The Lover
She gave her innocence, her passion, her body. The one thing she couldn't give was her love.
Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud
Produced by Timothy Burrill Productions, Renn Productions
A sensual, morally complex portrait of a young girl's sexual awakening and power dynamics in a forbidden affair set against colonial Indochina.
A poor French teenage girl engages in an illicit affair with a wealthy Chinese heir in 1920s Saigon. For the first time in her young life she has control, and she wields it deftly over her besotted lover throughout a series of clandestine meetings and torrid encounters.
Clusters
Keywords
Where to watch
Questions people ask
Is The Lover sad? Yes. More sad than 88% of films.
Does The Lover end with hope? Barely. Less hopeful than 83% of films.
Is The Lover violent? Not especially. Less violent than 64% of films.
Is The Lover scary? About average. Almost exactly mid-range.
Is The Lover easy watching? About average. Almost exactly mid-range.
These describe how the film comes across, measured across the whole film and compared with other well-known films. They are not a content list — nothing here was counted or checked scene by scene, so for age-suitability or specific content use a classification board or a dedicated content-warning service.
Written about
Cinnamon Score
How much this film gives you that nothing else will, and whether it delivers.
Distinctly its own thing.
How unlike any other film this one feels
How much more it delivers than it promises
How much audiences actually like it
Ensemble
Everything like The Lover, and what each one shares →
Like The Lover
Nearest across the full emotional profile.
Same Mood as The Lover
Nearest on what's most distinctive about this one.
Like The Lover, But Darker
Similar, pushed toward heavier and more intense.
Like The Lover, But Lighter
Similar, pushed toward warmer and easier.
Like The Lover, But Less Popular
Same territory, far fewer people have seen it.
