Wait a minute. Did Les Amants really get into the trouble it did because of the love scene in the last half-hour? The scene in itself is nothing. However, here we have a married woman in the 1950s, committing adultery not once but twice, and without remorse. If Vivant and Malle had told their tale the accepted way, the situation would have led to bloody murder, and given the grim coldness between Jeanne and her husband, that's exactly what the audience expects. But - SPOILER: the authors opted for a happy ending. So of course they were seen as condoning adultery. Violence, it seems, would have been no big deal by comparison...
Happy ending? Well, not quite. Les Amants is odd in another respect: while it is all about the transforming potential of falling in love, it idealizes the process far less than most so-called romantic comedies do. As the blissful couple purr out of the picture in Bernard's 2CV, we hear a sage voice-over comment on the uncertainty of their future. This echoes the background of the opening credits, a fictitious map of the land of love, depicting (as far as my memory serves me) a river named Affection, passing through many little hills such as Respect, Dedication etc., far from the Lake of Indifference, and flowing to a Dangerous Sea and to Terra Incognita. In this sense, there's more to the story than "beautiful socialite meets handsome young guy". This is no fairy-tale. It's about stuff like living in the moment, openness, and courage - and about the archetypal meeting of animus and anima. Or should I say projection? Fuhgeddabahdit! Apart from all the crap I'm giving you here, Malle plus Moreau equals gorgeous movies. Go see for yourself.
Happy ending? Well, not quite. Les Amants is odd in another respect: while it is all about the transforming potential of falling in love, it idealizes the process far less than most so-called romantic comedies do. As the blissful couple purr out of the picture in Bernard's 2CV, we hear a sage voice-over comment on the uncertainty of their future. This echoes the background of the opening credits, a fictitious map of the land of love, depicting (as far as my memory serves me) a river named Affection, passing through many little hills such as Respect, Dedication etc., far from the Lake of Indifference, and flowing to a Dangerous Sea and to Terra Incognita. In this sense, there's more to the story than "beautiful socialite meets handsome young guy". This is no fairy-tale. It's about stuff like living in the moment, openness, and courage - and about the archetypal meeting of animus and anima. Or should I say projection? Fuhgeddabahdit! Apart from all the crap I'm giving you here, Malle plus Moreau equals gorgeous movies. Go see for yourself.