The Lover

The Lover (or L'Amant) is a 1992 French film based on the novel of the same name by Marguerite Duras. Set in French Indo-China in 1929, it depicts the illicit affair between a fifteen-year old French girl and her wealthy Chinese lover.

Tropes used in The Lover include:

• Arranged Marriage: The Chinaman has a long-arranged marriage to a girl from another wealthy Chinese family.
• Asian Gal with White Guy: Inverted.
• Based on a True Story: Duras has stated that she is the Young Girl, and the affair has been depicted in different (sometimes opposing) ways in her novels.
• California Doubling: Averted -- filmed on location in Vietnam, though the sex scenes had to be filmed in Paris.
• The Casanova: The Girl is actually turned on by the idea that the Chinaman has had many previous lovers, and regards it as his occupation.
• Complete Monster: The older brother in the novel. He crosses the Moral Event Horizon early on, as he is depicted stealing money from servants and selling items from the house to pay for his gambling and drug addiction. He has no redeeming qualities at all and mercilessly watches on as his younger brother Paolo gets sucked in deeper and deeper until Paolo dies. After the death of his mother, his first reaction is to sell all of her belongings. On top of all of this, he mocks and belittles The Girl and her Chinese boyfriend for their pairing and abuses The Girl.
• Dead Little Sister: Paolo (the younger brother) dies of alcohol poisoning, which makes The Girl realize her mother and older brother are completely irredeemable and gives her a more cynical outlook on life.
• Disappeared Dad: He died when the family had just moved to Vietnam.
• Dysfunctional Family: The Girl's mother is a manic depressive, a poor land investment has destroyed their savings, and the elder brother bullies his younger siblings and steals from his family to feed his gambling and opium habits. It's clear that the Girl prostituting herself is as much an escape, as a means of solving their financial difficulties.
• Elephant in the Living Room: No-one outside their families confront them about the scandal, and everyone takes it for granted that she's sleeping with the Chinaman for money, as the idea that two people of different races would fall in love is unthinkable.
• Fille Fatale: It's the Girl who is the sexual aggressor.
• Idle Rich: The Chinaman admits that he's never been good at studying or business.
• Incest Subtext: The elder brother has a predatory interest in his sister, while the sight of the Girl dancing intimately with her young brother drives the Chinaman to jealousy.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Helene walks around the school dormitory naked.
• It Doesn't Mean Anything: The Girl repeatedly tells the Chinaman that she's not in love with him. It's only when she's on the ship back to France that she's forced to acknowledge her feelings.
• Les Yay: The Girl in the novel speaks explicitly of wanting to make love to Helene. In the film they lie in bed together while talking about the affair, and when Helene fantasizes about sleeping with men for money, the Girl caresses her body and talks about how lucky those men would be.
• Lolicon: The Girl claims to be seventeen, but she's actually fifteen years old. The Chinaman is 27 (32 in the film).
• Longing Look
• Love At First Sight: The Chinaman falls for the Girl from the moment he sees her standing by the railing of a cross-river ferry.
• Love Hurts
• Millionaire Playboy: Subverted; the Chinaman is a handsome and wealthy hedonist, but is physically weak and lacking in self-confidence.
• Mommy Issues: Well, obviously. The Mother is abusive and completely out of touch with reality.
• The Nameless: The protagonists are only referred to as The Young Girl and The Chinaman.
• Opium Den: The Chinaman tries to dull his pain with opium when the time comes for the Girl to return to France.
• The Patriarch: The Chinaman begs his father to delay his Arranged Marriage a year so he can experience this One True Love. His father replies that he'd rather see his son dead than involved with a white girl.
• Rape as Drama: The Chinamen takes the Girl's family out to dinner where they respond by alternately ignoring and humiliating him. This -- and jealousy caused by the Girl dancing with her younger brother -- leads him to rape her on their return to their love nest. The Girl responds by demanding money as if they were in a brothel.
• Smoking Hot Sex
• Stalking Is Love: The Chinaman waits outside her school every day, while the girl turns up at his Arranged Marriage.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Both protagonists acknowledge from the beginning that there's no future in the affair.
• The Unfavourite: Both Paolo and The Girl to their mother. She neglects them harshly.
• Third Person Person: Duras in the novel switches back and forth between first and third person. The Narrator in the film.
• The Alcoholic: The older brother in the novel. The younger brother after their move to Paris - he dies of alcohol poisoning.
• Unable to Cry: The Girl is leaving on the ship for France when she sees the limousine parked on the wharf, with the Chinaman in the back watching her.

It was when the boat uttered its first farewell, and the gangway had been hauled up, that she had wept. She'd done it without showing her tears, without showing her mother, or her little brother, that she was sad. Without showing anything, as was the custom between them.

• Unproblematic Prostitution: The Girl is excited by the idea of sex without emotional attachment. Despite her disapproval her mother clears the way by insisting that her boarding school not enforce her curfew. The school goes along because they need a few white girls to enhance their status, and so can't afford to expel her.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: In the car trip from the ferry to Saigon the Girl and the Chinaman go from touching fingers to Holding Hands to Intertwined Fingers -- by the time they get to their destination they're covered in sweat and his hand has reached her upper thigh.
• Uptown Girl: Applies to both parties -- The Girl being white sets her above the Chinaman racially, while her impoverished status sets her below him socially.
• Window Love: The day after their first meeting the Girl is surprised to see the Chinaman's black limousine outside the school. She walks up to the car and sensuously presses her lips to the window where he's sitting in the back seat.
• You Must Be Cold