Les Amants (The Lovers)
Posted by martinteller on February 10, 2009
I’m in a rut. I’ve seen some good movies lately, even a few great ones, but I can’t remember the last time I got really excited about something. It’s been a couple of months. This one is merely good, at best. Malle can typically be counted on for a watchable, well-crafted film, but he’s really one of the less compelling directors of the nouvelle vague. The story plays out somewhat like a Harlequin romance novel… bored bourgeois housewife with a boring bourgeois lover finds true love in a moonlit night of steamy, unexpected passion. Jeanne Moreau brings a small amount of complexity to the role, which is really the film’s saving grace. I found myself disliking the character… despite the attempts to gain my sympathy in her rebelling against her conventional lifestyle, she still struck me as tremendously selfish and thoughtless. But in the end, there’s a hint of self-awareness, a fatalistic realization perhaps that you can take the girl out of the bourgeois, but you can’t take the bourgeois out of the girl. Besides this interesting nuance, I was mostly unimpressed although mildly intrigued. But I am getting tired of these 6- and 7-point movies. I need to find myself a new diamond in the rough to get jazzed over. Rating: 7
