1966 - A MAN AND A WOMAN, Claude Lelouch's big hit.

Claude Lelouch had a lot riding on this film, his company was near bankruptcy and he had yet to establish himself as a filmmaker.  Working fast, he shot the film in three weeks and allowed only three weeks for editing.  The film switches between black and white and color stock, the budget was that tight.  The end result, a big hit film.

A Man and a Woman is in many ways the ultimate romantic swoon.  The characters are very attractive, Anouk Aimee has a job working on film crews sitting next to the camera doing who knows what, but it looks cool.  Jean-Louis Trintignant is the handsome race car driver so we get a lot of scenes of him zipping around roads and racetracks.  The memorable soundtrack is by Francis Lai and was a big hit.

There's no mistaking this film for The Rules of the Game but the film does seem to be the last word in overblown love stories.  A very entertaining film.

The film was written by Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven the running time is 102 minutes.