Sex scenes from “The Lover” filmed in Vietnam

A scene of "The Lover" shot in Cho Lon Market in Ho Chi Minh City

Accompanying the French film crew for four consecutive years of their making of L’amant or The Lover, journalist Thien Nam saw a lot, learned a lot, and now has a lot to say about many rumors and misconceptions about the movie, especially several hot scenes that were set up in Vietnam and directed by French director Jean-Jacques Annaud.
The Lover contracted extra-production services out to Hong Kong Cinematic Cooperation and Ho Chi Minh City’s Cinema & Magnetic Tape Company. As a representative of Vietnam’s Cinema & Magnetic Tape Company, Thien Nam was allowed to accompany the crew for the purpose of learning about the film making process, from casting to choosing shooting angles. What he saw was a high level of professionalism among the crew, even though the machines were not very modern at the time and the director had to review the shots on a small monitor with a low light sensitivity.
As many newspapers reported, the movie cost US$30 million to make, but according to Nam, only US$400,000 was spent on the classics, less than the other two French movies being filmed in the north at the same time: Indochine by Régis Wargnier ($2 million) and Dien Bien Phu ($3 million) by Pierre Schoendoerffer.
“Both screenplay writer Gérard Brach and director Jean-Jacques Annaud played an extraordinary role in making the film. They have turned a C-grade actress and a B-grade actor into first-rate movie stars. Thanks to The Lover, Jane March and Tony Leung Ka Fai graduated to the world-class level. However, it is a pity that they could not stay there long,” remarked Thien Nam.
Jane March is rumored to start acting when she was 18. In fact, she was scouted by the director’s wife after appearing on a teen magazine and participated in The Lover at the age of 19. When the movie finished, she was already 22. Tony Leung Ka Fai started acting in the movie in his early 30s, almost the same age as the male role he played. Thanks to The Lover, Tony’s name and fame began to spread beyond the Chinese movie-viewing community.
Nam said that the steamy sex scenes in The Lover were filmed outside Vietnam due to the country’s strict censorship rules, except for the first and the last. The rest of the scenes were shot in Hong Kong.
Jane March and Tony Leung Ka Fai played themselves in all of these scenes. No body-double was used and no sexual scenes were secretly filmed in a Paris studio as many newspapers reported. For these scenes, Annaud requested no rehearse before filming because he wanted to capture the freshness of Jane and Tony’s emotions.
In the opening hot scene, it was raining and the Chinese man took the young girl home, through Mai Xuan Thuong Street and Cho Lon Market in district 5. To make this scene, Annaud demanded that the two of them wear thick coats when it was 35 Celsius degree and run around the studio three times. The actor and actress then took off their coat and laid on each other. The camera zoomed in on beads of sweats appearing upon the curves of her back and his left thigh.
In the last sex scene, the man tossed the girl into a bed corner, threw money in her face and then left, leaving his lover starring at the ceiling.
Both scenes were filmed in Vietnam in the presence of the whole film crew, not confined to only the director and a cameraman as many have mistakenly thought.
There were some Vietnamese among the cast but they got minor roles as housemaids, drivers, rickshaw pullers, or local people.
The movie reflects Vietnamese life in early 20th century as best as it could. During the early stages of scouting and script writing, screenplay writer Brach and director Annaud spent significant time with Vietnamese writers like Son Nam, Minh Huong, Tran Bach Dang, and Huynh Ngoc Trang to seek their knowledge on cultural behavior and ways of communication of the Vietnamese and Chinese-Vietnamese during the colonial period.
The opening scene when the French girl met the Chinese man in a limousine was filmed on Vam Cong ferry, in the southern province of Dong Thap. The dorm where the girl lived is the dorm of Ho Chi Minh City Kindergarten Teacher College and the high school she went to is Le Quy Don High school in district 3. Other scenes in Saigon were filmed in Nha Rong Wharf, Binh Tay Market, the city’s zoo, and the area around Reunification Palace.
The Lover is adapted from a Goncourt prize winning novel by Marguerite Duras about an illicit affair between a young French girl and a Chinese businessman in 1929, when Vietnam was still under French colonial tutelage.
Vietnam is the first country to have the honor to screen the movie, using the censored French version, in which 80% of the sex scenes were deleted, except the first and last ones that were shot in Vietnam.
One of hot scenes of the film:

From: Tuoitrenews

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