''And Now My Love'' (french: Toute une vie), (Released as 'A Whole Lifetime' in Australia) is a French-Italian film released in
1974
Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...
by
Claude Lelouch
Claude Barruck Joseph Lelouch (; born 30 October 1937) is a French film director, screenwriter, writer, cinematographer, actor and film producer, producer. Lelouch grew up in an Algerian Jewish Family. He emerged as a prominent director in the 1 ...
, starring
Marthe Keller
Marthe Keller (born 28 January 1945) is a Swiss actress and opera director. She is perhaps best known for her role in the film '' Marathon Man'' (1976), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Career
Early years
Keller studied ba ...
song "Et Maintenant" at the film's climax; the song title literally translates as "And Now," and the song became a worldwide hit when it was recorded with English lyrics as "What Now My Love".
''And Now My Love'' was nominated for the
Best Original Screenplay
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology), ...
in 1975. The film was also screened at the
1974 Cannes Film Festival
The 27th Cannes Film Festival was held from 9 to 24 May 1974. The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film went to ''The Conversation'' by Francis Ford Coppola.
The festival opened with '' Amarcord'', directed by Federico Fellini and closed ...
, but wasn't entered into the main competition.
Synopsis
The story begins in France with a black-and-white, silent film-style sequence in the pre-
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
era, where a woman (
Judith Magre
Judith Magre (born 20 November 1926) is a French actress, born in Montier-en-Der, Haute-Marne
Haute-Marne (; English: Upper Marne) is a department in the Grand Est region of Northeastern France. Named after the river Marne, its prefecture is ...
) meets a man ( Charles Denner) operating a prototypical Lumiere movie camera in a park. After charming her into taking a turn operating the crank on his camera, she is next seen bearing his child while he is enlisted in the French army, documenting soldiers in a trench. He receives a telegram announcing the birth of his son, but is killed by enemy fire quickly after. His widow and young son are given posthumous medals for his service by a general (
). The general later takes a fancy to a chorus girl (
Marthe Keller
Marthe Keller (born 28 January 1945) is a Swiss actress and opera director. She is perhaps best known for her role in the film '' Marathon Man'' (1976), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Career
Early years
Keller studied ba ...
), whom he quickly marries. His wife bears him a daughter, but is previously shown cheating on him with his younger aide-de-camp. The general kills her upon discovering her infidelity. (This scene is omitted, but flashed back to later on, in the U.S. release version.) On the same day as her death, the
shooting of the Romanov family
The Russian Imperial Romanov family (Nicholas II of Russia, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, and their five children: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) were shot and bayoneted to death by Bolshevik revolutionaries under Yakov Yuro ...
takes place, and a brief montage of the succeeding Russian leaders is shown.
A film clip announcing the breakthrough of sound recording on film and promoting the release of ''The Jazz Singer'' transitions to sound clips of Hitler and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
events, and then to a train carrying Jewish concentration camp survivors, including the now grown daughter of the cuckolded general, named Rachel Stern (
Marthe Keller
Marthe Keller (born 28 January 1945) is a Swiss actress and opera director. She is perhaps best known for her role in the film '' Marathon Man'' (1976), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Career
Early years
Keller studied ba ...
again), and the son of the filmmaker's widow ( Charles Denner again), named David Goldman. They are drawn to each other, exchange photos of their deceased parents, and are next seen conceiving a child (with the film switching to color). Rachel, weakened by her camp imprisonment, dies in childbirth, but successfully bears David a daughter, whom he names Sarah. Over a series of birthday scenes, Sarah (
Marthe Keller
Marthe Keller (born 28 January 1945) is a Swiss actress and opera director. She is perhaps best known for her role in the film '' Marathon Man'' (1976), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Career
Early years
Keller studied ba ...
once more) is depicted as growing into the image of her mother, and being lavishly spoiled by David, who has now become a millionaire from manufacturing shoes. On her 16th birthday, he hires French pop star
(playing a fictional version of himself) to perform for her. Later that night, she loses her virginity to him.
In scenes crosscut with Sarah's youth, the character of Simon Duroc (
), who teaches him how to take photographs. Sarah and Simon unconsciously develop identical traits, such as wanting three sugars in their coffee, that indicate they may be destined to be a couple.
A couple of years later, Sarah is now living in Italy, ostensibly supervising the local branch of her father's shoe company. She has a best friend Carla (
Carla Gravina
Carla Gravina (born 5 August 1941) is an Italian actress and politician. She received a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her role in '' La terrazza'' (1980). Her other notable roles were in ''Love and Chatter'' (1957), '' Esterina ...
) whom she briefly carries on a lesbian relationship with. She propositions a handsome stud (
Angelo Infanti
Angelo Infanti (; 16 February 1939 – 12 October 2010) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 90 films between 1961 and 2010. He was born on 16 February 1939 in Zagarolo, Italy. He died on 12 October 2010 in Tivoli, Italy due t ...
) to get her pregnant, but the attempt is unsuccessful and he ultimately becomes involved with Carla instead. Simon and Charles are released from jail, and after a brief period of making money taking surveillance photos and film of unfaithful couples, find success making a porno movie depicting deviant acts in Hitler's inner circle. At a party thrown by Sarah and Carla, this porno film is screened, but Sarah declines to watch it. Simon and Charles' office is raided (since making adult films is a criminal act at this time of history), and they are arrested and sent back to prison; one of the arresting officers is the same who previously sent Simon to jail earlier in the film, but does not recognize him.
