A Man and a Woman (1966) (3rd time)

A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens' boarding school. Slowly they reveal themselves to each other. [imdb]

Nominated for 4 Oscars:

Best Director: Claude Lelouch
Best Actress: Anouk Aimée
Best Foreign Language Film: France (WINNER)
Best Original Screenplay (WINNER)

For many years now I've had Un homme et une femme among my top favorite 20 films of all time. When I first saw it, it blew me away because I hadn't seen anything like it before and I'm sure people from 1966 felt the same thing. Its unique qualities are the simplicity of the story and how sophisticated and well thought the execution is.

The highlight is not the acting, even though it's some of the most natural love story interaction you'll ever see on screen. It IS one of the best directed films I have EVER seen. The cinematography is fantastic, the editing is magic, the screenplay is pure and simple, the music is legendary. And then back to the directing: Claude Lelouch wasn't even 30 years old when he did this and I don't know how but he fitted the pieces perfectly creating such a balanced, marvelous, sophisticated, cool, great looking film. The last 10-15 minutes are bliss and relevant for the film's heart and emotions. The ending is superb.

I wanted to be them. I wanted to be with them.

My rating for the film: 9.5/10. More people should see this, especially if they have a weakness for well made simple romantic stuff. French movies rock.