Un + Une

Stay with it, it's worth it! Luscious photography, intriguing plot, romantic and some of the best acting I've seen. I gained a deeper understanding of India and its sad, deep, beauty. And, wow, excellent direction by Claude Lelouch.

Wonderful movie set for the most part in India. Oscar winner Jean Dujardin plays a movie composer visiting India to work on a new wave film. There he meets the wife of the French ambassador played by Elsa Zylberstein.

Dujardin is at the top of his game, on par with the Cary Grant of the An Affair to Remember, and so is Elsa, who plays her part with incredible honesty and endearing vulnerability. The writing is brillant, all the way through, as expected from master director and writer Claude Lelouch. Some of the dialogue scenes between Dujardin and Zylberstein are some of the better written, acted and most beautiful ever created.

The portrayal of India is honest, extensive and, most importantly, respectful. It's a delightful adventure for anyone who likes smart romantic comedies, much like An Affair to Remember (1957).

I have to confess that I have not watched the first film of the director about a man and a woman in order to use it as a criterion of comparison. I simply evaluate this movie independently. There is a certain aspect which I found amazingly pertinent, current and within the realities of modern western life. When the two protagonists speak to each other during certain scenes of the movie the wife of the ambassador played by Elsa Zylberstein describes certain feelings and thoughts she has about self-realization, communication with the universe and other ideas pertaining to New Age spirituality. The protagonist answers with irony. Later the spiritual longings of the lady are satisfied through a pilgrimage to the river Ganges and a visit to a modern day Indian Hinduist saint. In short she has the fascination of the affluent westerners with supposed oriental wisdom. I loved this aspect of the movie as it was portrayed by witty dialogues and the real as well as the esoteric and spiritual journey of the protagonists through India. If you observe the success of figures as the Dalai Lama with western audiences or read magazines such as the French "Le Monde des Religions" you will have a picture of this unmistakable trend in affluent Western countries as France and Britain. It forms the backbone of the film which is also a love story.

The colorful depiction of India and the lively and lovely actors as well as the music add to the total impressive ambiance of this movie. But for me the fascination with the East as a place of spiritual self-discovery and the dialogues where Anna Hamon the ambassador's wife played by Elsa Zylberstein expresses herself freely in a flow of New Age speak, stand as monuments of perceptiveness about how a considerable number of women and men in the West think, fantasize and feel about the alleged spiritual qualities of an imaginary East.

... almost nearly-like a documentary of-a-romance ... mainly filmed in a most magical of countries.. India

... casting is exceptional.. actors making it all look sooo easy-enjoyable... what a wonderful experience it must have been for them

... a-timeless-film.. watching it again anytime in the future.. it-looses-nothing

The slogan for Lelouch's "A Man and a Woman" was "see it with someone you love." I didn't have a love when it was released in 1966, and failed to appreciate the film. Since then, I've grown to admire his opus as that of France's greatest living filmmaker.

You still have to b e a romantic to appreciate a film like this or his "Bolero," "And Now My Love" or "And Now, Ladies and Gentlemen."

We have no film of Jesus, Mohammed or Buddha performing their miracles. "Un. + Une" gives us a glimpse of Amma, a modern saint, displaying her love.

It's also the best outside film about India. See it with someone you love.