The Lover

1992 · 115 min · FR · R · 7.0 (761 votes)

Dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud · Starring Jane March, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Frédérique Meininger, Arnaud Giovaninetti, Melvil Poupaud, Lisa Faulkner · Music Gabriel Yared

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

DramaRomance

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.

VIBE

A deeply sensual and melancholic slow-burn, this film immerses you in a world of forbidden desire and intense intimacy. Its lush, evocative cinematography captures the heat of a clandestine affair, exploring themes of sexual awakening and complex power dynamics with a raw, almost voyeuristic gaze.

eroticmelancholicsultryintimateforbiddenslow-burnlush period dramaintimate character studysensual realismevocative cinematographysexual awakeningforbidden desirepower dynamicscolonialismclass

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lolitavirginvietnambased on novel or bookage differencearranged marriageloveraffectationsaigonindochinaloss of virginitylovesexual attractionolder man younger woman relationshiplustdesirefrench girlsexual awakening