A Man and a Woman [DVD] - Romantic Drama Film - Perfect for Date Night & Movie Lovers

C’est un couple qui nous accompagne depuis plus d’un demi-siècle. Anouk Aimée et Jean-Louis Trintignant dans “Un homme et une femme.” Indeed. Their images have accompanied me lo’ this past half century. I first saw this movie in 1967, read the sub-titles, and the imprint became permanent: France and Love. Why do we waste our time on other things?The man is Jean-Louis Trintignant, who plays the role of a race car driver, Jean-Louis Duroc. Trintignant has played the key role in a couple of other movies that remain memorable for me: in the movie “Z” he commenced as a “good team player” but, when played for a fool, decide to become a rare commodity, an honest judge, who would charge: “You are indicted for perjury.” And in Krzysztof Kieslowski “Three Colors – Red” he would play the role of another judge, now in retirement, who had seen “a thing or two.” Ah, Anouk Aimée, a cinema graphic “first love” of sorts, would play the role of Anne Gauthier. Both have children, the same age, respectively, Antoine and Francoise. They are in the same boarding school in Deauville, on the coast of Normandy, which is how their parents met. Both the parents are widowed, at that relatively young age, and the movie provides the details how that occurred.France during “les trente ans glorious,” the 30 glorious years of economic development following WW II. So much I did not realize when I viewed the movie the first time around, in Atlanta. For example, I had never heard of Marcel Proust, and certainly did not realize that Deauville, and that beach, would play prominently in “In Search of Lost Time,” in which Deauville would be called Balbec. Or that it would be in the Camargue, a French symbol for the “wild west,” that Gauthier and her husband would be riding the white horses, chasing the bulls. Or that it was Carcassonne that played a “cameo role” in another scene. It would be only four years after first seeing this movie that I would stay in a hotel, directly on Boulevard St. Germaine, in the heart of the Left Bank, and pay $10 a night (nowadays, that seems impossible, but yes, it was “les trente ans glorious.”)How could any porn star compete with Anouk Aimée? Oh, she is SO subtle. The very quiet sensuality of her lips. The flick of the hair, the sidelong glance. A sense of bearing that says you must wait, at least an hour. And it is over halfway through the movie that she says to Duroc: “You never speak of your wife.” En fin, he explains, and it is all about Le Mans, and the 24 hours.A more formal time, “les trente ans glorious.” I was oblivious, the first time around, ’67. Aimée is so impressed with Trintignant at Monte Carlo that she decides to send a telegram of congratulations. She concludes, not by saying, “Je t’aime” mais, “Je vous aime.” The more formal form of “you.” Sorta like some American Midwestern wives, in a former time, calling their husbands: “Mr.” After the race, and the telegraph, he decides to drive the length of France, from Monte Carlo, ultimately to Deauville. In one scene, he is using his electric razor as he drives, not realizing that she might appreciate a little stubble. “Les plus belles années.” It will be released in 2019. Somewhat incredibly, they are all still alive, and “active” in the affairs of life. The Director, Claude Lelouch is 81, Trintignant is 88, and Aimée is 86. I’ll certainly be an early viewer of the new release, and the title seems to convey the message, about now, and not then.The memories are there, and new ones need to be created. For this memorable, seminal work of my life, despite a few inconsequential flaws, 6-stars. The beat grows stronger.