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I've been watching a lot of French New Wave films. Rather than go into a detailed description of the styles and techniques of these films, I would like to just comment on the storylines.
Almost all the films I watched dealt with adultery. And at some point, someone gets shot or commits suicide.
I felt a certain repulsion watching these films, despite some of their exquisite imagery (and certainly intelligent directors). But, one film stood out. Louis Malle’s "Les Amants" with Jeanne Moreau almost vindicates this ugly theme.
Jeanne has a strict and inattentive husband, with whom she lives in the country. She has a city lover who is also a polo player. Then, after a clandestine meeting with a man who gives her a ride after her car breaks down, this man becomes the one for whom she leaves her wealthy husband and chic lover.
Malle’s beautiful scenes of these two together (under the same roof as Moreau's husband, no less), almost redeem the sordid theme. Fortunately, no-one gets shot (or commits suicide) in this particular New Wave adultery film.
Whenever I see films of adultery, I try to compare them to King David's lapse of judgement, and where, in fact, a murder does take place.
I think first that David truly repented of his sins. Also, that the Bible believes in love. Or love at first sight, as seems to be the case with David. The infatuation that David had for Bathsheba is not necessarily condoned – too many things happened to David as a consequence of this action. But David’s sincere emotions are surely part of human nature, and perhaps that is why this Biblical story is accepting, allowing David to marry the woman he commits adultery with, and whose husband he has murdered.
