#francis lai

Bon Soir ❤️🎻🎤🎸🌧

Anne Sila 🎶 Le Passager de la Pluie

Five years ago, I had purchased a ticket to see the great French director Claude Lelouch speak in a post-screening Q&A of his 1966 magnum opus “A Man and a Woman” at the Film Forum in Manhattan. There was just one problem; the entire world was being hit by the COVID pandemic. Lelouch was forced to cancel his appearance, but the screening went on as planned. Imagine my shock and surprise when I read that Lelouch was making his long overdue rain check appearance with the same planned program at the same venue as before. It only took one minute for me to purchase my ticket a second time and here’s the rundown of both the film and the Q&A session from yesterday (4/5/2025) that followed.

Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimee play Jean-Louis and Anne, two widowers who meet when they drop their kids off at the same boarding school. The two become very close to one another and even their kids bond in the process. Unfortunately, both of them are still haunted by their pasts and tread very carefully in how they proceed with their whirlwind romance.

You might be asking yourself, why the short synopsis? Because "A Man and a Woman" is the most unconventional romantic film ever made; one where the genre itself may not even apply because the romance element is actually secondary to the plot, which is at best minimalist. And yet, it is one of the greatest love stories ever put to film. We get to understand both Jean-Louis and Anne's pain of losing a loved one, but not emphasized through schmaltzy monologues, but rather simply told flashbacks that explain everything. We also get to see both protagonists at their day jobs; Jean-Louis as a race car driver, Anne as a script girl on film shoots and how both their occupations played a role in why they are widowed. So to answer the question "A Man and a Woman" is not about the romance itself, but the individual lives of both participants, hence the title of the film.

The genesis of how "A Man and a Woman" all came from one shot; a woman with her child and their dog walking on the beach early in the morning, identical to the first scene in the film. During the Q&A, Lelouch brought the audience back to 1965 when he was a struggling filmmaker with a string of flops behind him. Heavily in debt and at risk of becoming another failed auteur, he walked to the local shoreline for inspiration and that scene was staring him in the face. Then Lelouch took the train and once the trip was finished, the idea for "A Man and a Woman" was born. The idea was to cast two actors who would be seen as regular folks and not movie stars, which meant that the original choices to play Jean-Louis and Anne; Alain Delon and Romy Schneider, were put aside. As great as Delon and Schneider were as actors, they would have been all wrong for the main roles. Trintignant and Aimee emulated the sufferings of widowhood just with the expressions on their faces that are not hackneyed, melodramatic or movie star looking. The reason why Anouk Aimee was such a favorite during the awards season was how she was able to convey just about every emotion not just on her face, but her entire body, and not even speak for key parts of the film. Had it not been for the amazing performance of Elizabeth Taylor in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" that won Best Actress for 1966, Aimee might have been the winner, and rightfully so.

Not only is "A Man and a Woman" an unconventional romantic film, it is also a music video precursor, children's entertainment and sports documentary all rolled into one and perfect in each area. Pierre Barouh who played Anne's husband in flashbacks sings a Samba song as a backdrop to their marriage. Lelouch mentioned how Barouh, a songwriter and the film's composer Francis Lai were dear friends and collaborators whose working relationship spanned over 30 films and how they shaped Lelouch as the legend he is today. Next were the children playing Jean Louis' son Antoine and Anne's daughter Francoise. Lelouch told the kids to lead the conversations that they were in and have Trintignant and Aimee just react. The scene with the four characters in the restaurant is one of the most organically created moments in the film where it seems that none of them are playing fictional people. Finally, the scenes of Jean-Louis on the racetrack give us a first hand look of auto racing that a documentarian might have captured. Lelouch as cinematographer, but also Michel Fano and Jean Barronet's impeccable sound design are able to transport the audience to the venue with revving engines and loud crashes.

"A Man and a Woman" was a huge hit in America playing for 1-2 year stretches in New York and Los Angeles which helped it become a favorite in the Oscar and Golden Globe races. Lelouch would win the Oscar Best Screenplay along with his co-writer Pierre Uytterhoeven, which the moral of that story is to win that award is not have a screenplay period. It also won the Oscar and Golden Globes for Best Foreign Film and Anouk Aimee would win the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for Best Actress and receive her only Oscar nomination in the same category. The biggest award it received was the Palme D'or at the Cannes Film Festival. For a DIY film with a shoestring budget and a small cast and crew, "A Man and a Woman" has become a moment in the history of cinema that is not merely a footnote, but a cultural phenomenon that is still beloved after nearly 60 years.

Francis Lai, "Mélissa"