L’Amant (1992) - film review

Indochina, in the late 1920s.  A young French girl leaves her impoverished mother and brothers and returns to the boarding school where she will soon complete her studies.  On the way, she encounters a rich and handsome Chinese man – their instant attraction is mutual, and very intense.  She becomes his lover, but he cannot take her as his wife, for it is not permitted for him to marry outside of his caste.  The girl’s mother sees an opportunity to extort money from the Chinese man for the benefit of her sons.  Refusing to play the part of a prostitute, the girl goes her own way, but continues her passionate affair with her Chinese lover...

L’Amant is a sensual big budget adaptation of Marguerite Duras’s internationally successful biographical novel of the same title (winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1984).   The film has the exceptional glossy production values that we have come to expect of Oscar-winning director Jean-Jacques Annaud – lavish period sets and evocative photography in one of the world’s most beautiful locations.  Visually, the film is stunning and provides an authentic portrait of 1920s Indochina.    Where the film is perhaps lacking is in conveying the innermost feelings, thoughts and motivations of the characters involved in the drama.  Everything is on the surface, the protagonists feel too impersonal, and consequently the film feels detached, sometimes cold, even superficial.   Too much is left to Jeanne Moreau’s sultry narration of Duras’s exquisite prose to supply the essential human dimension which seems to be missing elsewhere.   In any event, L’Amant is an engaging film, a beautifully composed portrait of a turbulent young love in a foreign climate.

© James Travers 2007

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