Alain Resnais

  • Alain Resnais – Van Gogh (1948)

    1941-1950Alain ResnaisDocumentaryFranceShort Film

    SYNOPSIS from amg
    Running a mere two reels, Van Gogh was fledgling filmmaker Alain Resnais’ first effort in his documentary series about famous artists. Produced by Pierre Braunberger, who would underwrite most of Resnais’ classics of the 1950s and 1960s, the film won several international awards. Concentrating on Van Gogh’s paintings, Resnais charts the artist’s self-destructive streak and descent into madness — and at the same time celebrates his brilliance and “lust for life.” The narration was written by G. Diehl and R. Hessens. The music, which many reviewers felt was the film’s strongest asset, was by Jacques Besse.Read More »

  • Alain Resnais – Les herbes folles AKA Wild Grass (2009)

    2001-2010Alain ResnaisArthouseComedyFrance

    Marguerite is a successful dentist with a busy practice and an offbeat hobby, flying small airplanes. One day, Marguerite loses her wallet, and it’s found by Georges, a seemingly happy man with a wife, Suzanne, and two children. As Georges looks through the wallet and examines the photos of Marguerite, he finds he’s fascinated with her and her life, and soon his curiosity about her becomes an obsession.Read More »

  • Alain Resnais – Mon oncle d’Amérique AKA My American Uncle (1980)

    1971-1980Alain ResnaisArthouseDramaFrance

    Mon oncle d’Amérique (“My American Uncle”) is a 1980 French film directed by Alain Resnais. The film stars Gérard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia, and Roger Pierre.

    The didactic film is built around the ideas of French physician, writer and philosopher Henri Laborit, who plays himself in the film. It uses the stories of three people to illustrate Laborit’s theories on evolutionary psychology regarding the relationship of self and society.Read More »

  • Alain Resnais – Providence (1977)

    1971-1980Alain ResnaisArthouseDramaFrance

    The film describes the process of literary creation. Part of the story unfolds in the imagination of Clive Langham, a famous writer who has learnt that he has only a few months of life left and, on the eve of his seventieth birthday, is working on his last novel: a story in which he speaks of himself, his memories and his family. The links and divergences between art and life are underlined. Believing he is describing others, he describes himself, revealing hidden aspects of his personality.Read More »

  • Alain Resnais – Smoking/No Smoking (1993)

    1991-2000Alain ResnaisArthouseDramaFrance

    The consequences of a housewife smoking or not smoking a single cigarette branch out into a dozen separate destinies and parallel universes, each with its own conclusion, in these two French features by Alain Resnais. Adapted and translated from six of the eight comic plays comprising British playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s Intimate Exchanges, they can be seen alone or together, and in either order. The project, a tour de force for two actors playing multiple roles (Pierre Arditi and Sabine Azema), succeeded at the box office when released in France in 1993, and as a unit the two films swept the Cesars (French Oscars) for best picture, director, actor, and set design.Read More »

  • Alain Resnais – Toute la Memoire du Monde aka All the Memory of the World (1956)

    1951-1960Alain ResnaisArchitectureDocumentaryFranceShort Film

    With Toute la mémoire du monde, Resnais is setting the basis of his cinematographic project about places of memory. Within 20 minutes, Resnais is surgically, methodically analyzing the national library of France. With an hyperactive camera, he’s sneaking, he’s smelling, he’s feeling this huge building.Read More »

  • Alain Resnais – Aimer, boire et chanter AKA Life of Riley (2014)

    2011-2020Alain ResnaisArthouseComedyFrance

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    Quote:
    In the midst of rehearsals for a new play, amateur dramatics proponents Colin and Kathryn receive the shattering news that their friend George is fatally ill and only has a few months to live. Life begins to come apart at the seams – not just for Kathryn, who was once George’s partner, but also for her friends Tamara and Monica. The full force of the emotional turmoil they experienced in their youth and their long-buried dreams are rekindled. Much to the chagrin of their respectable, middle-class husbands, the women begin to argue about which of them should be allowed to accompany George on a final journey …
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  • Alain Resnais – L’amour à mort AKA Love Unto Death (1984)

    1981-1990Alain ResnaisDramaFrance

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:

    L’Amour à Mort (Love Unto Death) is one of the more difficult Resnais films of the 80s. Featuring a core of actors from La Vie Est un Roman who would also go on to make Mélo (and are still working with Resnais on his most recent films), the film has a chamber mood, an enclosed and tightly constructed meditation on two complex subjects – love and death.

    Elisabeth (Sabine Azéma) and Simon (Pierre Arditi) have been together as a couple for only a few months when Simon dies. To everyone’s surprise he revives after a few minutes and appears to be quite healthy again. The couple’s relationship appears to become more intense, but Simon is unable to come to terms with his near-death experience, feeling an irresistible desire to withdraw from life. Their friends, a married couple of Protestant pastors, Judith (Fanny Ardant) and Jérôme (André Dussollier) try to rationalise how Simon and Elisabeth must feel, offering guidance and consolation through theological and philosophical discussions, but the couple are beyond the reach of human understanding or explanation, and the pervasive and persuasive music of ‘the other’, of a love beyond death, exerts an irresistible attraction.Read More »

  • Alain Resnais – Coeurs AKA Private Fears In Public Places (2006)

    2001-2010Alain ResnaisDramaFrance

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Private Fears in Public Places, (French: Cœurs (“Hearts”), is a 2006 French film directed by Alain Resnais. It was adapted from Alan Ayckbourn’s play Private Fears in Public Places. The film won several awards, including a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

    Synopsis:
    In Paris, six people all look for love, despite typically having their romantic aspirations dashed at every turn.

    For the second time in his career Alain Resnais turned to an Alan Ayckbourn play for his source material (having previously adapted another play for Smoking/No Smoking), and remained close to the original structure while transferring the setting and milieu from provincial England to the 13th arrondissement of Paris (contrary to his usual preference).Read More »

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