I've read 3 books by Margaurite Duras. Annaud's film
captures the mood and the detached position of the author
quite well. Duras is quite beloved in France and Europe.
She had a way of putting words together unlike other
writers. Rather than tell her stories in a constructed,
chronological manner, she tells them from an emotional
point of view....as we all experience them, leaping back
and forth in our minds from the good and bad.
It is also said of her that "she had guts." The
story of The Lover as well as the book "North China
Lover" are autobiographical. These are not dreams but
this actually happened and in the way she reports. She had
the strength--or naivete--to do these things, to experience
all life and let herself be hurt by it, then to write about
it as honestly as she experienced it. That does, indeed,
take guts.
Although the "sexual awakening" bit is often a great
and overused marketing tool, this one is that and more--a
true story. The guns-and-boobs Hollywood movie watcher
wouldn't find the usual trappings here. But it's nothing
to get disappointed about. It's a movie that very slowly
walks from one edge of itself to the other, being very
truthful--and sometimes painful--all the way.

"L'Amant" or simply, "The Lover" is visually stunning and a
sexy masterpiece of cinematic art. Truly a masterpiece of
story-telling!!

The movie is simply stimulating, sensitive, stunning, sexy,
erotic, alarming, captivating, passionate, engrossing,
musical, zesty, reflective, cinematic, haunting and a very
tragic love story. A love story that is based on the
semi-autobiography of one of the most celebrated French
author, Marguerite Duras who passed away in 1996.

I certainly disagree with many critics who did not hesitate
to label the motion picture as "shallow" and "nothing more
than a soft-porn." This is obvious to me that the critics
are ignorant or "illiterate" to the story behind the story
and the message both the author and the film director are
trying to convey.

Just because this movie contains scenes that are erotic with
nudity, it does not mean that the film is pornographic. That
is shallow thinking and definitely reflective of someone who
is ignorant and lack of literary sense and in-depth
knowledge. Moreover these illiterate critics need to know
the historical background of life in French-ruled Vietnam
and the general French attitude towards the Vietnamese and
the Chinese in the 1920s and 1930s.

To paraphrase another fan of this movie, who reasoned that
if this movie is a porn, it would not hassle over the
cinematographic details, art direction and casting. I would
add: it would not has been nominated for an Oscar and won an
award from the mainstream French Cinema. It would be totally
ignored by them.

One of my favourite erotic scenes in the movie was when the
girl gradually and teasingly, pursed her lips on the glass
window of the limousine for her lover. Another favourite of
mine is: the scene in the limo, showing Jane and Tony slowly
and hesitatingly held hands and avoided glancing at each
other.

The camera works that captured these two visually stunning
moments are extremely well done. These two scenes are so
erotic, my heart nearly skips a beat. To do justice to this
movie, one really needs to watch it, to believe what I have
just described here.

The Story:
This is a movie about a teenage girl who was physically and
emotionally abused by her mother and elder brother. She felt
unable to control her predicament.

She sought solace and control through her passionate affair
with a wealthy Chinese man (actor Tony Leung) from Cholon.
However, the affair is tragic from the very beginning
because of the cross-cultural conflicts experienced and
endured by the two lovebirds.

There is on one hand, the French social restrictions about
relationships with the "inferior" race of Vietnamese and the
Chinese. On the other hand, it was about the Chinese
tradition of arranged marriages.

The inevitable question is: Did she eventually love him?

Here are the words of Duras:
"Among all the other nights upon nights, the girl had spent
that one on the boat....when it happened, the burst of
Chopin.... There wasn't a breath of wind and the music
spread all over the dark boat, like a heavenly injunction
whose import was unknown, like an order from God whose
meaning was inscrutable. And the girl started up as if to go
and kill herself in her turn, throw herself in her turn into
the sea, and afterwards, she wept because she thought of the
man from Cholon and suddenly she wasn't sure she hadn't
loved him with a love she hadn't seen because it had lost
itself in the affair like water in (the) sand and she
rediscovered it only now, through this moment of
music......"

By the way, the Chopin music did played in the movie.


Review by MovieManiac1991
http://lamant.topcities.com

"L'Amant" or simply, "The Lover" is a visually stunning and
a sexy masterpiece of cinematic art. Truly a masterpiece of
story-telling!!

The movie is simply stimulating, scintillating, sensitive,
sexy, stunning, sizzling, and exudes an aura of sensuality.
It is erotic, alarming, captivating, passionate, engrossing,
musical, zesty, reflective, cinematic, haunting and a very
tragic love story. A love story that is based on the
semi-autobiography of one of the most celebrated French
author, Marguerite Duras who passed away in 1996.

I certainly disagree with several critics who did not
hesitate to label the motion picture as "shallow" and
"nothing more than a soft-porn." This is obvious to me that
the critics are ignorant or "illiterate" to the story behind
the story and the message both the author and the film
director are trying to convey.

Just because this movie contains scenes that are erotic with
nudity, it does not mean that the film is pornographic. That
is shallow thinking and definitely reflective of someone who
is ignorant and lack of literary sense. Moreover these
illiterate critics need to know the historical background of
life in French-ruled Vietnam and the general French attitude
towards the Vietnamese and the Chinese in the 1920s and
1930s.

To paraphrase another fan of this movie, who reasoned that
if this movie is a porn, it would not hassle over the
cinematographic details, art direction and casting. I would
add: it would not has been nominated for an Oscar and won
the Cesar Award from the mainstream French Cinema(The French
Academy Of Cinema, Arts & Techniques). It would be totally
ignored by them.

One of my favourite erotic scenes is when the girl(actress
Jane March) gradually and teasingly, pursed her lips on the
glass window of the limousine for her lover(actor Tony Leung
Kar-fai). Another favourite of mine is the scene in the
limo, showing Tony slowly and hesitatingly held hands with
Jane who responded likewise, but at the same time, avoided
glancing at each other.

The camera works that captured these two visually stunning
moments are extremely well done. These two scenes are so
erotic, my heart nearly skips a beat. To do justice to this
movie, one really needs to watch it; for seeing is
believing!

I have seen this movie more than any other in my small collection of favorites. It sets a mood like no other, its scenes of Vietnam, its people, the food and landscape are very dreamy, and I think it impacted my life in many ways good and bad. Love and Sex, Money and Power, Race and Class, Experience and Innocence and just about all the things that we analyze whenever we see a couple that seems a bit off the beaten track. I spent most of my single life exploring all these issues in my relationships and The Lover was the cinematic template of my love life!!!