Customer Reviews

A Man and a Woman

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

And this ain't it. But it's all we got for now, so heh.

"Un Homme et une Femme" holds up quite well some 32 years hence. Younger viewers may not realize that a lot of the montage devices and tricks that may seem 'dated' were actually popularized and/or invented herein by Claude Lelouch. I actually found myself rewinding to watch the color sections a couple of times, especially the mid-film sequence scored to Francis Lai's achingly sentimental and lovely "Stronger than Us" as Anouk Aimee (the world's most beautiful woman) and Jean-Louis Triginant stroll the Deauville shore and muse on art and life. The tinting and grain of those sections - the boat ride, Anouk remembering her dead husband (Pierre Barouh) as he sings "Samba Saravah" to her - set a trend I pine for again.

The story? Well, thin, even by today's lughead standards (widower and widow fall in love against some lovely French scenery shot in winter), but it's obvious Lelouch was going for something that was quite new, then: a marriage of film and music that was not a "musical" per se, but rather, the forerunner of MTV (well, MTV with a soul, let's say). Cut loosely but thankfully not on-the-beat to Lai's jazzy/lush mid-60s score, Lelouch suceeds darn well. The freeze-frame ending cued to the final electric piano note, and that moment when Anouk Aimee pauses for the longest time and says to Jean-Louis, "You never told me about your wife", are two of my favorite filmgoing moments.

"Un Homme et une Femme" is emblematic of a world-view which I, for one, wish would take hold of folks again and topple the psychotic-trash-nihilistic consciousness now dominating pop culture. It was thoughtful, romantic, inward and outward at once, loving of sentiment but not wallowing in sentimentality, sophisticated, in love with love and with being alive in the world... not afraid of seeming tender. If any of this strikes you as square or passe or naive, then, this ain't your movie.

Let's hope the DVD gets released in French. Daria could use some alternative programming to 'Sick,Sad World', as could some of the rest of us.

The original movie, which was the winner of the '66 Cannes Film Festival,was MAGNIFICENT in its original language. The English ruins the effect of the entire enxperience. Seeing it in French (with English subtitles)was magic along with the French lyrics to the accompanying music. The terrible "tonality" of the voices on the dubbed version cheapens the experience and makes it a totally different, flatter movie, and not nearly as romantic and sensual.

Please advise viewers if a new version containing French language (English Subs), and French music comes along. That would be wonderful!!!! Because I, for one, have NEVER forgotten the romance of this movie.

That's what the editors of this version did - they cut at least two of the most moving scenes from the original French language, English sub-titled edition. Additional scenes were jaggedly removed, often disrupting the natural and graceful flow of the original. Was this an edited-for-television version? Why not offer the original movie theater version? That 5-star masterpiece was reduced to 3-stars by the hacked editing and average dubbing. If you've not seen it before, you will enjoy this version much more.

"A Man and a Woman" is beautiful and magnificent...in French, with English subtitles. I must also recommend Francis Lai's haunting soundtrack, which is incredibly romantic. The English-dubbed version of the film, however, is downright irritating and ultimately disappointing. Please make the subtitled version available soon. Merci.

The DVD has just been released (March 18, 2003)

For those of us who love the film, but suffered for many years with the dubbed English, the French language (with subtitles) is back! Anouk and Jean-Louis never sounded more romantic. The color, the music, and the sounds are fantastic, just as we remember them from the theater release.

For those who hate subtitles and require English, the solution is just a menu click away.

Indulge yourself- Order the DVD and retire your beloved, ragged VHS.

Let's be clear about this. I've loved this movie since I first saw it in the late sixties, and when I saw it recently on DVD I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had lost none of its charm; it's every bit as fresh and original as when I first saw it.

So why only three stars?

Because the transfer to DVD has lost one of the movie's trademarks - the tinted black and white sections.

I remember the blue night scenes, and the orangy-red bedroom shots. All gone! Well, not quite gone - it looks like the transfer process did its bit to adjust the color balance but didn't quite make it, so the night scenes are very slightly bluish, and there is a hint of yellow about the interior shots.

It's all the more annoying since one of the unaltered interior shots is used as the background for the main menu.

Come on Warner. How about sorting this out when you ship out the inevitable 'director's cut'

And when you do, I'll give it five stars (or six, if I can get away with it)

First saw this movie when released many years ago. Saw it multiple times and came away refreshed each time. Original French language version is far superior to the English dubbed version. Have LP and CD in my personal collection. You may opt to add this to your collection as well. Not stale or overly predictable, just a wonderful look at two almost regular people who discover each other the same way Rodin sculpted...piece by wonderful piece. Real and romantic with lovely music that has been with me for well over twenty years. This film is a winner as it helps to reaffirm the value of love in our lives and the freedom we have to experience it when recognized.

