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The Lover
1992
Marguerite Duras’ slender
semi-autobiographical novel L’Amant (The Lover) raised
more than a few eyebrows, and pulses, upon its initial publication in
1984. An account of the author’s adolescence spent in 1920s Vietnam,
and more specifically her affair as a 15-year-old with a much older
Chinese businessman, the work proved surprisingly scandalous to certain
more delicate sensibilities, despite its poetic delivery and emotionally
complex thematic structure.
Jean-Jacques Annaud’s 1992 film adaptation
remains faithful to the spirit of the original text, excepting that the
heroine of the film tells her lover she is 17 (actress Jane March was 18
at the time of filming). The end result is truly stunning, and was
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
Lolita this ain’t. Rather The
Lover is a beautifully shot erotic slow-burner, and a wonderful
evocation of the manifold tortures, and pleasures, of illicit love.
Every sequence of the film has been
laboriously crafted, each shot feels deliberate. Our introduction to
March’s nameless character is simultaneously one of the most sensual and
detached scenes of the entire film; the camera pans slowly and in
extreme close up over each curve and crevice of her body, attempting to
soak up her very essence. The effect is at once languid, intense and
achingly, desperately amorous. This is a film in which holding hands is
granted the same significance as lovemaking, and where longing looks and
the brush of fingertips on skin are sometimes all the characters are
allowed in the way of physical contact. Not that there isn’t plenty of
passionate sex, of course.
With exceedingly fine performances courtesy
of March and her co-star Tony Leung Ka-fai, painstaking direction and
some truly inspired cinematography courtesy of Robert Fraisse, The
Lover is guaranteed to make your loins and your cerebellum quiver in
equal measure.
Audio & Video
Little, if anything, has been done in the
way of restoration. The print contains numerous artefacts and on the
whole comes across rather grainy and soft. That isn’t a complaint by
the way; the film looks exactly as it did upon release nearly 20 years
ago, and the fact that the transfer isn’t pristine suits both the
historical milieu and the subject matter. In an age obsessed with HD
perfection it’s a pleasant novelty to watch a film that, for once,
actually looks like a film. The DD 2.0 audio is adequate, if not
earth-shattering, and the aspect ratio is an anamorphically enhanced
1.85:1.
Special Features
None; the Region 4 Umbrella release is bare
bones. |
