A man and a woman

I just watched a very good movie Friday: "A Man and a Woman". Or "Un homme et une femme"

A French film from 1966, it is a romantic movie about falling in love again after the death of one's first spouse.

"He's a race car driver, she works behind the scenes on movies. Scenes in the rain, on the beach, and riding horses evoke a very romantic mood as the two slowly fall in love. Much of the dialogue is forced and at times things in the movie are slow, but that romantic mood never evaporates. And, of course, there's that wonderful music."

The soundtrack is wonderful. The main theme is a song everyone has heard but probably don't connect to the movie. And the Samba music her first husband played and sang to her is exotic and sensuous. Unfortunately Amazon says the soundtrack is no longer available.

Yes, the movie is slow at times. But not having read any reviews as to what the story was about, I was hooked and wanted to know more about the man and the woman as the movie went on. I went with the romantic feel of the movie and overlooked the slow parts, forced dialog, and poor dubbing into English. My mother on the other hand thought the movie was boring.

Even though the movie is from 1966 it doesn't feel dated.

The odd thing is that I saw this film on the Speed cable channel. I guess since he was a race car driver, and the movie had several racing scenes, it qualified to be shown. This channel would be one of the last places I'd expect to find a romantic French movie.


And speaking of 1960s French films... "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is a very interesting movie. I saw this movie last year. When a young girl is forced to choose between love and security, which does she choose? Catherine Deneuve plays the young girl.

All the dialogue in this film is sung, which at first is a little unsettling, but it actually takes very little time to adjust to. Unusual, but it works. I watched this movie after midnight and remained awake and interested to the end, although sometimes it was on the edge of being over the top.

The colors are vivid. The story is bittersweet. Be careful in reading reviews of this movie if you are a person who doesn't want to know how a story turns out before watching the movie.