The Lover

First, let's deal with the giant elephant in the room. In the age of custom-made available on-demand adult content, one should not resort to movies like this to satisfy the curiosity for nude body or sex.

Yes, it involves relatively graphic and prolonged sexual scenes, but it's not a sexploitation movie. The Lover is based on a bestselling autobiographical story of Marguerite Duras (1984 Prix Goncourt), a well-established name in both cinema and literature who have also wrote Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959).

Although critics never loved the film, not very prudent viewer should appreciate nice cinematography, quality setting and realistic, easy to follow story played by very nice actors who look good both dressed and undressed. It's not a groundbreaking movie by all means, but there's so much more in it than people who label it with softcore or erotic can find: family trauma, living in a foreign culture, how traditions are shaping the future and how love could be cruel. It's not a movie about love, rather about the search to understand what love is when you are young and daring.