Realities behind The Lover

by Dilshan Boange

Love stories as novels or films set in the days of the British Empire now in this day and age become exotic on account of the historical setting and cultural crosscurrents that unfold in the course of the story.

To the Anglophone Asian countries of today, which are largely rooted in the history of Britain’s colonial enterprise, the existence of a francophone world in Asia tracing back to the colonial history of France is something that isn’t as prominently noticed.

But nevertheless a story set in what was called ‘French Indo-China’ presents a most exotic prospect to people today who are outsiders viewing that part of the world and its colonial history.

The Lover is a film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, based on the quasi autobiographical novel by Marguerite Duras. The storyline is one that follows the secret love affair between a teenage French girl and a wealthy Chinese man in French Indochina.

What is interesting in the cinema craft adopted by the filmmaker is that the protagonists are maintained as nameless characters throughout the entire narrative.

This, however, does not lower the worth or identity of the two people in the context of understanding the depth of the socio-political implications and personal dilemmas that arise as a result of the liaison.

On the other hand, one may even contend that the namelessness even contributes the enhance the symbolic impact the characters project in the scope of understanding human problems in the face of overwhelming social and cultural factors.

Colonial rule

Set in Vietnam under French colonial rule, the Young Girl the viewer encounters is from a poverty stricken fatherless French family. She is fifteen and gifted in her ability to learn and dreams of becoming a writer someday. She meets the ‘Chinese Man’, who later becomes her lover, onboard a river ferry, on return to the city after a school holiday.

Elegantly dressed in a lounge suit he turns out to be the son of a Chinese businessman whose fortune was made in real estate, and has recently returned from Paris.

The first time he sees her is as she stands by the rail on the crowded ferry crossing the mighty Mekong River. After initiating conversation he offers her a lift to Saigon, in his chauffeur-driven limousine and she accepts. Although no conversation develops during the drive, the simple but somewhat imposed clutch of her hand is the only advance he makes on her, which speaks much of his intentions though an inhibition lurks within him.

With no promises made to meet further they part. However, the next day, he waits for her outside her boarding school. Appearing as something of a stalker yet encouraged by the girl, the two go to a bachelor pad he maintains in the seedy Chinese quarter of the city, where their amorous affair unfolds.

Racial factors

Fully aware that a long term future together is impossible because of the racial factors involved and that she is scheduled to return to Paris soon, and he is arranged to marry a wealthy Chinese heiress, they nevertheless continue their relationship which is an awakening to the girl in her sexuality and to the Chinese man an exploration of his own awakening to a lustful white girl whose unhidden forthrightness captivates him. Every day after school, the girl goes to the bachelor pad and thus their forbidden love develops with deepening bonds.

What comes off as startling is how the girl's family reacts after discovering the affair. Although the initial reaction is outrage their penury creates room to allow it on the belief that because the man is wealthy he will be able to assist them ease their financial condition.

The meeting with the mother and the two bothers is one that shows the pathetic state the French family is in their lack of ‘culture’ and propriety. Their state of decline is evident which may signal symbolically how the colonials were gradually fading in their grace in the colonies they established through the use of force.

Permission

The affair which is one that seems purely physical at the outset leads the Chinese man to later feel deeply for the girl and he even goes so far as to beg his father for permission to be with the girl instead of entering into the arranged marriage. His ailing father however says he would rather see him dead than with a “white girl.” In deep sorrow he resigns to marry his arranged bride, and the girl boards a ship soon afterwards sailing for France. The film ends with a glimpse into the future, decades later. The girl has become a successful writer. She receives a telephone call from her former lover who is visiting France with his wife. He tells her in all sincerity that he never stopped loving her, and that he would love her for the rest of his life.

The cinematic narrative is one that moves with conventional shots and linearity. I could not help but feel the style had something of a David Lean film in the rhythm and manner the visuals wove together. The placidity of the times and the fires that ignite within are captured in more than words and gestures of the actors. The cinema craft in the work delivers the emotional landscape within the context of the socio cultural paradigm that binds the characters.

The rift in the rhythm between the people and the landscape is thus projected very effectively. ‘The Lover’ is a story that moves with somewhat predictable direction in story. But then it is one where much reality that existed in French colonial Asia is captured. It is after all from something of a partly biographical story and thus a window to a past in Asia where colonial currents had boundaries stringently set for people in general, and lovers in particular.