Handling

Jeanne Tournier is the bored, upper-class wife of a provincial newspaper publisher, and she leaves him to run off with her young Parisian lover Raoul. Eventually growing tired of his constant polo playing, Jeanne is very content when a weekend in the country is crowned with a handsome stranger comes along for the ride home. To Jeanne's surprise she ends up spurning both husband and lover for the arms of the stranger, driving off with him to an uncertain future.

In The Lovers, Louis Malle teamed up with Jeanne Moreau again immediately after making Elevator to the Gallows, this time launching both himself and his starlet to international fame. The Lovers caused much censorship debate in many countries for its sexual frankness.