The Lovers - Criterion Collection

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Louis Malle unveiled the natural beauty of Jeanne Moreau in his breakthrough Elevator to the Gallows. With his follow-up the scandalous smash The Lovers (Les amants) he made her a star once and for all. A deeply felt and luxuriously filmed fairy tale for grown-ups perched on the edge between classical and New Wave cinemas The Lovers presents Moreau as a restless bourgeois wife whose eye wanders from both her husband and her lover to an attractive passing stranger (Jean-Marc Bory). Thanks to its frank sexuality The Lovers caused quite a stir being censored and attacked for obscenity around the world. If today its shock has worn off its glistening sensuality and seductive storytelling haven't aged a day.SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:New restored high-definition digital transfer of the complete uncensored versionSelection of archival interviews with Louis Malle actors Jeanne Moreau and Jose Luis de Villalonga and writer Louise de VilmorinGallery of promotional material from the U.S. theatrical releaseNew and improved English subtitle translationPLUS: A new essay by film historian Ginette VincendeauSystem Requirements:Running Time: 90 minutes Language: French Subtitles: EnglishFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/LOVE & ROMANCE Rating: NR UPC: 715515029629 Manufacturer No: CC1751DDVD

Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Malle's Scandalous 'Lovers.' May 7, 2008
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Louis Malle's controversial 1958 film, The Lovers (Les Amants), tells the not-so-scandalous-by-today's-standards story of a middle-aged, French woman (Jeanne Moreau, Malle's love interest at the time), who leaves both her boring husband, Henri (Alain Cuny), and her Paris lover, Raoul (Jose Villalonga), for a younger man, Bernard (Jean-Marc Bory) after a night of passion with the stranger. "There's no resisting happiness," she explains (which left me less than convinced). The sexually frank film resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court case defining "obscenity." ("I know it when I see it," Justice Stewart wrote in the Court's landmark decision, Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964).) This film not only established Moreau as a star in the '60s, but permanently associated Brahms Sextet in B-flat Major with Moreau's sexual abandon in the film. (While Brahms plays, Moreau appears in a half-naked tryst.) Moreau provides a voice-over narration for the film to reveal her character's feelings. Henri Decae's crisp black and white cinematography is luminous. Although I have given this film a five-star rating, the story is conventional by today's standards.

The Criterion edition features a newly restored transfer of the complete, uncensored film; a selection of archival interviews with Louis Malle, actors Jeanne Moreau and Jose Luis de Villalonga, and writer Louise de Vilmorin; promotional material from the U.S. theatrical release; and a new essay by film historian Ginette Vincendeau.

G. Merritt

5 out of 5 stars

remarkable film making May 3, 2000
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

I have seen this film when it first came out some 40 years ago and I will never forget it. It proves that a love making act can be presented with an autmost purity and sensitivity, and without the need for pornography.I cannot wait for it to be released again.

4 out of 5 stars

It's the music August 20, 2004
9 out of 11 found this review helpful

It's the Brahms first sextet, Opus 18, that's used in this movie, not his Double Concerto, as reported by an earlier reviewer. This exquisite Brahms piece provides one of the greatest soundtracks in the history of film. (Another is the Miles Davis original soundtrack for an earlier Louis Malle film, Ascenseur pour l'echafaud.)

5 out of 5 stars

This film has stayed in my mind for 35 years. July 26, 1999
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

I saw this film along with a Yiddish stage show in a theatre on south beach in Miami many years ago. It was difficult at the time, to really enjoy the movie since it was inappropriate for that particular audience as they were laughing and giggling at the very serious and sensitive scenes due to their embarrassment.I loved the movie and think about it every time I hear strains of Brahms Double Concerto, (repeated beautifully in many love scenes)"The Lovers" is a French tale of adultery without today's nudity and language - but oh so very sexy! I would recommend this movie for anyone who is a fan of Louis Malle. His direction of Jeanne Moreau is superb. I am eagerly awaiting the re-issue of this film so that I may own it and enjoy watching it again and again.

5 out of 5 stars

Towering film of the New Wave! July 24, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

To talk about the meaning and trascendence of The lovers means to make reference to one of the most remakable, irreverent and daring films in the Fifties decade. If you look behind in the story of the cinema, you will find interesting proposals such as The devil in the flesh, Ectasy (with Hedy Lamarr), Pandora Box, The blue angel, Gilda, Baby Doll for instance, but never before a film loaded with such abundance of dark poetry,increasing tension and a great doses of references about the double moral and social hypocrisy.
After the huge sucess in the whole world with Elevator to the Gallows, Louis Malle decided to make an unique film; a true fullfillment in every sense of the meaning.
Louis de Villalonga and Jeanne Moreau are specially splendid in this unmatched film that deserves all your special attention.
A true landmark in the story of the cinema.

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