''The Lovers'' (french: Les amants) is a 1958 French

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Louis Malle Louis Marie Malle (; 30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both Cinema of France, French cinema and Cinema of the United States, Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a fi ...

which stars

Jeanne Moreau Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. Mo ...

Alain Cuny René Xavier Marie Alain Cuny (12 July 1908 – 16 May 1994) was a French actor of stage and screen. He was closely linked with the works of Paul Claudel and Antonin Artaud, and for his performances for the Théâtre national populaire and Od ...

, and

Jean-Marc Bory Jean-Marc Bory (17 March 1934 – 31 March 2001) was a Swiss actor. He appeared in 60 films and television shows between 1955 and 1996. Partial filmography * '' Black Dossier'' (1955) - Juge Jacques Arnaud * ''The Lovers'' (1958) - Bernard ...

. Based on the posthumously-published 1876 short story ''Point de Lendemain'' by

Dominique Vivant Dominique Vivant, Baron Denon (4 January 1747 – 27 April 1825) was a French artist, writer, diplomat, author, and archaeologist. Denon was a diplomat for France under Louis XV and Louis XVI. He was appointed as the first Director of the Louvre ...

(1747-1825), the film concerns a woman involved in adultery who rediscovers human love. ''The Lovers'' was Malle's second feature film, made when he was 25 years old. The film was a box-office hit in France when released theatrically, gaining 2,594,160 admissions in France alone. The film was highly controversial when released in the United States for its depiction of allegedly obscene material. At the 1958

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

, the film won the Special Jury Prize and was nominated for the

Golden Lion The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...

Plot

Jeanne Tournier (Moreau) lives with her husband Henri (

) and young daughter, Catherine, in a mansion near

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

. Her emotionally remote husband is a busy newspaper owner who has little time for his wife, except when he chooses to place demands upon her; often they sleep in separate rooms. Jeanne escapes to Paris regularly when she can spend time with her chic friend Maggy (

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 ...

) and the polo-playing Raoul (

José Luis de Vilallonga José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

), Maggy's friend and Jeanne's lover. Jeanne's constant talk of Maggy and Raoul leads to Henri demanding that Jeanne invite them to dinner and to stay as overnight guests. Jeanne's car breaks down on the day of the dinner party, and she accepts a lift from a younger man, Bernard (

), and then asks him to drive her home. By the time they get back, Maggy and Raoul have already arrived at the mansion. It transpires that Bernard, an archaeologist, is the son of a friend of Jeanne's husband, and he too is added to the guest list. Jeanne spurns Raoul's advances, claiming it is too dangerous, but she spends time in a small boat on the river with the attentive Bernard. Clandestinely, they spend the night together. In the morning, to the surprise of everyone, Jeanne leaves with Bernard for a new life.

Cast

as Jeanne Tournier *

as Bernard Dubois-Lambert *

as Maggy Thiebaut-Leroy *

as Raoul Flores *

Gaston Modot Gaston Modot (31 December 1887 – 20 February 1970) was a French actor. For more than 50 years he performed for the cinema working with a number of great French directors. Biography Modot lived in Montmartre at the beginning of the 20th cen ...

as Coudray * Pierre Frag * Michèle Girardon as La secrétaire * Gib Grossac * Lucienne Hamon as Chantal * Georgette Lobre as Marthe * Claude Mansard as Marcelot *

as Henri Tournier

Critical reception

John Simon described ''The Lovers'' as "undistinguished but sexy".

American obscenity case

The film is important in American legal history as it resulted in a court case that questioned the definition of obscenity. A showing of the film in Cleveland Heights, Ohio's

Coventry Village Coventry Village is a commercial business district in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, situated on Coventry Road between Mayfield Road (U.S. Route 322) and Euclid Heights Boulevard. Coventry is associated with Northeast Ohio's artistic, musical, bohemia ...

resulted in a criminal conviction of the theatre manager for public depiction of

obscene An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...

material. He appealed his conviction to the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

, which reversed the conviction and ruled that the film was not obscene in its written opinion (''

Jacobellis v. Ohio ''Jacobellis v. Ohio'', 378 U.S. 184 (1964), was a United States Supreme Court decision handed down in 1964 involving whether the state of Ohio could, consistent with the First Amendment, ban the showing of the Louis Malle film ''The Lovers'' ('' ...

''). The case resulted in Justice

Potter Stewart Potter Stewart (January 23, 1915 – December 7, 1985) was an American lawyer and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981. During his tenure, he made major contributions to, among other areas, ...

's famously subjective definition of hard-core pornography: "

I know it when I see it The phrase "I know it when I see it" is a colloquial expression by which a speaker attempts to categorize an observable fact or event, although the category is subjective or lacks clearly defined parameters. The phrase was used in 1964 by United St ...

." (Stewart did not consider the film to be such.)

References

External links

* * * *
''The Lovers: Succès de scandale''
an essay by

Ginette Vincendeau Ginette Vincendeau (born 1948) is a French-born British-based academic who is a professor of film studies at King's College London. Early life and education Vincendeau was educated at the Lycée Lamartine and Lycée Sophie Germain in Paris, ...

at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovers, The 1958 films Adultery in films Films directed by Louis Malle French romantic drama films 1950s French-language films 1958 romantic drama films Venice Grand Jury Prize winners United States pornography law Obscenity controversies in film Films based on French novels 1950s French films