CET AMOUR-La
Year: 2001
USA: New Yorker Films
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Aymeric Demarigny, Christiane Rorato, Sophie Milleron, Justine Levy, Stanislas Sauphanor, Didier Lesour, Tanya Lopert
Director: Josee Dayan
Country: France
Language: French (English subtitles)
USA: 98 mins
USA Release Date: 4 April 2003 (Limited Release -New York)
(in French)
Synopsis
Based on the novel by Yann Andrea, CET AMOUR-La is the true story of the passionate love affair between celebrated French author Marguerite Duras and Andrea, her much younger muse and apprentice. Showcasing a brilliant performance by Jeanne Moreau as the fiery and voracious Duras, this timeless love story offers special insight into the heart and mind of one of the world's major literary figures, whose unique body of work was developed across a stunning range of disciplines (cinema, theatre, journalism, novels, short stories, and essays).
This last great romance of Duras' life began in 1975 when Marguerite came to Yann Andrea's university to introduce a screening of her film INDIA SONG. Andrea waited behind, hoping for an autograph, and, when the moment came, he approached Marguerite to ask her if he could write to her. Marguerite gave him her address in Paris and Yann kept his word, writing up to five letters a day for five years. In 1980, when Yann's letters stopped coming, the reclusive 65 year-old writer finally summoned Andrea to meet her at her seaside apartment in the quiet resort of Trouville. Duras and Yann were drawn to each other immediately and, in spite of the large age difference, their instant rapport initiated a stormy and complex relationship. As Duras' audience, confidant, and lover, Yann roused the heavy-drinking writer into a final burst of creativity (including her masterpiece 'The Lover'), while she, in turn, taught him how to write by functioning as his mentor.
Director Josee Dayan's unconventional biopic of the most widely-read French novelist today is a haunting meditation on the intimate relationship between writing and love, which similarly involves the forging of a self-contained world wherein each lover is the imaginative creation of the other.