At the tail end of the '60's, Sarah has taken to writing about herself and her dissatisfied upbringing, remarking on her father's indulgence as a means of keeping her mother's memory alive. She agrees to marry an Italian man suggested by her father ( Gabriele Tinti), but divorces him after six days, coinciding with the
'' magazine during his porn-making incarceration, is eager to make a feature film, and starts conceiving an autobiographical story. When he and Charles are released from jail, they reunite with Sam, who is now a successful restaurateur, and frequently dine with him. The duo set up a firm to make commercials, and win an award for one of them. Chafing under the conditions of advertising, Simon embarks on adapting a book into his directorial debut, casting a black actress (
Annie Kerani
Annie may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Annie (given name), a given name and a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Annie (actress) (born 1975), Indian actress
* Annie (singer) (born 1977), Norwegian singer
T ...
) he begins dating after making a commercial with her. However, she cheats on him with the leading actor in the project, and Simon's bitterness creeps into the finished film, which ends with her being choked by the actor. The film is poorly reviewed and forces the team to go back to making commercials. They rent office space in the same building where Sarah's company is headquartered, Sarah and Simon obliviously walking past each other in one moment.
A heartbroken Sarah, now recognizing the wisdom of her father after his death, proposes sweeping progressive changes to his company that will favor the workers. However, a union agitator (
) doubts the company's sincerity and leads the employees on a violent strike. Sarah finds herself attracted to the agitator and briefly dates him, but otherwise maintains a long-term relationship with a kind-hearted member of her board of directors; while appreciating his calm and nurturing manner, she finds no excitement in the relationship. Simon initially attempts to pitch another feature film, this time an dystopian science fiction story about man's future. He chooses instead to make his earlier autobiographical tale, complete with reenacting events of his life previously depicted - his youthful thefts, his porn career, etc. There are two more near-meets between Simon and Sarah during this time, once at the restaurant as they both dine there unaware of each other, and later at the Deauville beach, where Sarah has gone to reassess her priorities and Simon tries to rethink the ending to his film. In the latter encounter, while they do not meet, he crosses paths with her dog, which inspires him to write a happy ending for his movie. The new film is well-received and Simon is interviewed on TV, which Sarah watches with interest.
At the climax, Sarah tells her lover she is leaving him, tired of the boring stability they have experienced. She intends to go to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to raise money for Israel. Her lover accompanies her to the airport. Simultaneously, Simon is also heading for New York as well, feeling he needs a change of scenery to get ideas for his next film. They arrive at the departure desk one after the other, their luggage is tagged at the same time, and their seats are next to each other. When they are offered coffee, Simon asks for three sugars, Sarah takes note of it, and they initiate conversation. In a sequence cut from the American release version (but retained on the first U.S. DVD from Image Entertainment), the dystopian future story that Simon had been contemplating is dramatized at length, as he tells it to Sarah. The film ends with their respective bags on top of each other on a conveyor belt, as if making love.
According to film historian John Kirk, an earlier French release version of the film ended with the plane carrying Sarah and Simon crashing soon after their meeting. The idea behind this stark finish was that since the film has depicted their entire lives, and their mutual destiny to meet each other as soul mates, the natural ending should be to then depict their lives ending since that task has been completed.
Production
Lelouch used the principle of Simultaneous Bilingual Film Production in making this film: for each camera setup, the actors performed twice (in English and in French), so that neither the French-language nor English-language prints are dubbed or subtitled.
Many autobiographical elements come into play, especially in the arc of the Simon Duroc character. Like Duroc, Lelouch's first feature film was widely panned, and his successful follow-up ''
Marthe Keller
Marthe Keller (born 28 January 1945) is a Swiss actress and opera director. She is perhaps best known for her role in the film '' Marathon Man'' (1976), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Career
Early years
Keller studied ba ...
as Simon Duroc
* Charles Denner as David Goldman, Sarah's father / his father
*
Carla Gravina
Carla Gravina (born 5 August 1941) is an Italian actress and politician. She received a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her role in '' La terrazza'' (1980). Her other notable roles were in ''Love and Chatter'' (1957), '' Esterina ...
Judith Magre
Judith Magre (born 20 November 1926) is a French actress, born in Montier-en-Der, Haute-Marne
Haute-Marne (; English: Upper Marne) is a department in the Grand Est region of Northeastern France. Named after the river Marne, its prefecture is ...
Nathalie Courval
Nathalie is a female given name. It is a variant of the name Natalie/ Natalia which is found in many languages, and is especially common in French and English speaking countries.
Notable people with the name include:
* Nathalie, Italian singer
* ...
as the lawyer's wife
*
Annie Kerani
Annie may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Annie (given name), a given name and a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Annie (actress) (born 1975), Indian actress
* Annie (singer) (born 1977), Norwegian singer
T ...
Jacques Villeret
Jacques Villeret (; 6 February 1951 Р28 January 2005) was a French actor, best known internationally for his role as Fran̤ois Pignon in the comedy ''Le D̨ner de Cons''. During his career, he earned many awards including the prestigious ...