Lovers Like Us

Lovers Like Us (French: Le Sauvage, lit. 'The Savage'; also known in English as Call Me Savage) is a 1975 adventure romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau and starring Yves Montand and Catherine Deneuve, with Luigi Vannucchi, Tony Roberts, Dana Wynter, Bobo Lewis, Gabriel Cattand, Vernon Dobtcheff and Jean Guidoni in supporting roles. The film follows a reclusive middle-aged Frenchman whose peaceful life on a desert island is disturbed by a young Frenchwoman fleeing her hot-headed Italian fiancé.

The film was a commercial success with a total of 2,373,738 admissions in France, where it was the 12th highest-grossing film of 1975.

Nelly, a young Frenchwoman, becomes engaged to Vittorio, an overbearing and hot-tempered Italian man, in Caracas. Shortly afterwards, she has a change of heart and runs away in the middle of the night, checking into a hotel. Vittorio soon finds Nelly and breaks into her hotel room by entering the next room, which is occupied by a middle-aged Frenchman named Martin, and jumping over the balcony. During an altercation, Nelly knocks Vittorio unconscious just as Martin arrives at her room. As Vittorio regains consciousness, Nelly flees in his car.

Unable to afford a plane ticket to Paris, Nelly goes to the nightclub of Alex, her former employer, to collect the money he owes her, but he does not have it. Vittorio arrives at the nightclub and causes a commotion while Nelly steals a Toulouse-Lautrec painting from Alex and flees back to the hotel. She unsuccessfully tries to sell the painting to Martin. The next morning, he offers to drive her to the airport, where his friend can get her a ticket to Paris. En route, they are pursued by Vittorio and Alex, who arrive at the airport just as Nelly's plane takes off. Later, Vittorio learns from a nephew in Paris that Nelly was not on the plane.

Returning by boat to his life of solitude on a desert island in the Caribbean, Martin is surprised and dismayed to find Nelly, who did not board the plane after customs officials tried to confiscate the painting, so she sold her ticket to charter a seaplane to the island. Nelly asks Martin to take her to Santo Domingo to sell the painting to an acquaintance. When he tries to forcibly take her back to Caracas, she sabotages the boat, causing it to sink. Enraged, Martin hits Nelly.

As Martin salvages a tractor engine to build a new boat, he and Nelly continue to argue but end up sleeping together. Martin reveals to Nelly that he was a successful perfumer at a New York City fragrance company and that he had an American wife, but he left the company without informing anyone to start a new life. The next morning, Martin is building a raft to take Nelly to La Guaira, where she can board a plane to Santo Domingo. Nelly tells Martin that she wants to stay with him, but he rejects her. Heartbroken, Nelly retreats to a nearby shack.

In New York, Miss Mark, a middle-aged woman who has been following Martin and taking photographs of him, arrives at the fragrance company with the photographs. Martin's wife Jessie has convinced the board of directors to ensure Martin's income remotely by buying his fruit and vegetable production at exorbitant prices without his knowledge, while waiting for him to decide to return, as he is contractually obligated to continue working for the company for eight more years.

After completing the raft, Martin offers to cook dinner for Nelly the night before her departure. When Nelly fails to show up that night, Martin goes to confront her. She says he should have made a move on her earlier. As the two argue, they are captured by the henchmen of Vittorio and Alex, who arrive in search of Nelly and the Toulouse-Lautrec painting, respectively, after Vittorio tracked her down. Martin fights off the henchmen but is injured, while Vittorio takes Nelly away on a yacht. Martin's house is engulfed in flames after a henchman knocks over a stove.