Friday, June 14, 2024

Forgotten Movies: A MAN AND A WOMAN


 Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a widower who has become a single father after his wife's suicide, and Anne (Anouk Aimée) is a widow and single mother still reeling from the accidental death of her husband. When the two cross paths at their children's boarding school, both are wary, but they soon form a friendship that is quickly charged with romance. Yet the pair continue to struggle to overcome their past tragedies as they try to begin a new relationship. 

This won several Oscars including Best Foreign Language Film, best actress, and best screenplay in 1966. It is imaginatively but sometimes annoyingly filmed. It's romantic and sexy.

The back stories of the lovers are filmed very differently. Probably still influenced by the French New Wave in 1966. Several scenes seem completely extraneous to the plot. 

This was on Kanopy in my area but it is probably also on Prime. You will be humming its theme song all night.

 

5 comments:

Jerry House said...

A great film, but not my usual lowbrow fare. Am I wrong in thinking it (and most other films) could have been improved with lots of explosions, CGI, and an evil James-Bond type villain?

Jeff Meyerson said...

It did NOT win an Academy Award for Best Actress. Anouk Aimee lost to Liz Taylor for WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

pattinase (abbott) said...

Not a Liz Taylor fan but in this case, they did the right thing.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Absolutely. Believe it or not, that was our first date movie.

Todd Mason said...

Lelouch was a peripheral player in the French New Wave (he was seen as the most Showbiz of the pack), and this film was a huge international commercial success...

An amusing latter-day review: https://www.asharperfocus.com/ManWoman.html (not quite as sharp as he hopes, but...)

I saw this one first when rather young, on tv (my folks were into auto-racing, and probably saw it in first US/Alaska release), and I wonder what I'd make of it now...still haven't seen the sequels.