The Lover
(L 'amant) (1992)
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Screenwriter: Jean-Jacques Annaud / Gerard Brash / Marguerite Duras
Starring: Jeanne Marche / Tony Leung / Frederique Menet / Jeanne Giovannetti / Melville Poirier / Lisa Faulkner / Jeanne Moreau / Frederique Oberdinger
Genre: Drama / Romance / Erotic / Biography Country/Region: France / UK / Vietnam Language: English / Cantonese
Release Date: 1992-01-22 (France) / 1992-06-19 (UK)
Runtime: 115 minutes
Also known as: The Lover
Plot Summary: Set in French Indochina (modern-day southern Vietnam) in 1929, this story follows a poor French girl and a wealthy Chinese merchant who develop a secret romance across racial and class lines. In 1929, Vietnam was a French colony, and a 15-year-old French girl (played by Jeanne Marche) attended a girls' boarding school in Saigon. During holidays, she would return home to her mother, who ran a small school with minimal income. She had two brothers: the elder, Bill, was addicted to drugs and tyrannical, while the younger, Paul, was timid and often bullied by his brother. One day, as usual, the girl bid farewell to her mother and boarded a ferry to return to school. On the ferry, she encountered a wealthy Chinese young master (played by Tony Leung) in a black limousine, the only son of a wealthy overseas Chinese family. China men liked this white girl and went to talk to her, and the two got acquainted. At the boarding school, the girl learned that some girls were engaged in prostitution outside, and she also wanted to try finding a rich man, so she took the initiative to talk to the man. After landing, the two wandered around Saigon and even went to a restaurant to eat Chinese food together. The man drove her back to school by car. The next day, right after school ended, a black car was waiting at the school gate. The two soon fell in love. The man took the girl to his mansion, a place where China's rich people often used to hide their favorites. They met, bathed, and played here... The film recreates the atmosphere of the Eastern colony with delicate emotions and sensory imagery, depicting the complex relationship between desire, identity, and colonial power. Its Eastern background and French narrative style make it one of the most representative films of "Sino-French cultural gaze."
