"A Different Love Story"
Marguerite Duras' best-selling French novel "The Lover" doesn't seem like the ideal subject for a movie, especially on the expensive Vietnam location and directed by Jean-Jacques Arnault.
The Lover is not like Apocalypse Now. This is a little introspective memoir by Miss Duras, when she was fifteen and a half years old. In 1929, a French schoolgirl studying in Saigon, and a 27-year-old wealthy Chinese man's love story.
The novel is an inner monologue with very little writing, not even the names of the characters. A girl is a girl, a man is a man, her mother is her mother, and her two brothers are a brother and a younger brother.
Even a series of sometimes shy, sometimes passionate romances in a room in Saigon's China Quarter isn't quite what it seems. It's not so much the girl's love for the man she has sex with, it's the girl 's distaste for her doomed mother, her bullying older brother, and her bleak life .
The novel also turns colonialism upside down . Although young, pretty and fair, the girl relies on the man's money, his consumer love and knowledge of the world of sexual politics she is about to enter.
There are few surprises in this novel. It's thin and hard like a nail, and it's not the easiest material to adapt to use. Still, Arnold and his producer, Claude Berry, made the film a triumph.
The film is gritty, perceptive, totally unsentimental, and well-made , but the disciplined, exotic scenes never get in the way of the nuanced plot development at the center of the film.
"The Lover" is an elegiac and satirical reminiscence of the upbringing of a very special young woman, whose initial timidity manifests as unbelievably rude, as she becomes increasingly preoccupied with the power she now possesses. She realized that any connection of love to this relationship came too late.
The script, written by Gérard Brache and Arnold, is very good. It's so tied to the structure of Duras' novel, and even to the literary tone, and the film doesn't try to hide that, but instead leverages Jeanne Morrow's soundtrack narrative.
Moreau's rich, husky voice perfectly evokes the image of an aging Duras , sitting at her desk writing, recalling the beauty of her youth and the exact moment when that beauty disappeared. It seemed to disappear overnight, "leaving a devastated face" in her words.
Jane March, a young British model, plays the girl's central role on stage for the first time. It's hard to say now that she's a great actress, or even a good one,
But she's great here . Wearing an old silk dress with sleeveless pockets, a beloved hat (a men's fedora) with a ponytail and bright red lips, out of her mother's sight, Madge looked the same as the young Duras' photos are strikingly similar. Probably for reasons of movie ratings, the movie increased the girl's age from 15 and a half to 18.
Regardless of her age, Ms. March is still a beautiful teenage girl . She plays the girl effortlessly, albeit inexperienced, but also coldly focused on her first adult sexual relationship, with a curiosity that both fascinates and confuses men.
Equally good is Tony Leung, a handsome Hong Kong actor who plays the girl's lover . His father was a Chinese businessman from the north, and his wealth came from real estate. He recently returned from Paris, where he dropped out, and he has the demeanor of a Parisian playboy but not the confidence of a playboy.
He was impeccably dressed and drove a chauffeur-driven shiny black limousine around Saigon, but when he first saw her, his hands were nearly out of control and he lit a cigarette. On a crowded ferry, she was standing beside a railway crossing the Mekong.
On the first afternoon, he offered to send her back to Saigon so she could escape the bus she was on. She accepted that while driving, they rarely spoke in the car, but their hands were touching . She looked out the window, trying to avoid him. He looked out the other window.
The next day, he sat in a limousine, waiting on the street near her school. When she came out, she got in the car directly, and they came to the room in the China area. But this is just the beginning.
While "The Lover" doesn't have much time to describe the girl's family, it has plenty of time to outline what her mother and brothers look like.
They were destitute, unloving colonists living a frugal life in a society where they were supposed to be dominant and at the top of society. On a rare day, they seem to be enjoying each other . They are more of pain and fear. That's why the girl ran away.
In the room in the Chinese quarter, she was gentle with men when they had sex. Then she might say without emotion that she doesn't like Chinese very much. He retaliates by telling her that he can't even marry her now: she's no longer a virgin.
He sometimes takes her out to expensive dinners with her mother and brothers, who gobble and get drunk and never speak to him. They accepted the relationship because the man gave the girl money. It never occurred to them that she might fall in love with him . After all, he is Chinese.
From the beginning of the matter, both the girl and the man knew it wouldn't last long.
She is scheduled to go back to Paris. He is engaged to a real Chinese girl . Realizing that their relationship was limited in duration seemed to relieve them of any responsibilities, assuring them that they wouldn't make promises they couldn't keep. However, the ending was not what they expected.
Mr. Arnold's handling of this material shows real authority. Videos remain within the stated limits. It's such a beautiful control, even in love scenes.
Like this girl, the film has a way of standing outside everything it sees, thinking, recording details, and withholding judgment. The end result is unexpected sadness, but in a way that has nothing to do with pity.
Through Miss Moreau's voice, Durance's presence will never be forgotten. "The Lover" is a good movie.
The Lover is rated R (under 17 requires a parent or adult guardian).
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