[Joseonggwan's Global Humanities Journey] What Claude Lelouch Tried to Convey in His Films

Film 'Namgwa Yeo' and 'Namgwa Yeo - Still Brilliant'
Remind Us That 'What Truly Matters Is Love'

Everyone has a love movie they can never forget, even in death. A film etched into the heart of youth like an indelible scar, a movie that evokes bittersweet memories of first love.

In my case, Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman belongs to the former category, while Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso falls into the latter. Looking at it this way, both films share the commonality of having famous film scores (OSTs).

The main male and female characters walking on Deauville Beach in the 1966 film 'The Man and the Woman.' Photo by Movie Still

The main setting of A Man and a Woman is Deauville in Normandy, France. Paris appears occasionally, but we hardly remember the scenes set in Paris. When you close your eyes, only the beach and horizon of Deauville gently unfold. Deauville is a resort town on the English Channel.

An endless stretch of white sand, where seagulls leisurely play hide-and-seek with the waves. Along the beach runs a long wooden deck. On that sandy field, a boy and girl who are boarding school friends laugh and run around. On the wooden deck, a man and a woman watch the two children.

Deauville Beach and the English Channel. The place where the protagonist and two children stroll in "Man and Woman." Photo by Seonggwan Jo

The A Man and a Woman I watched during the TV program “Weekend Masterpieces” was my first French film in life. When the movie ended, I had to calm the shock it left on me for a while. Even after that, I spent several days with a restless heart. Perhaps everyone who saw the film felt the same.

Anne, the secretary to the film director, was played by actress Anouk Aim?e. Her intellectual beauty soon became a symbol of French actresses. For many years, to me, a French actress was synonymous with Anouk Aim?e. Later came Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Adjani, followed by Marion Cotillard, Julie Delpy... Deauville became synonymous with “beautiful love” and was imprinted in my mind as the French city after Paris.

Chanel posing in front of the boutique 'Gabriel Chanel' in Deauville. Photo by Chanel Inc.

The figure featured in “Geniuses Loved by Paris” (Artists Edition) is fashion designer Coco Chanel (1883?1971). Just as Chanel was taking her first steps as a fashion designer in Paris, the dark clouds of World War I descended. Chanel fled to Deauville in Normandy. There, she opened a boutique bearing her name. Deauville is an indispensable place in Chanel research. The boutique Chanel opened was on Condovillon Street, the gateway to the beach.

A scene from the movie 'Nam and Yeoh'. Photo by Movie Still

The film A Man and a Woman begins when Anne, who came to see her daughter attending a boarding school in Deauville, misses her train and has no way to return to Paris. The school principal asks Jean-Louis, a race car driver who also came to see his son, if he can give Anne a ride to Paris. As Anne rides in Jean-Louis’s car to Paris, love strikes the man and woman like lightning. The film alternates between color and black-and-white scenes, accompanied by Francis Lai’s music. “Dan dan dan, dadadadada~”

Director Lelouch shot this film in just three weeks in 1966 in the Nouvelle Vague style. A Man and a Woman drenched film fans worldwide in love. Lelouch swept the major international film festival grand prizes, including the Palme d’Or at Cannes, all at the young age of twenty-eight.

When going on a business trip to a place filled with memories, our steps become lighter with excitement. I had to go to Deauville to meet Chanel, and by chance, it was the city of A Man and a Woman! So, like Anne, I boarded a train at Paris Saint-Lazare Station. Saint-Lazare Station is the most historic train station in Paris, appearing in paintings by ?douard Manet and Claude Monet. On the way to Deauville, my heart pounded like a youth about to go on a first date.

Addressing the Issues of Aging and Death

Claude Lelouch in 2019. Photo by Wikipedia

At eighty-three years old, director Lelouch released A Man and a Woman ? Still Brilliant in 2020. The original leads from 1966, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aim?e, reprised their roles. Set “50 years later,” the two appear as octogenarians. Jean-Louis, once famous as a race car driver in his youth, suffers from dementia and lives in a nursing home. Anne runs a small shop in a rural village, living peacefully. One day, Jean-Louis’s son Andr? tracks down Anne. At first, Anne does not recognize Andr?, who has become a middle-aged man.

“Your father in the nursing home only happily remembers the time he spent with his wife. Could you please meet him just once?”

A Man and a Woman ? Still Brilliant is a story about aging and death. It is a narrative about the final journey of life that no one can avoid if they do not die young.

Anne visits Jean-Louis. She quickly recognizes him, but Jean-Louis, suffering from dementia, does not recognize Anne. Jean-Louis reminisces to the “stranger” Anne about a woman he loved in his youth. Looking back, he says that was the happiest time of his life. After Anne’s visit to the nursing home, her son reports that Jean-Louis’s condition improved and his expression brightened. Anne then frequently visits the nursing home to see Jean-Louis. Jean-Louis happily talks about the “woman he loved in his youth.”

“That woman smiled just like you do.” “That woman used to brush her hair just like you do now.” “Why are you so kind to me?”

Although Jean-Louis does not remember Anne, she smiles as she watches him bask in happiness, recalling the time they spent together.

The film also recalls Deauville as it was 50 years ago in black-and-white scenes and appears in Jean-Louis’s dreams. Deauville was a traditional English upper-class resort town. Thus, Victorian-style buildings line the streets, and every alley exudes a Victorian atmosphere.

Deauville earned the nickname “movie city” thanks to A Man and a Woman. In fact, the American Film Festival and the Asian Film Festival are held in Deauville. All the world’s film stars remembered by movie fans have visited here at least once or twice. The square leading to the beach from Condovillon Street, where Chanel’s boutique was located, is named “Claude Lelouch Square.” The names of stars on the wooden deck changing rooms along the beach make us realize Deauville’s inseparable relationship with cinema.

After the age of eighty, one in four people develops dementia. Jean-Louis, the dementia patient, is soon to be our future self. We learn how to live with dementia patients from this film. Jean-Louis talks about his son but then scolds Anne, saying, “Why do you keep talking about a son when I don’t have one?” Conversations break off as Jean-Louis forgets what just happened. The same stories repeat. Anne feels frustrated each time but lets it go.

There are flashes of sharp dialogue as well. “What do you think death is?” (Anne) “The price of life.” (Jean-Louis)

Everyone dies. Unless it is sudden death, everyone is lonely and desolate at the moment of death. Goethe’s finale, writing until his last moment, is a dream everyone hopes for.

In this life that comes and goes once, what is truly precious to us? What did director Lelouch want to say by casting an actor in his eighties with only a little time left to live? It is love. How great a blessing it is to be able to recall memories of love on the final journey. Perhaps that is why the director added the subtitle “Still Brilliant.”