A man and a woman

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Movie
German title A man and a woman
Original title Un homme et une femme
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1966
length 102 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Claude Lelouch
script Claude Lelouch,
Pierre Uytterhoeven
production Claude Lelouch
music Francis Lai ,
Baden Powell de Aquino
camera Claude Lelouch
cut Claude Barrois ,
Claude Lelouch
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
A man and a woman - 20 years later

A man and a woman (Original title: Un homme et une femme) is a film by Claude Lelouch from 1966. The Nouvelle Vague classic won an Oscar in the categories of Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay .

action

Anne and Jean-Louis are both in their mid-thirties. Anne has a young daughter, Jean-Louis a son of the same age. Both have their children in the same boarding school in Deauville and live in Paris . The parents visit their children on a Sunday in December and get to know each other when Anne misses her train in the evening and Jean-Louis takes her with him in his car. Anne tells of the love for her husband, whom she met as a stuntman while shooting a film, of his thirst for adventure and enthusiasm. Only at the end of the trip does she confess to Jean-Louis that her husband died in an accident on the set. They make an appointment for the next weekend to go back to Deauville to see the children. There Jean-Louis reports that he is a racing driver by profession . Together with the children, the two spend a day at the sea and get closer, and so Jean-Louis reveals that Anne is also widowed on another trip. His wife died of suicide after Jean-Louis suffered a serious racing accident. The following week, Anne went back to filming while driving the Monte Carlo Rally . At the final banquet for the participants in the race, Jean-Louis receives a telegram from Anne with a declaration of love. He immediately sets off for Paris in his rally car. There he learns, however, that Anne has already left for Deauville. He follows her and finds her on the beach with both children. You bring them back to boarding school, go out to eat together and then book a hotel room. In bed, however, they notice that Anne's thoughts are still with her deceased husband. They leave the hotel and Anne decides to return to Paris alone. On his way back in the car, Jean-Louis realizes that he has to make another try, and so he waits at the station in Paris for Anne's train. When they arrive, they embrace.

background

Claude Lelouch shot the film in real time in just three weeks. He had previously written the script in 30 days. Originally, the film, which took only three months to make, should be shot in black and white. But since a producer who bought the rights for the American television market asked for color shots, Lelouch shot the outdoor shots in color. There was not enough budget for more. Lelouch also had an easy-to-use handheld camera; in this way he was able to react more quickly to acting moments and support the directorial work, which was based on improvisation. Another element was the music. Francis Lai had recorded them before filming began and Lelouch was able to use these recordings while filming. By playing the music, he created the appropriate mood for the actors, who now already knew how the respective scene would appear in the finished film. For the young composer Francis Lai, the work for A Man and a Woman was the first film composition. The theme song was to become one of the most memorable and famous film melodies in the history of cinema. Five years after that film, Lai received an Oscar for the music for Love Story . In his film A Happy Year (La bonne année , 1973) Lelouch quotes himself at the beginning of the film: The director of a prison shows the inmate a man and a woman on New Year's Eve , for which he is then booed.

Souad Amidou played Anne's little daughter. She is still an actress and played among others in Munich by Steven Spielberg with.

In 1985, Lelouch shot a sequel with the same leading actors under the title A Man and a Woman - Twenty Years Later .

In 2019 a third part with the original title Les plus belles années d'une vie was published, again directed by Lelouch and Trintignant and Aimée play the leading roles.

criticism

"Even today, hardly anyone will be able to resist the melancholy charisma of Anouk Aimée."

- Films of the 1960s : Taschen Verlag

"A beautiful, breathtaking exhibition of pictures ... with the problem that the story is banal."

- New York Times

"The strange mixture of banality and virtuosity (fascinating in the aesthetic detail, very direct in the pursuit of feeling) is extremely effective, but leaves a stale aftertaste."

- International film lexicons

“In form and content, a beautiful French entertainment film that lovingly turns to people and their efforts to overcome painful experiences. Also worth seeing for discerning visitors, understandable only from 18. "

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9075612/
  2. ^ New York Times, July 13, 1966
  3. A man and a woman. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. Ev. Munich Press Association, Review No. 258/1966