Louis Malle's Les Amants

I just watched Les Amants, which shocked even the French on release in 1958 and was banned in many conservative North American communities.

Chez nous, we worship Louis Malle: his documentaries, French films, American films... we love you, man.

As Malle intended all along, it reads fifty years later as more social critique than erotic escapade, though Jeanne Moreau is unabashedly sexy, conflicted, and willing to do something about it.

Costume design by Coco Chanel: some of the most offhand elegance ever captured on film.