I was near Cannes just a week before the 78th Cannes Film Festival, which was held from May 13 to 24, 2025, staying in Nice, my favorite destination in Côte d’Azur, southern France during a short holiday trip. I also visited Cannes, but missed the opportunity to see some Hollywood icons like Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro and Juliette Binoche just barely. (Photo above: festival-cannes.com)
Jury president Juliette Binoche and jurors pose at the 78th international film festival in Cannes, May 13 2025 (euronews.com)
Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, recipient of the Honorary Palme d’Or, during the opening ceremony of the festival / Tom Cruise ‘steals spotlight’ at Cannes with latest Mission: Impossible (The Final Reckoning) – a great movie which I watched recently. (Photos: euronews.com)
The subject of this post though is not primarily the Cannes Film Festival, but the 1966 French film in the official posters of the recent Cannes Festival:
“Un homme et une femme” (“A Man And A Woman“)…
The poster for the 78th Cannes Festival (held from May 13 to 24, 2025) featuring “A Man and a Woman” Claude Lelouch’s film shot sixty years ago in Deauville, Normandy (Photo: Festival de Cannes via leclaireur.fnac.com)
By chance, I had watched this film years ago. I remember a film of few dialogues, touching emotional scenes and enchanting beach views – all pleasantly combined with an exceptional cinematography to tell about a poetic love story …
The film is about a young widow (Anne), and a young widower (Jean-Louis), who meet by chance at their children’s boarding school, and whose sensitive relationship is complicated by the memories of their deceased spouses – which in the end turns into a beautiful love story.
The second poster of 2025 Cannes Film Festival (Photo: Festival de Cannes via ouest-france.fr)
(Cannes Festival has chosen for the first time in its history to present a double official poster – two views from Claude Lelouch’s 1966 romantic drama A Man And A Woman: an embrace between Anne and Jean-Louis from two sides.)
The man (Jean-Louis), a race car driver, is played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, who had first starred in Roger Vadim’s “And God Created Woman” in 1956. The woman (Anne) is played by Anouk Aimée, who had starred in Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” in 1960.
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Brigitte Bardot in “And God Created Woman” / Anouk Aimée, as Maddalena, the partner of Marcello Mastroianni in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” – the winner film of the Palme d’Or in Cannes in 1960 (Photos: Pinterest)
The film “A Man and A Woman” (“Une homme et une femme“) won the Palme d’Or at the 1966 Cannes Festival, and many more awards including the two Oscars in Hollywood in 1967, BAFTA and Golden Globes. Claude Lelouch, the director of the film, had been renowned after this film – which he said changed his life as I read in one of his interviews.
Posters for A Man and A Woman (Un homme et une femme) (1966) (a-rabbitsfoot.com / etsy.com)
I found the DVD of the film in my archive and rewatched it. There are light dialogues, not numerous, but an appealing visual beauty – a peaceful beach, a vibrant sky changing colors from rainy to windy, and soft transitions from full color to black-and-white in the film. The emotion of each scene in the film seems so vivid, so real – told with an affective music “Chabadabada, chabadabada…” – composed by Francis Lai. Lelouch reflects the romance between Anne and Jean-Louis in such a poetic way that not much words are needed.
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée, in “A Man and a Woman“, 1966
(Photos above: wisconsinhistory.org / leparisien.fr – Photos below: imdb.com / flickr.com)
Besides a few scenes in Paris, where Anne works, and Monte Carlo, where Jean-Louis competes in the Monte Carlo Rally, Deauville and its beach was the primary location of this 1966 award-winning classic French film directed by Claude Lelouch, who used to live in the area then.
I had mentioned Deauville, a chic seaside resort located on the Côte Fleurie (referred to as the Parisian Riviera) of France’s Normandy region, in my older post about Normandy titled “Normandy – Apples, Half-Timbered Houses and Castles” (click for the link).
Sunset in Deauville, Normandy (Photo: Getty Images)
Deauville is known with its long sandy beach, golf courses, and elegant villas. The town, where Coco Chanel opened her first fashion boutique, hosts horse races, polo matches, and “Deauville American Film Festival“.
Deauville beach (Photo: stock.adobe.com) – with its wide sandy beach, famous wooden boardwalk, beach huts, and colorful parasols. (Art Deco beach huts are adorned with the names of actors and directors who have attended the Deauville American Film Festival for years. There are also many beach-front shops and bars around. (normandie-tourisme.fr))
Royal Barriere Hotel in Deauville (opened in 1913) overlooking the beach – hosting many events and whose guest list includes many celebrities (left) / The grand Deauville Casino (opened in 1912) nearby the hotel with a majestic decor is located a short walk from the beach. (Photos: Getty Images / casino-keys.com)
The terrace of the restaurant “Le Deauville” (Photo: parismatch.com) / “Bar de La Mer” located on the boardwalk of Deauville – the seaside bar of Royal Barriere hotel ((Hôtel Barrière Le Normandy) (Photo: luxe-en-france.com) (Note also “Ciro’s Deauville“, the famous historic fish and seafood restaurant of the hotel.) (Deauville has been a popular holiday and cultural spot of Normandy, France especially after Deauville American Film Festival, held every year since 1975.)
