and I don't think it's too much, too explicit or some nonsense like that. It's so hard to have a film with sex it it that's not trivial! This is a masterpiece by this fact alone.

The persons who "though up" these arguments took the main strengths of the film and complained about them. This for me it's proof enough that they didn't understand this film or that the film didn't struck a single chord in their soul. Short attention span is the main plague of films now and the lack of it is the reason the french make such great films! Please try to see it again and not in a hurry. It's not light cinema! It's great cinema!

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