Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
French filmmaker Claude Lelouch continues to take critical heat for this 1966 international hit, which has been labeled "schmaltzy" and dismissed as overly stylized for its simple story line. While it certainly can't be mistaken for a masterpiece of the French New Wave (Lelouch was left in the dust that year by such wonders as Jean-Luc Godard's Masculin Feminin), A Man and a Woman has a jumpy impressionism that engages a viewer precisely because it cuts against conventional expectations of romance. Starring Anouk Aimée as a widowed "script girl" (working in film production) and Jean-Louis Trintignant as a racer who lost his wife to suicide, the film is really an objective sampling--almost a study--of moments between the time the two characters meet and the point at which they begin to read each other intuitively. Generous flashbacks fill in details on the pair's woeful, recent histories, while endless documentary-like glimpses of Aimée's and Trintignant's characters at work in their highly charged professions become a visual engine for the days passing between measured developments in love. Lelouch is more dryly humane than lush in his approach, though the film strains once in a while for a forced naturalism that can actually be more narcissistic than the most obvious romantic contrivance. Still, A Man and a Woman--in the best sense--is also a movie in love with itself, with its own ability to evoke and conjure and construct dozens of different ways of tracking a relationship in progress. If Lelouch doesn't exactly push open the boundaries of cinema as several of his filmmaking peers did at the time, he certainly enjoys what he's doing. --Tom Keogh

I realized that there was a reason that I recalled "A Man and a Woman"; a film I'd never seen before. It's theme became somewhat of hit back in the late 1960's. I'm glad I finally watched the film because this is a very good movie. The reason I liked it was because of its' ability to tell a unique love story.

We meet a couple of individuals just as they are meeting each other. Their relationship emerges from each person's tragic previous relationship. We get this information in a series of video recollections that each shares with the other. As their relationship grows, much is unspoken and we see the subtle hints that each picks up on. The director, Claude LeLouch, keeps this from being a run-of-the-mill love story by throwing in a somewhat surprizing twist towards the end. That leads to a conclusion that I thought was just the right way to say the right thing.

The reservations that I have with "A Man and a Woman" is the elite aspect of the characters. These are the "Beautiful People" who live in the fast lane of exclusive professions. They each have a young child in boarding school (that's how they meet) and the children are beautiful and well-behaved. That's surprizing since the parents are never all that sure if they'll be by to visit the kids from one weekend to the next. I gripe about this because this could have been a love story that everyone could relate to. The theme of "love the second time around" has been done before but the way this movie suceeds is by acknowledging the importance of the first love. LaLouch's need to portray the woman's first love as some ideal, one-of-a-kind, super man deminishes the rest of us in comparison. Couldn't the first spouse have been a mechanic, accountant, or bus driver. Couldn't we have had characters and life styles we could relate to? Oh well, I confess that I enjoyed watching Anouk Aimee in her lead role. Sure beats Marjorie Main. I was very comfortable with the overall message I took away from "A Man and a Woman"

Average Rating:

Rating: - A Challenging yet Rewarding Love Story
I realized that there was a reason that I recalled "A Man and a Woman"; a film I'd never seen before. It's theme became somewhat of hit back in the late 1960's. I'm glad I finally watched the film because this is a very good movie. The reason I liked it was because of its' ability to tell a unique love story.

We meet a couple of individuals just as they are meeting each other. Their relationship emerges from each person's tragic previous relationship. We get this information in a series of video recollections that each shares with the other. As their relationship grows, much is unspoken and we see the subtle hints that each picks up on. The director, Claude LeLouch, keeps this from being a run-of-the-mill love story by throwing in a somewhat surprizing twist towards the end. That leads to a conclusion that I thought was just the right way to say the right thing.

The reservations that I have with "A Man and a Woman" is the elite aspect of the characters. These are the "Beautiful People" who live in the fast lane of exclusive professions. They each have a young child in boarding school (that's how they meet) and the children are beautiful and well-behaved. That's surprizing since the parents are never all that sure if they'll be by to visit the kids from one weekend to the next. I gripe about this because this could have been a love story that everyone could relate to. The theme of "love the second time around" has been done before but the way this movie suceeds is by acknowledging the importance of the first love. LaLouch's need to portray the woman's first love as some ideal, one-of-a-kind, super man deminishes the rest of us in comparison. Couldn't the first spouse have been a mechanic, accountant, or bus driver. Couldn't we have had characters and life styles we could relate to? Oh well, I confess that I enjoyed watching Anouk Aimee in her lead role. Sure beats Marjorie Main. I was very comfortable with the overall message I took away from "A Man and a Woman"

Rating: - classic movie
classic movie from the 60's. The wonderful accompanies a slow to develop but charming and simple story. I would highly recommend this movie to any filmgoer who has not experienced a Claude Lelouch movie.

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Rating: - A Man and a Woman
The CD was in good condition. The price was a little high but worth it to me. Thanks

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Rating: - Great music, great story, great DVD !
This is a wonderful classic French film for all times about love. The story and the music are superb ! No more words. Don't miss it. Let's include it in our particular stock of materpieces at home.

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Rating: - All I could want from a foreign purchase
The movie is visually appealing and an artistic achievement. A simple story but delivered in a powerful and compelling manner.

DVD is excellent with some great special features--documentary, 20 years later featurette, more. It has both English and French language tracks and a variety of subtitle options.

For film fans, students, scholars and all, a great film to take a look at.

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Related Items:

Un Homme et une Femme

A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later

Two for the Road

Grand Prix (Two-Disc Special Edition)

La Vie en Rose (Extended Version)

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