The Lover
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Movie Reviews of The Lover
Movie Review: Through The 'Crucible' An Artist emerges
Summary: 5 Stars
In the film, 'The Lover', we witness a young woman ( she is post-pubescent) as she grows into the realization that her destiny is to write; that it is through her writing that she will make sense of the world and the events she has found confronting her within it.Yes, there is a very direct and honest examination of the actual physical, sexual events transpiring in this life changing affair that this young woman is engaged in. The sexual scenes are needed to ground the viewer into the intense transformation that is occurring to this young woman. A major aspect of this film is the examination of the loss of innocence and how one can choose to respond to that loss.
There is an incredibly poiniant scene nearing the end of the film where in, as she tries to dicuss the outcome of the affair with her lover as they walk on a coastal beach in the late afternoon, she realizes the path that her future must take; that she will write about things she has seen transpire within the emotional landscape of human interaction and try as well to avenge wrongs done to people such as her mother by the French Land Office by writing of their existance and the physical and emotional havoc they have engendered.
This is a very subtle film. It is a film that when watched more than once, reveals unexpected new insights upon each viewing. I found the very last scene in the film to be one of the quietly saddest and yet hope filled scenes I have ever witnessed - a testament to the fact that we, the human race, seem to hold love truely dear even if life does not seem to give us everything exactly as we have 'put in our order for it'. It is a film that examines what is involved in the creation of our hopes, dreams and desires - from the profane to the eternal - and how we variously deal with the elements fate confronts us with.
I think this is a subtle and questioning film - I reccomend it highly and I believe that if the viewer enters into the experience of this film with an 'open mind' that they will find many, many thought provoking rewards.
Movie Review: THE LOVER is Fit, for a Woman Like Me!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this Movie, I love the story plot, and most of all, I love Jane March and Tony Leung for doing this. Excellent job! Now, it's obvious to me that anytime the title,"THE LOVER" is heard, I glow from the inside. That happened to me the first time I seen it on ON DEMAND. It was a windy night too. A fit night for a Sensuous, Breathtaking, Pulse pounding,and deeply intimate movie. I knew right then and there that I had to write about it. The remake of "Lolita" is my favorite, now "The Lover" is my 2nd best favorite movie around. This movie was everything I predicted. Once-young Actress Jane March had her character down to a key, being a girl who has a mother for a school teacher, a older brother for a jerk, a little brother who's shy and kind to everyone and has wandering eyes for the fortunate life. She meets Tony Leung's character "The Chinaman" and that's when love starts to bloom. When he touched her hand, while they were riding, she never felt nervous, she dosed off in the black car. I had the feeling that she didn't mind the Chinaman being attracted to her. And I guess he didn't mind her being sleepy at all. She kept this all on the Down-Low,She never told anybody, not even her friend at the camp. When the attraction came to the bedroom, nothing around them ever mattered. He was afraid and shy, but she trusted him. He worried that he'd be throwned in jail for Stachitory Rape, but she assured him that it'll be okay. She made her move, he made his, and everything else came with it. What really made me glow is that they didn't stop seeing each other, when he got married to some other woman,that's when the STEAMY affair ended. I had no issue with this movie because it was harmless. She loved him, he loved her and that was all that mattered to them. Age was indeed out of the question. So, this is why I give it 2 thumbs up, an A+,5 stars and everyting else that's in the book. This movie inspired me to look at love at a totally different view, and thanks to romance, I did.Movie Review: Visually stunning, well-told story
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll admit it, I first watched The Lover for the erotic scenes with Jane March, who I happen to think is gorgeous. But the more I watched it, the more the direction (Annaud) and the story (Duras) shone through. I recently bought my own copy, and I watch it more frequently than I would have thought. If it were only the sex, there are more efficient films, although the sex is quite good and again Jane March is truly a hottie. The story, which is based on Duras' own life, talks about a young girl living at school, a 1-day trip away from her dissociative family in French Indochina in the 1930s. One day, returning to school from a visit with her family, the 15 year-old meets a Chinese man, who offers her a ride. They begin an affair, based on her curiosity and his desire for love. Needless to say, this causes scandals on both sides of the relationship. As their intimacy deepens, the Chinese man's arranged marriage looms closer, until he has to leave her for his new wife. Shortly after, the French girl and her family leave for France. As we see, the relationship was stronger than either one suspected it had become, but by that point it's too late.
The physical beauty of the film, which owes much to both Annaud's direction and the Vietnamese countryside, is amazing. I find myself watching it over and over just to see the cars driving through incongruous fields, bridges and streets. The subtext of foreigners (French, Chinese) in a foreign land (Indochina) governed by foreigners (French) reinforces the story's quality of isolation, as do the locales: there are rarely more than a handful of people in any scene, and the exceptions are telling, as well.
This is definitely one of the best films of the decade and deserves to be seen over and over.
Movie Review: L'Amant is breathtaking
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a review of the unrated DVD version of this film. It is so unusual that a cinemagraphic expression lives up to a great work of literature, but Jean-Jacques Annaud gives us the visual rendition of Marguerite Duras' prize winning novel. Annaud captures the poetry and passion of Duras' 1930's Indochina. It is simply a captivating movie to watch. I've seen this movie three times before, but always the Blockbuster "R" version. The sex scenes in the unrated DVD version of the film are simply breathtaking. Contrary to another viewer, below, I find that art and expression of the film is accomplished through the love scenes. After all, the story examines mystery, desire, and forbidden love. The lovers are different, they are more, they are exuberantly liberated when they are together. The love scenes provide the necessary counterpoint to the banality of their lives apart. Their vigorous sexuality underscores the paradox of the rich, and worldly Chinese man who offers himself up to humiliation and abuse from French colonial white-trash, all for the sake of a young girl. Their relationship is viseral and mysterious. Their lovemaking and common language mask yet personify their embodiment of the mutual identities as part of the French and Chinese as colonizers of Vietnam. L'Amant breaks new boundaries as an exploration of forbidden love, anticolonialism, and the suffering people endure because they resign themselves to living their own lies. L'Amant is a beautiful film, brilliantly acted, that says so much by saying so little. The film score by Gabriel Yared is also breathtaking. Cinema doesn't get any better than this. Hollywood is simply incapable of making a movie like this.Movie Review: The Lover
Summary: 5 Stars
I am most surprised by what some stupid people will write, about a wonderful story. IF it is a true story, I have no idea, but I do remember what it was like being 15 1/2 and being confused by what my body was telling me, and Jane March, did a super job in this movie. "Soft porn"? Well, okay, it has some sex in it, but the story line is so good. It's about a poor trash white girl, who falls in love with a older rich "Chinese" man. She doesn't even realize she is in love, yet she is at the end, yet she STILL can't admit it to her self. He is a rich "Chinese man" who tells her in the beginning that he doesn't want to do this, because he could fall in love with her. Forbidden love is always the best love. Yet, this love is ever lasting. The scenery is beautiful. Awesome photography, beautiful flowing music. At first, I wasn't too sure of this movie, but as I got lost in the story, I was so sorry it ended the way it did. It had no other way of ending! Chinese men with white women, was only for men with whores. White women, with Chinese men, was only for the money. How CAN a movie such as this, end any other way? Even in France, racial mixes such as this weren't allowed. There was no were for this couple to go. She (the girl) couldn't tell even her family the truth, and while he (the Chinese man) tried to tell his Father, he HAD to marry of Chinese decent. What a sad love story. It's so sad, that more people couldn't see that in the USA. Simply a SUPER movie.