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée on the beach in Deauville – a scene from the film “A Man and a Woman“, 1966 (Photo: actu.fr) (In the film, we see Deauville in winter, which season looks so beautiful in Normandy in the soft peaceful winter scenes…)
Director Lelouch tells about the making of the film in one of his interviews that I have read. He says he had parked his car on the Deauville beach early in the morning where his gaze was drawn to a woman walking on the sand at low tide with a little girl playing next to her. Lelouch further tells as follows:
“I wanted to get closer, to see her face. I began to imagine her story. What was she doing alone, so early? I went to sit in the café opposite the station. In two hours, I had written the outline of A Man and a Woman.“ (Gala Magazine, No:1664, April 30, 2025 (translated from French))
Director Claude Lelouch, at 72nd Cannes Film Festival for the film “The Best Years of a Life“, a sequel to “A Man and a Woman“, May 2019 (Photo: AFP via lamontagne.fr) / Claude Lelouch in Deauville (Photo: Normandy Tourism (normandie-tourisme.fr))
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée in the film “A Man and a Woman” (left), and on the set of “A Man and a Woman, 20 Years Later“, a sequel, in 1986 (right) (Photos: chestnuthilllocal.com (left) / Jean Pierre Fizet / Getty Images via vanityfair.fr (right))
Lelouch also directed two sequels to “A Man and a Woman“: “A Man And A Woman: 20 Years Later” (Un homme et une femme: Vingt ans déjà), released in 1986, followed by “The Best Years of a Life“(Les plus belles années d’une vie) released in 2019 – both films also starring Aimée and Trintignant. Trintignant died in 2022, aged 91; Aimée died last year in June, aged 92.
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Anouk Aimée and Claude Lelouch on the set of “A Man and a Woman, 20 Years Later” in Deauville, in 1986. / The crew of the film “The Best Years of a Life” in front of Hotel Normandy (Hôtel Barrière Le Normandy) in Deauville, in 2018 (Photos: Jean Pierre Fizet/Getty Images via vanityfair.fr (left) / LP/Catherine Balle via leparisien.fr)
Claude Lelouch, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Anouk Aimée, in 1966 / Anouk Aimée and Claude Lelouch (next to Monica Bellucci) on the red carpet for the film “The Best Years of a Life” at the Cannes Film Festival, May 2019. (Photos Keystone-France/Getty Images (left) / Andreas Rentz/Getty Images, both via vanityfair.fr)
Anouk Aimée and Alain Delon, in 2007 / Claude Lelouch and Anouk Aimée at the Deauville Film Festival in 2004
(I have read in an article in Paris Match that Lelouch and Aimée were friends since the filming of A Man and a Woman, and that Aimée considered Lelouch as a member of her family.) (Photos: Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images (left) / Toni Anne Barson Archive/Wireimage/Getty Images (right), both via vanity fair.fr)
In the interview in Gala magazine, Lelouch says that he is happy that this work (A Man and a Woman) resisted thus to the time passing by… After almost sixty years of its release, two images from his film “A Man and a Woman“, have been chosen as the official posters of 2025 Cannes Film Festival…
The Festival said:
“During times that seem to want to separate, compartmentalize or subjugate, the Festival de Cannes wants to (re)unite; to bring bodies, hearts and souls closer together;…” (festival-cannes.com)
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée during the filming of “The Best Years of a Life“, the 2nd sequel and the epilogue to “A Man and a Woman“, in Deauville in 2019 – (Photos: DR via lamontagne.fr)
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée – immortalized with the film A Man and a Woman
I had come across the film ‘A Man and a Woman’ several times yet I did not know it had sequels until I decided to write this post. I have decided to write the post when I have read that the film had been chosen as the official poster of the recent Cannes Film Festival just days after I returned from Cannes!
Brad Pitt and Penelope Cruz reenact Lelouch’s “A Man and a Woman” for the Chanel campaign in April 2024 – How sweet… (Photos: hola.com)
With my spouse in Cannes, a popular resort town of Côte d’Azur, France, May 2025. (In the background is Hotel Carlton) / “Carlton Cannes” – a historic ‘regent’ hotel in Cannes where once Alfred Hitchcock, Burt Lancaster, Grace Kelly and Prince Rainer, Gary Cooper, Barack Obama, and many more celebrities stayed… (Photo: carltoncannes.com)
A pleasant tea time in Carlton Hotel, Cannes – accompanied by an excellent service in a peaceful exclusive atmosphere. (Photos taken by my mobile phone)
(An article I have read in Paris Match about Carlton Hotel, Cannes says: “At each Cannes Festival, the jury members set down their suitcases there.“)
Carla Bruni at the Chopard event (Trophée Chopard ceremony), May 16, 2025 / Claude Lelouch and his wife at the Paris Match evening, May 14, 2025 – both held at the beach of Carlton hotel, Cannes (Photos: Justine Meddah via nicematin.com (left) / parismatch.com (right))
(I have read that the French director Florian Zeller attended the Paris Match evening at Carlton beach to announce his next film “Bunker” starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem – a thriller.)
Florian Zeller in Cannes Festival 2025 / Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem at the 94th Annual Academy Awards, March 2022 (Photos: Getty Images)
Cannes Festival 2025 stage with the poster of Claude Lelouch’s film “A Man and a Woman” (Photo: festival-cannes.com). The festival said:
“A Man. A Woman. A deserted beach… A 3-month-old idea. A 3-week shoot, A 20-second scene. Eternity lasts but a moment in the end.” (festival-cannes.com)
In the interviews with actors of the film I watched in the DVD of A Man and a Woman, Jean-Louis Trintignant says ‘you may shoot a scene many many times in a film, but it is never the same‘, which scenes in the film look so natural and spontaneous…
Deauville and its beach, 1966 (Photos (above and below left) I took from the DVD of the film by my mobile phone) / Photo below right: Aimée and Trintignant in ‘Un Homme et une femme’ (mairie-deauville.fr)
I would like to finish this post with a video of the film, which Anouk Aimée says a wonderful love story – told with Francis Lai’s song “Chabadabada…”:
Un Homme et une Femme – Main Theme – Francis Lai (Click the link for the video (youtube.com))
