“The Lover” or “L’amant” directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, is a romance story about a younger, white girl and an older Chinese man. The movie is set in the year of 1929 in which It is seen that the she lives in poverty. The young girl goes to school away from her home and family in which she is given too much freedom to do whatever she desires. On her journey back to school she takes the ferry across the river and this is where she first crossed paths with her lover, the Chinese man. It is evident that when the Chinese man saw the young girl for the first time, he knew that she was special and for some reason cared very much about her. Noticeably nervous, the Chinese man tries to spark up a conversation with her, but she seems to not be showing the same kind of interest back.
He offers to give her a ride to Saigon, where her school is located, and she accepts without being hesitant. As she starts realizing that the man is wealth, curiosity strikes her. Even though he is coming on strong, she is accepting the attention without giving the same kind of attention back until he tries to hold her hand and she begins to hold it back. During the ride, they do not talk very much, which seems to be the case in the rest of the movie when they are in the eyes of the public, they mention their ages. She lies to him and says that she is eighteen, but really she is fifteen and a half, and he tells her that he is thirty-two.
After he drops her off he keeps coming back to see her. Each time he comes back he keeps hinting more and more that he desires sex from her, and she hints to him back that she wants him to sexually want her. One afternoon he picks her up and takes her to a Chinese part of town and they end up making their way to what they called the “bachelor’s room”. He explains that these rooms are usually used for men who want to be alone with their mistresses away from home. In the room, he tells her that he is afraid of loving her, but can’t resist her body and fears that she is too young for him. She tells him that she does not want him to lover her, but she wants him to treat her like he treats the other women he brings here. Noticing that he won’t make the first move she instigates him to release his urge on her. This room is a very important part of the movie because it is where they make love many times, and it is where they find out about each other. They create memories here with their love making and start adding accessories like plants and bookshelves to the room to make it theirs. They also have conversations about the others lifestyle. He tells her the traditions with his culture and how he can’t marry her because she is not a virgin and how his dad has scheduled him an arranged marriage with someone that he does not know. She tells him about her family and how she does not like they way they live or treat each other.
They become addicted to each other, but this addiction ends up hurting them in the end because her mom is taking her to France and he has to marry the woman his dad wants him too. With them both knowing that they have no future together allows them to talk about their futures without having the other one involved in it.
This movie is very interesting due to the fact of the attitudes and feelings of the characters. The Chinese man has confessed his love for her over and over and shows her that she is important to him by taking her out to dinner and giving respect to her family. The young girl does not seem to be showing the same affection towards him. She hints to him that she likes that he is wealthy and that her desire for him is his love making. This is very significant because she refuses to show how much she cares about him until the very end of the movie when it is too late for her to get him back.
Even though there is a lot of sexual content in “The Lover”, it has a good plot for a romance that is wishful upon viewers. The connection that the Chinese man and the young girl have is very rare, but ends up creating a beautiful love story that the audience can connect to as well. Also, the tone in the movie is much like a tone of hope and acceptance. Both know that going into this kind of relationship will result to a sad ending in which they will eventually have to part, but throughout the movie it is evident that both characters wished for hope that their relationship would never end.
“The Lover” by Erica Gann
ReplyDeleteThe Lover was a film that I thought would be very interesting because of the differences in ethnicities of the two lovers and also because of the era of the film. The theme of this movie is all about love. The tone of the movie is very deceitful and rebellious at the beginning; the girl sneaks away often to meet the China man. Her mother and brother suspect she is doing something wrong. In scenes with the girl and man, the tone is quite seductive with many love-making scenes. It turns very depressing, however. The young girl denies all along that she does not have feelings for the China man. The man says he loves her, but he fears that she is only using him for his money. He is sad because his feelings are not returned. When he gets married to another woman, he does not come back to meet the young girl one last time as planned. When she is on the boat, leaving him forever, she breaks down and cries because she realizes that she has an immense love for him. Years later, he calls her and tells her that he still and always will love her. The ending is disheartening because they are both forced to live without the other, even though both are in love. “The Lover” shows that sometimes, love never dies.
Formal Devise for the Lover:
ReplyDeleteThe Lover has many different Formal Devises:
The first is the power of the narrating to show the uniqueness of the female protagonist prospective while showing the theme of reflection by devoting the narration of an elderly woman and the character of a young teen girl. The second devise is that the shots are interchanging in editing from close to the character to further back upon the landscape to help the audience feel entranced and captured. The soundtrack is a mixture of oriental and classical which gives it a feeling of both France as well as Chinese. The lighting is very fixed, where in most shots it shows reality lighting, however in the “Bachelor Room” harsh dramatic lighting is shown silhouetting the couple as they have sex, meanwhile the darkness shows the crime and criminal action taking place in the room.
I agree with Erica..the film is so disheartening. It's almost like a Romeo and Juliet kind of forbidden Love.The two characters are coming from two different cultures.. him being Chinese and her being French. She is only 15 and he is 32.She disapproves of her family's decisions and he has to deal with an arranged marriage.Through the entire thing .. their relationship appears to be a struggle. The two clearly love each other (even though she cannot admit to herself that she does) and yet they can never find ways to be with each other except for inside the room. What is so sad is that the only time that the two were completely living was when they were in the room...outside the confines of the room the world held no place for them to be together.
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