Claude Lelouch's *A Man and a Woman* is the movie to be condemned for inaugurating what has become one of the worst cliches in movies: the "falling-in-love-while-romantic-music-plays-on-the-score montage". You know it by heart: the couple walking on the beach, laughing at each other over coffee, staring dreamily at each other in bed, ad nauseum, while sappy music tinkles on in the background. Still, that's no reason to despise this groundbreaking and hugely influential 1966 film. As it was the first to use this romantic convention in the movies, *A Man and a Woman* should be cut some slack; and in any case, the thousands of directors who have copied this device have not remotely approached the level of skill, poignancy, and sheer manic intensity to get as many different shots as possible that Lelouch displays here. This film is as clear testimony as any to the enduring influence of the New Wave on cinema. Beyond its historic significance, it's a damn engrossing, romantic picture, featuring a couple we come to like very much. The Man, superbly underplayed by Jean-Louis Trintignant, is a race-car champion and widower with a young son in elementary school. The Woman, a never-lovelier Anouk Aimee, is what they used to call a "script-girl" (i.e., production assistant) in the movie biz: she's a widow with a young daughter of her own who attends the same school that Trintignant's boy attends. Inevitably, the parents become acquainted and fall tentatively in love. As we watch Aimee and Trintignant struggle to balance career, parenting, and a new chance at romance, it becomes clear that we're watching a love story about and for grown-ups. In other words, these are real people, and rarely in the movies does one root harder for a relationship to succeed -- after all, these two are very much like ourselves. (Despite Lelouch's fondness for the Good Life as evinced by his characters' rather glamorous professions.) With its literally thousands of shots and jump-cuts, and its grand romantic passion tempered with the pragmatic problems of daily life, *A Man and a Woman* emerges as a light, impressionistic, and deeply felt love story for the ages. [The DVD by the Dreaded Warner Bros. is -- get this -- shockingly good. This is the best product they've put out -- that I own at any rate -- since their *Citizen Kane* release. Unfortunately, the widescreen is still "matted", but at least it's enhanced for widescreen TV's -- a large improvement for Warner Bros. Most valuable is a short "Making Of" documentary, which shows the hectic Lelouch at work. The bravado he displays while working merely shows that he knew he was making a great film, here. All in all, the movie and this new DVD get my highest recommendation.]

I never would have visited France (especially the hilly Parisian town of Montmartre, where Aimee's Woman lives) or taken a second chance on love, on loving a man again, had I not viewed "Un Homme et Une Femme." I first rented the movie in my mid-20s and re-rented it (including the English-dubbed version on VHS, which I do not like) countless times before finally purchasing it.

Monsieur Lelouch's cinematic narrative technique is poignant in his artful use of black-and-white scenes to display the bare-naked truth of humanity and, especially, his use of vividly colorful scenes to capture haunting memories. How affecting are these sunlight-filled and music-laden memories, from the man's and the woman's quotidian moments with their now-dead loves-of-a-lifetime, as well as recollections of those spouses' demise to the couple's idyllic moments with their children in the resort town of Deauville. You might recall the "family's" day trip on "the boat" and the stroll along the shore. The film's contrasts are lovely, including: b&w vs. color; innocence (the pair's children) vs. experience (the pair themselves), etc. The most obvious counterpoint is male and female: Man vs. Woman; Boy vs. Girl (i.e., Antoine vs. Francoise). I also love the pair's stark reserve (think of the lack of emotion after they finish making love at the Normandy Hotel) vs. their effusive emotion (think about the uncontrolled happiness when Trintignant's Man drives many miles from the Montecarlo race, after unexpectedly winning and receiving a telegram from Aimee's Woman ending with, "I love you," to find his femme. When he does find her, with the help of the children's boarding-school teacher, she is playing with les enfants on the beach. He steps out of his winning racecar, not caring how dirty it is after driving north from the South of France, and flashes his headlights. How beautiful it is when all four of them begin smiling, laughing and spinning around in absolute wonder and happiness -- all to the dream-scat score from Francis Lai's vibrant imagination. When I am feeling happy, my mind turns to that "dubba-dubba-da" theme. Does yours, too?

The images, the language (ah-h-h, le francais!), the romance, the music and the fashions, plus the many messages, both subtle and concrete, of the importance of truth and frankness in the existence of love, the wholeness of Beingness and the desire to live in the present (and love the one you're with) -- all of this makes "Un Homme et Une Femme" a film that I and many others will cherish forever.

As I sat watching this movie on a Saturday in mid-May, I realized that it had been 33 years, almost to the day, since I sat in a theatre and watched the newly released film. I know nothing about art forms or cinematography, but I do know about love and how much it can hurt / heal. Back then I was pining over the loss of a love named Paul. Two weeks ago I was feeling the loss of a love named Paul. This movie will not appeal to you if you've never loved someone so much it hurt and then had to say good-bye to that person. This movie will mean nothing to you (except for the wonderful music, perhaps) if you've never met that one person around whom all that you were / are / or ever hope to be revolves. Leave the notebook closed on the table. Put the Photography 101 homework away. Watch this movie with your heart. If you can do that, you'll love it. By the way, I thoroughly enjoyed the 20-minute short on the making of the movie which appears as an extra on the DVD.