In 1929 French Indochina, a French teenage girl embarks on a reckless and forbidden romance with a wealthy, older Chinese man, each knowing that knowledge of their affair will bring drastic consequences to each other. Consumed by desire, they cling to each other, even though fate and society dictates that they may never wed.
The Lover is director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s adaptation of the novel by 1984 Marguerite Duras. Academy Award Nominations: Best Cinematography.
Starring Jane March, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Melvil Poupaud, Lisa Faulkner.
In English and French with subtitles in English.
Rated R
Note: This film will not be for everyone due to its provocative subject matter, and full nudity. Vincent Canby of The New York Times praised the film, calling it “something of a triumph” and a “tough, clear-eyed, utterly unsentimental” film that was “produced lavishly but with such discipline that the exotic locale never gets in the way of the minutely detailed drama at the center.”