I watched L’Amant in college, but the image of Jane March, (unnamed and known only as “The Young Girl” in the film) willowy and innocent looking in a man’s hat, her hair in two braids, a shapeless sheath dress two sizes too big for her, only given shape with a boy’s belt, and scruffy bejeweled and sequined satin low-heeled shoes (she called them cabaret shoes)—is still in my head five years later.

Bejewelled cabaret shoes

ferry railing

Jane March (scene on the ferry on the Mekong River)

Restaurant scene

I didn’t realize I’ve been thinking about her look all this time. But slowly, I was acquiring objects to simulate her. On different shopping excursions, I saw sequined and beaded silk low-heeled mary janes (I postponed buying them, and when I returned for them, they had already been sold. Today I’m still thinking about those shoes and wondering which girl owns them now…), later I bought a fedora from a men’s clothing store, and at a flea market, a shapeless sheath dress. I really like the way she looks in L’Amant.

Throughout most of the film, she wore this outfit...in my mind it had become a “look” just as Ursula Andress had an iconic look. It was the image of a pubescent girl in a shapeless dress, with only the hint of curves underneath when she would arch her back during the boat scene, her restrained womanhood and femininity, her direct stare, and the way she insouciantly draped herself on boat railings and terraces, which are so compelling.