A MAN AND A WOMAN Movie Review

Un Homme et une Femme

A man and a woman (Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée), both widowed, meet and become interested in one another, but find that it's not easy committing their past lives to the past. Claude Lelouch's swirling, insistently lyrical love story was one of the most popular foreign films of the 1960s. It's become a part of many people's lives, as when they hear “their song” suddenly pop up on the radio; for them, criticism of A Man and a Woman is both impossible and pointless. For the rest of us, however, this is simply a not-quite-as-terrible-as-you-remembered little romance that leaned a bit too heavily on the sunsets and la-la-la Francis Lai soundtrack. Aimée and Trintignant have never gotten the credit they deserve for bringing off their non-characters with such aplomb, particularly in light of the fact that Lelouch (who also photographed) did everything he could to call attention to himself, except, perhaps, give himself a cameo singing Nessun Dorma.

NEXT STOP … Another Man, Another Chance, Happy New Year, A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later

1966 102m/C FR Anouk Aimee, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre Barouh, Valerie Lagrange; D: Claude Lelouch; W: Claude Lelouch, Pierre Uytterhoeven; C: Claude Lelouch; M: Francis Lai. Academy Awards ‘66; Best Foreign Film, Best Story & Screenplay; British Academy Awards ‘67: Best Actress (Aimee); Cannes Film Festival ‘66: Best Film; Golden Globe Awards ‘67; Best Actress—Drama (Aimee), Best Foreign Film; Nominations: Academy Awards ‘66: Best Actress (Aimee), Best Director (Lelouch). VHS, Closed Caption WAR, HMV