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Actors: Tony Leung, Jane March
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about L'Amant (The Lover) |
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Jane March plays an eighteen year old proverty stricken
French girl, who becomes sexually attracted to a wealthy
thirty three year old Chinese man (Tony Leung), during the year of 1929, in the French colonial Vietnam.
She lived with her mother, and two brothers, in the poor
section outside of sedec, a small town in siegone.
While taking a fairy to her boarding school, the fairy shuttled a chauffeured driven vehicle. As the wealthy Chinese male sat in the backseat of his chauffeured vehicle, he watched her. Later, both of them become consummed by their desires. They began to cling to one another, even though their cultural differences forbid them to wed. The two defied the boundaries of age, race, and class for their illicit affair.
--Evelyn O. Simon, Resident Scholar
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The Lover is based on the novel of the same name by Margarite Duras. It is an erotic coming of age story, supposedly autobiographical of Duras' own growing up in French colonized Vietnam. The Girl, played by Jane March, is 15 and living in an orphanage / school. Her mother and brother fade in and out of the plot, more as caricatures of 'family' and what that represents. The main theme is about the girl meeting, seducing (or being seduced by), and ultimately having lots of sex with an older Chinese man, who is struggling with family issues of his own (namely a pre-arranged marriage). Full of potential, with issues of coming of age, underage sex, interracial romance, wealth and poverty, and the clash of cultures, the film is vague and inconclusive. The director Jean-Jacques Annaud (Enemy at the Gates) is content to revel in the beautiful cinemagraphic possibilities of pre-war Vietnam, and indulge in steamy yet relatively tame erotic scenes between a waif and a buff Chinese man in a very nice apartment.
--Ulysses Travis, Resident Scholar
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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.
Towards the end of the movie, on her journey home to France in a sailboat, aroused by the music of Chopin, the young French girl started to reminiscing and she eventually realised she did love her lover from Cholon with a love that she has never seen or felt before.
--Moviemaniac, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of L'Amant (The Lover) |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1900-1920's
Romance/Love/Hugging
Yes
Ethnic/Regional/Gender story?
Yes
Main Char. ethnic: (if not US Caucasian)
- French
Story of city/rural life?
- Small Town
Culture of surrounding area:
- General East Asian
Lover is...
- of another race (interracial loving!)
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Profession/status:
- student
Age:
- a teen
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Black)
Unclothed?
- Chest and Buttocks
Ethnicity/Nationality
- French
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- brunette (Black)
Hair style
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) average build
Unclothed?
- buttocks and chest
How much in movie?
- 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Chinese
Main Adversary
Identity:
- general circumstances
Setting
Asia/Pacific/Middle East
Yes
Asian country:
- Southeast Asia
City?
Yes
Misc setting
- school
Style
Movie makes you feel...
- thoughtful
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
- touching of personal anatomy
- actual description of sex
- seeing breasts
- seeing nude female butt
- seeing nude male butt
- seeing full frontal--women
Non-American film?
Yes
What language?
- English
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
Is this movie based on a
- book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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