A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens' boarding school. Slowly, they reveal themselves to each other, finding that they have something deeply in common.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.5/10
IMDb: 7.5/10
Letterboxd: 4.07/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
TMDB: 7.4/10
Director
Claude Lelouch
Production
Les Films 13
Cast
Anouk Aimée, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre Barouh, Valérie Lagrange, Antoine Sire, Souad Amidou, Henri Chemin, Yane Barry, Paul Le Person, Simone Paris, Gérard Sire, Gérard Larrousse, Clive Roberts, Jean Collomb
Curator Review
Verdict
A tender, melancholy romance built on chemistry, memory, and the ache of second chances. Its stylish mix of black-and-white and color, plus the iconic music, gives a simple love story a lingering emotional pull.
Best for
Viewers who like romantic dramas with emotional restraint
Fans of French cinema and midcentury style
People drawn to bittersweet, adult love stories
Anyone who values music and visual mood as much as plot
Skip if
You want fast pacing or a plot-heavy romance
You dislike sentimental or openly romantic filmmaking
You prefer modern realism over stylized, poetic storytelling
Overview
A Man and a Woman is one of those romances that feels both feather-light and devastating. Claude Lelouch keeps the story simple, but the film’s real power comes from the way it observes hesitation, longing, and the small gestures that make two people feel suddenly legible to each other. The chemistry between the leads is quiet rather than explosive, which makes every glance and pause matter more.
Worth noting
The film’s visual identity is a major part of its appeal. The alternating monochrome and color imagery gives it a memory-like texture, while the music becomes part of the emotional architecture rather than just accompaniment. It plays like a love story remembered as much as lived.
Bottom line
What lingers most is the mood: wistful, intimate, and gently wounded. It is less interested in romantic conquest than in the fragile possibility of connection after loss. For viewers open to a classic European romance with a soft-focus ache, it remains deeply rewarding.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Cam Soutter (5★) · 1201 likes
French cinema is truly one of humanity's greatest gifts to the world
KYK · 777 likes
Woman sends a "U Up?" telegram and man drives 3,000 miles to have sex.
No but actually... I'm FUCKING WRECKED AFTER THIS MOVIE. Good night.
noen (5★) · 590 likes
Such prowess, such poetic beauty — the pure essence of love, wrapped in an intermittent whisper between memory and hope.
The cinematic beauty of the film is very distinctive, but its aesthetic grounder arises, paradoxically, from limitation. The choice to alternate between black-and-white and color, often interpreted today as a stylistic decision, was in fact born out of a lack of budget to film the entire work in color. For me, this practical limitation transforms into an act of pure… more
Sam van den Heuvel (4★) · 466 likes
Ba da ba da da ba da ba da la la
Mousa ;) (3.5★) · 450 likes
Only French films can make a simple
love story so interesting and beautiful
forever listening to the soundtrack.
1960 · Comedy, Drama, Romance · 2h 6m · Curator 9.7/10 (576.1K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, TCM, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A classic adult romance that balances wit, loneliness, and aching tenderness.
Topics
French romance, melancholy, bittersweet, midcentury cinema, poetic realism, soundtrack-driven, intimate drama, road-trip mood, black-and-white and color, adult love story