Thursday, March 28, 2024

Part-Time Love: Films Of Fleeting Passion

For Valentine’s Day, or Singles Awareness Day for those who are alone (Hi, ladies), I wanted to take a look at films where love is short-lived for various reasons. There are many films that fit the criterion for this subject; my decision was which ones should be highlighted and from different countries, something much easier said than done. I could probably come up with twenty films of this kind, including some surprising ones. Here are a few of these films with Stevie Wonder’s, “Part-Time Lover.” 

 

Brief Encounter (1945)

David Lean’s first great film, before his epic era, tells about a middle-class woman whose marriage is plain and finds some spark running into a physician at a train station. However, both know that beginning a new life together isn’t possible as both cannot just leave their families. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard are both striking as would-be lovers in Lean’s adaptation of a Noel Coward play. The consciousness of the time and consequences are much too great, but even then, we feel for the woman in particular because for once there is a fantasy of rekindling her happiness in love.

 

The Earrings Of Madame de… (1953)

Arguably the best film from French director Max Ophlus, in this film, Louise (Danielle Darrieux) is an aristocratic woman in the 19th century who is married to a French general, but the lavish lifestyle has caused her to go into debt. Selling a pair of earrings which later causes trouble, she runs into the man who has purchased them, an Italian diplomat (Vittorio De Sica), who becomes smitten with the woman. The rabbit hole of juggling between love and the selling and re-selling of one single pair of earrings climaxes to a duel, anguishing Louise’s desire for a perfectly balanced life with her wealth. 

 

Nights Of Cabiria (1957)

Federico Fellini’s Oscar-winning drama features his real-life wife Giuletta Messina as a prostitute who is stricken by the love bug but always gets brought down by men who trick her for money. It’s a movie full of heart and Messina moves us as the titular character who just wants a better life and someone who loves her for who she is. Fellini is so good at this with his characters, striking the emotions that add weight to his stories. Cabiria is about the celebration of a single person who is not tied down to just being a streetwalker, but someone who wants more of life and the basic need of full-time love.  

 

Last Tango In Paris (1972)

Scandalous upon release, Bernardo Bertolucci gave viewers a negative use for their butter in his shockingly erotic drama of two lovers who use an apartment for their own dalliances. Marlon Brando is an American ex-pat reeling from the suicide of his wife while Maria Schnieder is a young woman engaged to a filmmaker. They remain anonymous during their carnal adventures, content that had never been seen before on the big screen. It was even under Italian prosecution for obscenity charges, which convicted Bertolucci and gave him a suspended sentence. Fifty-one years later, it still shocks. 

 

In The Mood For Love (2000)

I don’t think one can say enough about Wong Kar-wai’s sensational, seductive masterpiece. The layers of emotion built into this story make it his best work to date. It’s the opposite of Last Tango; the room the two jilted spouses (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) rent is not for sex, but to discuss each other and their feelings. The sense of connection is obvious, but the two will not go where their spouses have gone. The score and lush cinematography provide a haze of sensuality to an era, 1960s Hong Kong, which was still conservative. It is a moving story and  piece of art that could only be made by Wong Kar-wai. 

 

Unfaithful (2002)

Adrian Lyne had done similarly themed films in Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal. In this erotic thriller with Diane Lane (in an Oscar-nominated role) and Richard Gere, a woman finds herself having a passionate affair with a younger man (Olivier Martinez) while her husband begins to suspect something isn’t right. It is both carnal and steamy how Lane and Martinez get together and dare the audience to watch them make love, as Gere is the anguished husband whose moment of anger completely shatters the love triangle.

 

Follow me on Twitter: @brian_cine (Cine-A-Man)

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