☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
The
Lovers (1958) – L. Malle
Louis Malle’s second feature with star
Jeanne Moreau begins in an upper class Dijon villa (complete with Gaston Modot
as servant) where she is not very happily married to Alain Cuny, publisher of
the local newspaper. Instead, she visits
her childhood friend now living in Paris who is a member of the snobbish class
and starts an affair with a champion polo player. Things proceed in this fashion until her
husband suddenly demands that they have her friend and lover over for the weekend. Heading back home ahead of them, Jeanne’s car
breaks down and she is picked up by Bernard (Jean-Marc Bory). Soon, they are all dining at the country
house and inevitable tensions arise. The
third act of the film caught me by surprise (and led to charges of indecency in
the US at the time). Yet, Malle doesn’t
pass judgment on Moreau and her choices.
Truly, this is the beginning of her image as an independent liberated
woman (see also Jules and Jim, 1962, and Malle’s earlier first feature, Elevator
to the Gallows, 1958, with its great Miles Davis score). The black and white cinematography by Henri
Decaë is also beautiful with a nice tracking shot at the printing press. A forerunner of the New Wave?
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