Product Description

Louis Malle unveiled the natural beauty of Jeanne Moreau in his breakthrough, Elevator to the Gallows. With his follow-up, the scandalous smash The Lovers> (Les amants), he made her a star once and for all. A deeply felt and luxuriously filmed fairy tale for grown-ups, perched on the edge between classical and New Wave cinemas, The Lovers presents Moreau as a restless bourgeois wife whose eye wanders from both her husband and her lover to an attractive passing stranger (Jean-Marc Bory). Thanks to its frank sexuality, The Lovers caused quite a stir, being censored and attacked for obscenity around the world. If today its shock has worn off, its glistening sensuality and seductive storytelling haven't aged a day.

Special Features

* - New, restored high-definition digital transfer of the complete, uncensored version
* - Selection of archival interviews with Louis Malle, actors Jeanne Moreau and José Luis de Villalonga, and writer Louise de Vilmorin
* - Gallery of promotional material from the U.S. theatrical release
* - New and improved English subtitle translation
* - PLUS: A new essay by film historian Ginette Vincendeau

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45763 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2008-05-13
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Black & White, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Restored, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 90 minutes

Customer Reviews

Malle's Scandalous 'Lovers.'
Louis Malle's controversial 1958 film, The Lovers (Les Amants), tells the not-so-scandalous-by-today's-standards story of a middle-aged, French woman (Jeanne Moreau, Malle's love interest at the time), who leaves both her boring husband, Henri (Alain Cuny), and her Paris lover, Raoul (José Villalonga), for a younger man, Bernard (Jean-Marc Bory) after a night of passion with the stranger. "There's no resisting happiness," she explains (which left me less than convinced). The sexually frank film resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court case defining "obscenity." ("I know it when I see it," Justice Stewart wrote in the Court's landmark decision, Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964).) This film not only established Moreau as a star in the '60s, but permanently associated Brahms Sextet in B-flat Major with Moreau's sexual abandon in the film. (While Brahms plays, Moreau appears in a half-naked tryst.) Moreau provides a voice-over narration for the film to reveal her character's feelings. Henri Decaë's crisp black and white cinematography is luminous. Although I have given this film a five-star rating, the story is conventional by today's standards.

The Criterion edition features a newly restored transfer of the complete, uncensored film; a selection of archival interviews with Louis Malle, actors Jeanne Moreau and José Luis de Villalonga, and writer Louise de Vilmorin; promotional material from the U.S. theatrical release; and a new essay by film historian Ginette Vincendeau.

G. Merritt

remarkable film making
I have seen this film when it first came out some 40 years ago and I will never forget it. It proves that a love making act can be presented with an autmost purity and sensitivity, and without the need for pornography.I cannot wait for it to be released again.

This film has stayed in my mind for 35 years.
I saw this film along with a Yiddish stage show in a theatre on south beach in Miami many years ago. It was difficult at the time, to really enjoy the movie since it was inappropriate for that particular audience as they were laughing and giggling at the very serious and sensitive scenes due to their embarrassment.I loved the movie and think about it every time I hear strains of Brahms Double Concerto, (repeated beautifully in many love scenes)"The Lovers" is a French tale of adultery without today's nudity and language - but oh so very sexy! I would recommend this movie for anyone who is a fan of Louis Malle. His direction of Jeanne Moreau is superb. I am eagerly awaiting the re-issue of this film so that I may own it and enjoy watching it again and again.