Les amants (1958)

Director:

Louis Malle

Writer:

Louise de Vilmorin (dialogue)
(more)

Release Date:

26 October 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The most talked-about and fought-about film!

Plot:

Bored with her husband, bored with her polo-playing lover, will the middle-aged heroine go away with...

Plot Keywords:

Secret Lover | Paris France | Castle | Sex | Burgundy

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Jeanne Moreau	...	Jeanne Tournier
Jean-Marc Bory	...	Bernard Dubois-Lambert
Judith Magre	...	Maggy Thiebaut-Leroy
José Luis de Villalonga	...	Raoul Flores (as José Villalonga)
Gaston Modot	...	Coudray
Pierre Frag
Michèle Girardon	...	La secrétaire
Gib Grossac
Lucienne Hamon	...	Chantal
Georgette Lobre	...	Marthe
Claude Mansard	...	Marcelot (as Claude Mansart)
Alain Cuny	...	Henri Tournier
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jean-Claude Brialy	...	Un garçon a manège (uncredited)
Patricia Maurin	...	Catherine, fille de Jeanne (uncredited)

Directed by
Louis Malle

Writing credits
Louise de Vilmorin		(dialogue)
Dominique Vivant		(novel "Point de Lendemain") uncredited

Cinematography by
Henri Decaë		(director of photography) (as Henri Decae)

Film Editing by
Léonide Azar

Production Design by
Bernard Evein

Set Decoration by
Jacques Saulnier

Makeup Department
Gisèle Jacquin	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Irénée Leriche	....	production manager
Hubert Mérial	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Alain Cavalier	....	assistant director
François Leterrier	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Charles Merangel	....	property master

Sound Department
Pierre-André Bertrand	....	sound engineer (as Pierre Bertrand)

Camera and Electrical Department
Vincent Rossell	....	photographer
André Villard	....	camera operator

Editorial Department
Madeleine Bibollet	....	assistant editor
Kenout Peltier	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Serge Baudo	....	conductor
Johannes Brahms	....	composer: theme music

Other crew
Francine Corteggiani	....	script girl

Production Companies

• Lux Compagnie Cinématographique de France (present)
• Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF)

Distributors

• Lux Compagnie Cinématographique de France (1958) (France) (theatrical)
• Zenith International Films (1959) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Arte Vidéo (2005) (France) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Kinokuniya (2005) (Japan) (DVD)
• New Yorker Films (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Video Film Express (2006) (Netherlands) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Poste Parisien  sound post-production
• Franstudio  studio
• Chanel  costumes: for Jeanne Moreau (uncredited)

Also Known As:

The Lovers (UK) (USA)

Runtime:

Argentina:90 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Burgundy, France

Company:

Lux Compagnie Cinématographique de France

Trivia:

After screening this film, Nico Jacobellis, manager of the Heights Art Theater in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, was charged with and convicted of possessing and exhibiting an obscene film. He appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court, which overturned the convictions, ruling that the film was not obscene. In a concurring opinion, Justice Potter Stewart made his famous pronouncement concerning what was pornography: "I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 197 (1964) (Stewart, J., concurring).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Mau Mau Sex Sex (2001)

Soundtrack:

Streichsextett No. 1

A Biting Romantic Drama Which Has Yet to Garner an Expiration Date

In this, director Louis Malle's second film, which for awhile seems like it will be another high society soap opera, a seemingly arbitrary plot detour occurs that places the beautiful Jeanne Moreau in a situation all the less convenient and all the more frustrating because of how accustomed she has become to her privilege. Consequently, Moreau is less like a Sex and the City character and more of a realization that a social ladder does not leave problems below it. They follow you from decision to decision to decision. And the further up it she climbs, the less considerate her decisions seem to be of the world outside of herself.

As a 25-year-old French director at the dawn of the New Wave, he was not alone in satirizing and criticizing the bourgeoisie. Ironically, being younger than fellow Nouveau filmmakers Godard and Truffaut, as well as having been born into a wealthy industrialist family, had no hand in blinding him by way of his privileged ego. Watching this biting romantic drama about adultery and the reality and illusion of rediscovering love, I see that Malle understood the upper-class freedom of never having to worry about tomorrow, and not only does he characterize it with an almost humorously frustrating edge, he wisely satirizes love at first sight.

The movie was made in 1958, but Malle's style has yet to garner an expiration date. There are no outdated lap dissolves or screen wipes or quick fade-outs. The controversy at the time surrounding this film's alleged obscenity had a rebounding effect on the flimsy subjectivity of society's accusations. He was simply being honest, which he is in the aforementioned portrayals beyond the simple night of passionate love Moreau has with her lover. Instead of a coy imitation of a spectator blushing and looking away, as many other films did and still do when the camera moves to the window or the ceiling, Malle fixates on her ecstasy. Even now, rarely do we see a close shot of a woman's sexual pleasure.

A bit like Woody Allen would come to do in a few decades, Malle tends to saturate his soundtracks with a single composer. Here, it is Johannes Brahms, whose music is a brilliantly and acutely intuitive choice for the film since, much like the characters, he has a classical sense of form and order yet he's bold in his exploration of harmony and rhythm.