English Title: A Man And A Woman
Director: Claude Lelouche
1996
Classic Romance/Drama
Running Time: 1h 42mins
Cert: PG
French with English Subtitles
“Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Tringinant star in this multi award winning classic romance that will sweep you off your feet”
A young widow and a widowed racing driver find their relationship developing into love, but the memory of their former tragedies prove hard to overcome, causing them to proceed with utmost delicacy. Could this be the most romantic French film ever made? Fall in love all over again watching this remarkably atmospheric film from director Claude Lelouche that won him the Palme D’Or at Cannes that year and two Oscars; for Best Foreign Film and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, in 1967. The film gave Anouk Aimée an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and won her a BAFTA.
Ironically, as far as the nouvelle vague bible, Cahiers du Cinéma, was concerned at the time, the film didn’t contain “a centimeter of celluloid” worth screening, yet it is absolutely the work of an Auteur. Not only did Lelouch produce and direct the picture, he also photographed and co-edited it, and jointly penned the Oscar-winning screenplay with Pierre Uytterhoeven (from his own story). Indeed, Lelouch did such a good job of imposing his own personality on proceedings that Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant simply had to turn up and look photogenic against the glamorous backdrops.
