The Lover

"She gave her innocence, her passion, her body. The one thing she couldn't give was her love."

1992 1h 55m FR

👍

7.0

SOLID

🥫

28%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

6.8

IMDB

★7.0TMDB · 786🥫28%Rotten Tomatoes●59Metacritic★6.8IMDB · 24,289

DramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A poor French teenage girl engages in an illicit affair with a wealthy Chinese heir in 1920s Saigon. For the first time in her young life she has control, and she wields it deftly over her besotted lover throughout a series of clandestine meetings and torrid encounters.

“She gave her innocence, her passion, her body. The one thing she couldn't give was her love.”

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Cast

Jane March
The Young Girl
Tony Leung Ka-fai
The Chinaman
Frédérique Meininger
The Mother
Arnaud Giovaninetti
The Elder Brother
Melvil Poupaud
The Younger Brother
Lisa Faulkner
Helene Lagonelle
Jeanne Moreau
Narrator (voice)
Xiem Mang
The Chinaman's Father

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Writers: Gérard Brach, Jean-Jacques Annaud
Languages: Mandarin, English
Countries: France, United Kingdom, Vietnam

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

34 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Mandarin, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: France, United Kingdom, Vietnam.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, shot by Robert Fraisse. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Gabriel Yared. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Noëlle Boisson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Jane March and Tony Leung Ka-fai and Frédérique Meininger carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "She gave her innocence, her passion, her body. The one thing she couldn't give was her love.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jean-Jacques Annaud directs. Robert Fraisse behind the camera. Gabriel Yared scores. Noëlle Boisson cuts. Produced in France, United Kingdom, Vietnam. Dialogue in Mandarin, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

134 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Mandarin, English.
3International production across 3 countries: France, United Kingdom, Vietnam.
4Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, shot by Robert Fraisse. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Gabriel Yared. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Noëlle Boisson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Jane March and Tony Leung Ka-fai and Frédérique Meininger carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "She gave her innocence, her passion, her body. The one thing she couldn't give was her love.".
9IMDB entry: tt0101316 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 26 themes, including "lolita", "virgin", "vietnam", "based on novel or book".
11Released under 12 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Robert Fraisse
Original score: Gabriel Yared
Editing: Noëlle Boisson
Production design: Hoang Thanh At
Costume design: Yvonne Sassinot de Nesle
Runtime: 115 min · 1h 55m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $5,013,090
Original language: FR
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Lover (1992)
Rotten Tomatoes: 28% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 59/100
IMDB rating: 6.8/10 · 24,289 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Nominated for 1 Oscar. 3 wins & 7 nominations total

Also by

Jean-Jacques Annaud

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-01-05
★ 6/10
A wealthy man (Tony Leung) is travelling on a ferry when he encounters a pretty young woman (Jane March). It doesn't take long before they are having a fairly torrid affair, but things are difficult. He is older and a Chinese citizen, she a French girl in what was then French Indo-China. She is also a bit of a gold-digger and quite aware that if she plays her cards right, he can offer her a new, more prosperous, life than that she shares with her mother (Fréderique Meininger) and two brothers. The older brother (Arnaud Giovaninetti) is a bit puritanical when it comes to his sister, her younger (Melvil Poupaud) is more shy and usually content to keep his head down and play his piano. Despite the initially venal nature of her relationship, there gradually develops a bond that is both loving and turbulent as the political situation overtakes their love, with the French leaving Vietnam to local government. This is a well scored and stunning looking film but the story is remarkably thin and repetitive and once we've seen them have sex a few times, I began to wonder if Jean-Jacques Annaud was just a bit bereft of ideas as to how to develop either character beyond the physical or material. It's a slow burn and I'm afraid that I just didn't really engage with either as the story trundled along, narrated occasionally and rather melodramatically by Jeanne Moreau, to a conclusion that was quite a long time coming and not really worth the wait. It's watchable, and illustrates well the gap between rich and poor here in the 1920s, but is very much an example of style over substance.

Production companies