The Lover

10/29/19921h 55m

Theatrical Release (US)

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

Overview:

A poor French teenage girl engages in an illicit affair with a wealthy Chinese heir in 1920s Saigon. For the first time in her young life she has control, and she wields it deftly over her besotted lover throughout a series of clandestine meetings and torrid encounters.

Director:

Jean-Jacques Annaud

Status:

Released

Language:

French

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$5,013,090.00

Key words:

lolita
virgin
vietnam
based on novel or book
age difference
arranged marriage
lover
affectation
saigon
indochina
loss of virginity
love
sexual attraction
older man younger woman relationship
lust
desire
french girl
sexual awakening
southeast asia
chinese man
illicit affair
1920s
sex with a minor
erotic romance
ho chi minh
adoring
marguerite duras

Cast

Jane March

~ as ~

The Young Girl

Tony Leung Ka-fai

~ as ~

The Chinaman

Frédérique Meininger

~ as ~

The Mother

Arnaud Giovaninetti

~ as ~

The Elder Brother

Melvil Poupaud

~ as ~

The Younger Brother

Lisa Faulkner

~ as ~

Helene Lagonelle

Jeanne Moreau

~ as ~

Narrator

Xiem Mang

~ as ~

The Chinaman's Father

Philippe Le Dem

~ as ~

The French Teacher

Ann Schaufuss

~ as ~

Anne-Marie Stretter

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 1 year(s) ago
6
A wealthy man (Tony Leung) is travelling on a ferry when he encounters a pretty young woman (Jane March). It doesn't take long before they are having a fairly torrid affair, but things are difficult. He is older and a Chinese citizen, she a French girl in what was then French Indo-China. She is also a bit of a gold-digger and quite aware that if she plays her cards right, he can offer her a new, more prosperous, life than that she shares with her mother (Fréderique Meininger) and two brothers. The older brother (Arnaud Giovaninetti) is a bit puritanical when it comes to his sister, her younger (Melvil Poupaud) is more shy and usually content to keep his head down and play his piano. Despite the initially venal nature of her relationship, there gradually develops a bond that is both loving and turbulent as the political situation overtakes their love, with the French leaving Vietnam to local government. This is a well scored and stunning looking film but the story is remarkably thin and repetitive and once we've seen them have sex a few times, I began to wonder if Jean-Jacques Annaud was just a bit bereft of ideas as to how to develop either character beyond the physical or material. It's a slow burn and I'm afraid that I just didn't really engage with either as the story trundled along, narrated occasionally and rather melodramatically by Jeanne Moreau, to a conclusion that was quite a long time coming and not really worth the wait. It's watchable, and illustrates well the gap between rich and poor here in the 1920s, but is very much an example of style over substance.