A Man and a Woman (French: Un homme et une femme) (1966) Director: Claude Lelouch Watched: 1/17/18 Rating: 8/10 Candid love story With minimal dialogue Augmented by subtleties Poignantly honest We fall and feel alongside True love, bad timing Artfully toggles Black and white to sepia And full color shots Capricious collage Fine and distinctive soundtrack Memorable songs Too much racing, rough pacing Lacks cohesion, but that's art Haiku Sonnets are comprised of 4 3-line haiku plus a couplet of either 5 or 7 syllables, adding up to 14 lines, the same number of lines found in a sonnet. (5-7-5, 5-7-5, 5-7-5, 5-7-5, 7-7/5-5) #HaikuSonnet #PoemReview #French #PalmedOr

I was extremely moved when I first saw Lelouch's masterpiece. Genuine personal reasons (a car racing disaster the same year – 1966 – resulting in a painful separation) adding to the unsaid and yet so deeply expressed stress of emotion between Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée, still wounded and so marvellously sensitive. A poetry made tragic with recurrent flashbacks. So well served by splendid photography and music. Although at a minor level than his uncle (French champion Maurice Trintignant), Jean-Louis had himself a fair involvement in motor sports – as did Paul Newman and, best of all, Steve McQueen. Half a century later, the emotion remains deep in the core, putting « Un homme et une femme » in a very special position among my favourite films ever.

Claude Lelouch's Palme d'or winner (an honour shared with Pietro Germi's THE BIRDS, THE BEES AND THE ITALIANS 1966), which is also a two-times Oscar winner (BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM and BEST ORIGINAL SCRIPT, with two other notable nominations, BEST DIRECTOR and BEST LEADING ACTRESS).Opening with a mother telling Little Red Riding Hood to her kiddie daughter, and a father teaches his baby boy driving on the street, the movie's diegesis is a plain romance between a man and a woman, Jean-Louis Duroc (Trintignant) and Anne Gauthier (Aimée). They meet at the boarding school of their children in Deauville, although both claiming to be married, we don't see their respective spouses with them. Anne carpools with Jean-Louis to head back to Paris, en route, Anne recollects fond memory of her husband Pierre (Barouh), a movie stuntman whom later she reveal has died in an accident. During their next scheduled trip to Deauville, Jean-Louis confesses that he is a racer who survived a tragic accident which unfortunately prompted his wife's suicide. So there is nothing to hold back their mutual attraction, a widow and a widower, with two young kids, a boy and a girl, it is a perfect second chance.A MAN AND A WOMAN is an exemplar of the atmosphere cinema, unbelievably captures the zeitgeist of its time, Lelouch's incalculable interchange of its palette, between colour, black-and- white and sepia tone, is a godsend to perk up the intimacy of the close-ups and the mundanity of an unforced narrative arc. Francis Lai's iconic soundtrack lead by its enduring titular theme song (performed by Barouh and Nicole Croisille) is trance-inducing and incredibly attune to the pulse of the romance and its aftermath. The picture is also a fruit of a new generation of Gallo-trendsetters (Lelouch and Lai, are both under 30, and the crew is mostly youngsters), structurally unbridled, visually discursive, sonically enchanting, top-lined with a pair of uncontrived charmers, Trintignant and Aimée, it is a film of nigh perfection, which seems rather a windfall gauged through Lelouch's entire career path.Incisively, Lelouch's dichotomous rumination on the difference of gender politics hits the bull's eye, with regard to memories, woman is more prone to linger in the limbo of sentiments whereas man is inevitably more clinging to his carnal impulse (Jean-Louis already has a lover before he meets Anne). A bona-fide heart-stealer is the soul-touching shots of an old man with his dog on the beach side, that is how nostalgia is wondrously evoked in a movie, such a knockout picture, the more you think about it, the more affection will germinate afterwards.

After so many decades, Claude Lelouch's poetic and romantic 'Un Homme et Une Femme' feels exceptionally refreshing. More so than most romantic films that have released in recent years. Lelouch's execution is very simple. The director had intended to make it an all-colour feature but due to financial constraints, some of the scenes in black and white. Lelouch not only managed to make this work but this itself brings out a certain quality and gives it a unique touch. The cinematography, editing and score are remarkable. 'Un Homme et Une Femme' has a very European, more specifically French (obviously) look that is authentic, pure and certainly adds to the charm of the film. Lelouch and his co-writer Uytterhoeven's writing breathes poetry. The dialogues are of a few words and yet they feel so real, like any normal conversation between a man and a woman. The casting is terrific. A charismatic Jean-Louis Trintignant and a gorgeous Anouk Aimée have a natural chemistry and their sincere performances shine. Even the child actors have done a very good job.Pure, genuine, lyrical, visually dazzling and charming, 'Un Homme et Une Femme' is a fine example of romantic cinema at its best.