- For other uses, see The Lovers (disambiguation)
| The Lovers | |
|---|---|
 theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Louis Malle |
| Written by | Dominique Vivant (novel) Louise de Vilmorin (dialogue) |
| Starring | Jeanne Moreau |
| Music by | Brahms: Streichsextett No. 1 in B flat major, Op.18 |
| Cinematography | Henri Decaë |
| Editing by | Léonide Azar |
| Distributed by | Lux Compagnie Cinématographique de France (France) Zenith International Films (US) |
| Release date(s) | September 1958 (Venice FF) 5 November (Paris) 26 October 1959 (US) |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
The Lovers (Les Amants) is a 1958 French film about adultery and rediscovering human love, directed by Louis Malle and starring Jeanne Moreau. It was Malle's second feature film, made when he was 25 years old.
Plot
Jeanne Tournier (Moreau) lives with her husband Henri (Alain Cuny) and child in a mansion near Dijon. Her emotionally remote husband is a busy newspaper owner who has little time for his wife, except when he chooses to place demands upon her; often they sleep in separate rooms. Jeanne escapes to Paris regularly when she can spend time with her chic friend Maggy (Judith Magre) and the polo-playing Raoul (José Villalonga), Maggy's friend and Jeanne's lover.
Jeanne's constant talk of Maggy and Raoul leads to Henri demanding that Jeanne invite them to dinner and to stay as overnight guests. Jeanne's car breaks down on the day of the dinner party, and she accepts a lift from a younger man, Bernard (Jean-Marc Bory), and then asks him to drive her home. By the time they get back, Maggy and Raoul have already arrived at the mansion. It transpires that Bernard, an archaeologist, is the son of a friend of Jeanne's husband, and he too is added to the guest list. Jeanne spurns Raoul's advances, claiming it is too dangerous, but she spends time in a small boat on the river with the attentive Bernard. Clandestinely, they spend the night together.
In the morning, to the surprise of everyone, Jeanne leaves with Bernard for a new life.
American obscenity case
The film is important in American legal history as it resulted in a court case that questioned the definition of obscenity. A showing of the film in Cleveland Heights, Ohio's Coventry Village resulted in a criminal conviction of the theatre manager for public depiction of obscene material. He appealed his conviction to the United States Supreme Court, which reversed the conviction and ruled that the film was not obscene in its written opinion (Jacobellis v. Ohio). The case resulted in Justice Potter Stewart's famously subjective definition of hard-core pornography: "I know it when I see it." (Stewart did not consider the film to be such.)
External links
- Les Amants at the Internet Movie Database
- The Lovers at the TCM Movie Database
- The Lovers at Allmovie
| Preceded by A Streetcar Named Desire |
Special Jury Prize, Venice 1958 tied with La sfida |
Succeeded by The Magician |
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