Alain Resnais

[TechnicolorAcid]

I updated to include that and the Early Short Films of the French New Wave Blus

Thanks! Also I’m curious as to why Van Gogh is listed twice under two separate years, did he make two Van Gogh movies or was that just an error?

[domino harvey]

I carried this over from the original list but Wikipedia says there were two versions shot on different stock. I always kinda skipped over the shorts sections in the Resnais books

[spectre]

I have fully updated and refreshed the first post, which had not been revised for almost twenty years. If I missed any board discussions or threads or releases for the shorts etc, please let me know

I’ve included info about all the Resnais books I’m aware of in English as well - quite surprising that, discounting the Interviews book, it appears no English-friendly work on Resnais covers his films past 2003 (and only one even does that, with the rest stopping at Providence or earlier). Potential opportunity here for some ambitious academic, perhaps

Awesome work, Domino. In case it helps, here's the full list of Australian R4 Resnais DVDs, as far as I'm aware (all OOP with the exception of Wild Grass, which is still listed for sale on the Sony website and EzyDVD):

Night and Fog: R4 Umbrella (2008)
Hiroshima Mon Amour: R4 Umbrella (2008)
Last Year at Marienbad: R4 Universal/StudioCanal (2010) / R4 Umbrella (2018)
Stavisky: R4 Universal/StudioCanal (2008)
My American Uncle: R4 Umbrella (2008)
Coeurs: R4 Madman (2008)
Wild Grass: R4 Sony (2010)

[Peacock]

Thank you Domino, these are some of the most helpful posts, may it be useful for the next 20 years!

La Guerre est Finie was also released by Gaumont on English friendly BD. Not sure how it compares to the US release as I only have the French one.

[Stefan]

What is most needed regarding Resnais today are VIEWABLE versions of his "funny" (with or without inverted commas) films. Killer stuff. If you haven't seen "On Connait la Chanson" or "Coeurs" you have no idea of what he was capable of (aside from the "serious films").

[GaryC]

Just to add, there was a R0 DVD of Muriel from Eureka/Masters of Cinema, released 2009 and now OOP.

[domino harvey]

Thanks everyone, I’ve updated the first post. Can’t believe I forgot the MoC of Muriel. In case anyone is trying to decipher what gets included, generally if an English friendly Blu exists, I won’t list DVDs for that title, the exception being if there is an existing thread here for it with discussion that may be valuable. If DVD is as good as it gets, I’ll list all the English friendly releases I’m aware of. There are some that are better options than others, though-- for instance, the Artificial Eye DVD of Coeurs has over an hour and a half of bonus interviews and features, while the IFC DVD is barebones (not sure about the Madman edition, maybe spectre can weigh in?)

[Maltic]

The most recent episode of the very good podcast Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever by Ayesha Khan is about Je t'aime, je t'aime.

[spectre]

There are some that are better options than others, though-- for instance, the Artificial Eye DVD of Coeurs has over an hour and a half of bonus interviews and features, while the IFC DVD is barebones (not sure about the Madman edition, maybe spectre can weigh in?)

Can do (I have the Madman DVD on my shelf)! Besides an original theatrical trailer, there are two special features: one seems to be a 28-minute extended cut of the imaginary French TV show “The Songs That Changed My Life” that appears in the film, and the other (simply labelled “Behind the scenes” on the disc) is an 18-minute audio interview with Resnais about the film accompanied by behind-the-scenes production stills.

[domino harvey]

Thanks! Looks like the Resnais interview/behind the scenes may only be on the Australian edition. According to DVDCompare the Artificial Eye also has the Songs That Changed My Life episode plus

Interview with Lambert Wilson (21:29)
Interview with Sabine Azema (19:46)
Interview with Alan Ayckbourn (24:41)

My copy is on its way to me so I’ll be able to confirm when it arrives

[domino harvey]

Revisited Pas sur la bouche and it’s as awful as I recalled. There’s something deeply smug about a project like this, where fidelity to the source (here a 1925 comic operetta allegedly presented in full as it was first performed) somehow excuses the end result. If you pick a bad text to adapt faithfully, all you’ve done is bring something best kept forgotten into focus. A project like this that not only calls for hamminess but necessitates it is brutal when Resnais regulars like Sabine Azema are on board, but if I could single out just one cast member for special derision, it’s Lambert Wilson’s deeeeeeeply annoying perf as an American singing French in a fake, loud, tycoon-type Yank accent for the whole movie. Absolutely brutal, even if he gets the only good song in the entire project (the titular one). On the other end though, the only perf here that works is the shock appearance in the third act of Darry Cowl (in drag!), not just because who knew he was still around 40+ years after his heyday, but because Cowl’s patented soft spoken, shuffling timidity is of course at direct odds with everyone and everything else in this film. I was very glad to see him, and would have been even happier if he’d had anything funny to do.

+++

I finished my reread of Monaco’s Resnais book and it’s a mixed bag. Monaco is a fantastic and literate critic and it’s a genuine joy to read his prose in this book. However, he does not like Hiroshima mon amour or Marienbad and while this unpopular opinion would be hard to swallow from any critic of this period, it is perhaps insurmountable to have it come from the man who’s devoting an entire book to Resnais. There’s also a dismissive streak running throughout the book insisting that the more difficult Resnais films are in fact super easy to understand and simply at that. This is yet another contrarianism too many. What’s amusing is, after finishing the book, I realized that it’s quite likely that Monaco enjoys a few Resnais films but only really cares about Muriel and Je t’aime je t’aime and still wrote a book about everything else (including a fascinating, if ineligible, chapter on Resnais’ unrealized projects, which treats two scripts in particular to analyses as though they were produced). Was not surprised to see that his book released just a few years after this highlighting 39 (mistakenly labeled as 36 on the back cover) masterpieces of film has no Resnais in the tally. If I’m going to read a book devoted to a director, I think it’s not asking much for that author to at least consider one of said director’s films worthy of a top 39 placement (esp considering stuff like Un homme et une femme places)!

Hopefully some of the other Resnais books I have on hand provide me with a better balance of insights and appreciation