Love (of the most commonly described kind) is unfathomable - a word striving for constant reinvention through a person's lifetime. Every indescribable feeling crawls into its definition - two common extremes being a) variants of a dismissive infatuation that lasts a few days to a few years and b) the one other absolute, apart from Death itself. Such is love and A Man and A Woman, as conceived by Claude Lelouch, find (something akin to) it in this delightfully impulsive plot.
Its a romantic's tale of two solemn single parents simply bumping into each other at their children's boarding school, where they squeeze in independent weekend visits, between lives otherwise preoccupied by a unending memory of loss. The irony of their individual lives is that they continue painfully in careers which in some way were connected to the bizarre, accidental deaths of their spouses. Yet, that is all they know and it helps them stay faithful to their remembrance of love. While the Man invites himself into listless sexual encounters, the Woman further etches those lost moments firmly onto her mind.
The charm of Lelouch's youthful exuberance (he was 29 when he made this film) translates itself to the lead character, who takes every chance and every risk with this irresistible woman, not just because he's mesmerized with her disarming smile, but is also sincere about retracing a road to love; that he's long forgotten. The two children, with their infectious innocence and weekend spirits, accentuate the romanticism of an incredibly happy family that is being formed as the film progresses. While the story may sound cliched for someone who's reading this and hasn't seen the film, those who have, will yet smile at the unnameable hope that the on-screen love portrays. This mysterious depiction of love, captured by a desperate director and his unconventional methods, left film-lovers smitten worldwide. The film won several awards, including 2 Oscars and vindicated all those who supported Lelouch.
Claude Lelouch was making films since he was 24. His film prior to this one had failed to secure a release yet, leaving him on the verge of all sorts of financial trouble. To rid his frustration, he decided on his favorite de-stressing technique - a long drive in the cold French winter night. He didn't know where he was headed until he reached a small sea-front town in the wee hours of dawn. Still seated in the car, he spots the form of a man and his dog in the distance. His mind races to the possibility of life here, in this town, the cold, bleak beach as a setting to a man and a woman, their family and the sublime moments of silent unspoken love between them. That stretch of imagination is what you see on screen here. He filmed in Paris and in this very town. He knew Trintignant and signed him up for the lead role. His heroine's beauty was mandatory - to make the story convincing, coercing the 'race car driver' in the hero to step on the gas whenever she slipped away. He came across Anouk Aimee's picture (he didn't know her) and Trintignant asked her on Lelouch's behalf. She almost walked out on Lelouch's demands. Someone who'd returned a few days earlier from Fellini's shoot in Rome must've found Lelouch almost impish. She stayed, he shot from the backsides of cars, mixed color with B&W (to save costs on film!), plugged fascinating long shots (to filter out the annoying camera sound) and longish docu-shots of LeMans and race car practices and creating stunning visuals for his Homme et Femme. The music scored by French composer Francis Lai (academy award for Love Story) shapes our dreamy experience, more than we acknowledge. The film was done in a month, shot in 2-3 weeks, almost real-time since the story runs for that length of time. For skeptics, who insist that it isn't enough time to find true love, A Man and a Woman may change your mind. There is yet proof (a fictional account notwithstanding) that it's not about searching, its about knowing it when it happens to you.
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