Martin et Léa shows the course of a moral decay and then liberation as the result of the birth of a child. The film has been compared by more than one critic with Bresson’s Les dames du bois de Boulogne. And indeed, the love between Martin and the brothel-keeper Léa is shaped by money. Money that sows destruction, corrupts and kills, even when Lea eventually exchanges her golden life for a life with Martin. But what strange route did they have to travel to eventually reach that goal?The film resembles a moral tale, yet it is about something physical: the gesture, the voice, the sensual, the sexual and pregnancy. And there is more than the love story of Martin and Léa. There is another world – Vietnam – that gives the story another dimension. (RP)
