← A Man and a Woman
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A Man and a Woman · reception & legacy

1966 · Claude Lelouch

How A Man and a Woman has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

In 1966 it swept the Palme d'Or and two Oscars and became a worldwide phenomenon; cinephile opinion later soured on it as glossy romantic kitsch — Pauline Kael was famously dismissive — though its images and score have proven far more durable than its detractors expected.

What's debated

The eternal Lelouch fight: is this swooning, gorgeous romance the real thing, or the slickest perfume commercial ever to win a Palme d'Or?

Its footprint

Francis Lai's 'chabadabada' theme escaped the film entirely — one of the most recognisable, parodied movie tunes ever written — and the windswept Deauville beach embrace remains shorthand for French romance itself.

Where it stands

A former titan of the canon now filed under 'divisive date movie the Palme d'Or once loved' — less watched than its theme is hummed.

★ Did you know? The film's famous shifts between colour and black-and-white weren't an aesthetic manifesto: Lelouch was so short of money he shot on cheaper black-and-white stock when the budget ran low — and it still went on to win Oscars for both Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay.