Reviews and notes

LES AMANTS, made from a script written in collaboration with Louise de ViImorin, confirmed the promise contained in Malle's first work. The film begins with a study of high society, the world in which Jeanne Tournier moves. She has her eight-year-old marriage to a wealthy provincial newspaper proprietor, a daughter, a polo-playing lover and a number of smart Parisian friends. But nevertheless her life is empty and meaningless, until her boredom is shattered abruptly and unexpectedly by a young student whom she has known for only a few hours. Their love is born and consummated in a single night in the gardens of her husband's villa and her bedroom; and with the dawn, she and her lover Bertrand drive off to begin a new life together.

The satirical portrait of polite society is very well drawn but the film's dialogue is at times rather flowery. While one may find Malle's conception of love a trifle naïve, it cannot be denied that the romantic love scenes have a delicate lyricism as well as great frankness and truth and are superbly photographed in muted tones by Henri Decae. From Jeanne Moreau, Malle drew a performance that justly set her on the path to international stardom.
- Roy Armes, French Cinema Since 1946 Volume Two, Zwemmer/Barnes, 1970.

For the US Supreme Court decision overturning the conviction of an Ohio cinema manager for screening this film, click here

Weblink: A recent review by Tom Dawson

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