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Alain Resnais (1922-2014)

FILMOGRAPHY

FEATURES

Hiroshima mon amour (1959) RA Criterion

L’année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad) (1961) RA + 4K Kino / RA Criterion (OOP)

Muriel ou le temps d'un retour (1963) RA Criterion / R1 Koch Lorber (OOP) / R0 Masters of Cinema (OOP)

La guerre est finie (the War Is Over) (1966) RA the Film Desk / RB Gaumont (France)

Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968) RB Radiance / RA Kino (OOP)

Stavisky… (1974) RAB Indicator

Providence (1977) Manga Films (R2 ES)

Mon oncle d'Amerique (My American Uncle) (1980) R1 New Yorker (OOP) / R2 Arrow (OOP) / R4 Umbrella (OOP)

La vie est un roman (Life Is a Bed of Roses) (1983) RA Cohen (OOP) / R1 KimStim/Kino (OOP)

L'amour a mort (Love Unto Death) (1984) RA Cohen (OOP) / R1 KimStim/Kino (OOP)

Melo (1986) RA Arrow (OOP) / R1 KimStim/Kino (OOP)

I Want to Go Home (1989) R1 KimStim/Kino (OOP)

Smoking / No Smoking (1993)

On connait la chanson (Same Old Song) (1997) R1 New Yorker (OOP) / R2 UK (OOP)

Pas sur la bouche (Not on the Lips) (2003) R1 Wellspring (OOP)

Coeurs (Private Fears in Public Places) (2006) R1 IFC (OOP) / R2 Artificial Eye (OOP) / R4 Madman (OOP)

Les Herbes folles (Wild Grass) (2009) R1 Sony / R4 Sony

Vous n'avez encore rien vu (You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet) (2012) R2 StudioCanal

Aimer, boire et chanter (Life of Riley) (2014) RA Kino / RB Masters of Cinema (OOP)


SHORTS & EPHEMERA

L'aventure de Guy (1936)

Schema d'une identification (1946)

Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire (Open for Inventory Causes) (short, 1946)

Visite a Oscar Dominguez (1947)

Visite a Lucien Coutard (1947)

Visite a Hans Hartung (1947)

Visite a Felix Labisse (1947)

Visite à César Doméla (1947)

Portrait d'Henri Goetz (1947)

Le lait Nestle (1947)

Journee naturelle (1947)

La bague (1947)

L'alcool tue (1947)

Van Gogh (1948) RA Icarus (on Alain Resnais: Five Short Films)

Malfray (1948)

Les jardins de Paris (1948)

Châteaux de France (Versailles) (1948)

Guernica (1950) RA Milestone (as an extra on the Mystery of Picasso) / RA Icarus (on Alain Resnais: Five Short Films)

Gauguin (1950) RA Icarus (on Alain Resnais: Five Short Films)

Les statues meurent aussi (Statues Also Die) (1953)

Nuit et brouillard (Night and Fog) (1955) RA Criterion

Toute la memoire du monde (1956) RA + 4K Kino / RA Criterion (OOP) (as extra on Marienbad) / RA Icarus (on Alain Resnais: Five Short Films) / RA Icarus (on Early Short Films of the French New Wave)

Le Mystère de l'atelier quinze (1957)

Le Chant du Styrene (1958) RA Criterion (OOP) (as extra on Marienbad) / RA Icarus (on Alain Resnais: Five Short Films) / RA Icarus (on Early Short Films of the French New Wave)

Loin du Vietnam (Far from Vietnam) (Segment “Claude Ridder” 1967) R1 Zeitgeist

L'An 01 (The Year 01) (NYC segments only, co-directed with Jacques Doillon, 1973)

Contre l'oubli (segment “Pour Esteban Gonzalez Gonzalez Cuba”, 1991)

Gershwin (1992)


BOOKS ON RESNAIS

Alain Resnais John Francis Kreidl, 1977 (All films through Providence)

Alain Resnais James Monaco, 1978 (All films through Providence)

Alain Resnais, or the Theme of Time John Ward, 1968 (All films through La Guerre est finie, with some content on Je t’aime je t’aime)

Alain Resnais: Interviews ed. Lynn A Higgins, 2021 (Covers entire career through Life of Riley)

Antonioni, Bergman, Resnais Peter Cowie, 1963 (Films covered unknown)

Art in the Cinema eds. Steven Jacobs, Birgit Cleppe, Dimitrios Latsis, 2023 (Chapter on Van Gogh)

Arts of Impoverishment: Beckett, Rothko, Resnais Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit, 1993 (Films covered unknown)

BFI Film Classics: Last Year at Marienbad Jean-Louis Leutrat, 2001

Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear: Some Key Film-Makers of the Sixties John Russell Taylor, 1964 (Covers films through Muriel)

the Cinema of Alain Resnais Roy Armes, 1968 (All films through La Guerre est finie, with some content on Je t’aime je t’aime)

Concentrationary Cinema: Aesthetics As Political Resistance in Alain Resnais's Night and Fog eds. Griselda Pollock and Max Silverman, 2012

the Ethnographic Optic: Jean Rouch, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, and the Turn Inward in 1960s French Cinema Laure Astourian, 2024 (Chapter on Muriel)

French Film Directors: Alain Resnais Emma Wilson, 2006 (All films through Pas sur la bouche)

A History of the French New Wave Cinema *Second edition only* Richard Neupert, 2007 (Films covered unknown)

Haunting the Left Bank: Mortality and Intersubjectivity in Varda, Resnais and Marker Kieran Horner, 2022 (Films covered unknown)

Modern European Cinema and Love Richard Rushton, 2025 (Films covered unknown)

Where Film Meets Philosophy: Godard, Resnais, and Experiments in Cinematic Thinking Hunter Vaughn, 2013 (Films covered unknown)


BOARD DISCUSSION

Alain Resnais on DVD


ONLINE RESOURCES

The Boston Phoenix Mixed doubles: The films of Alain Resnais at the HFA BY CHRIS FUJIWARA

Rouge 1, 2003 “Marcel in Marienbad” article by Mark Rappaport


Original post by Scharphedin2, 2026 refresh by domino harvey

Any thoughts on Providence?

Review from The Cinematic:

It is the manifestation of a novelist’s last work, who has been accused of being all style and no feeling, rendered visually by a filmmaker who has been accused of the same. A last work informed by dementia and physical pain and impending death, overwhelming guilt, and the distortion of a life’s memories, loves, and unresolved filaments. The theatricality and demented, doom-filled atmosphere are of a piece with the mind creating them, straining out a fictionalized version of his family’s lives while hovering over toilet seats, crashing to the floor in agony, and colliding with images of mortality. In his mind, the images of his two sons, his wife, and his daughter-in-law shift and reform malevolently. Every bodily need and emotional impulse is confused one for the other. And in the end — oh, the resolution — this film is impossibly perfect.

So, it pretty much sounds amazing. I've heard the score by Miklos Rozsa (released by Italian CD label CAM), which is absolutely gorgeous.

Dylan wrote:Any thoughts on Providence?

Review from The Cinematic:

It is the manifestation of a novelist’s last work, who has been accused of being all style and no feeling, rendered visually by a filmmaker who has been accused of the same. A last work informed by dementia and physical pain and impending death, overwhelming guilt, and the distortion of a life’s memories, loves, and unresolved filaments. The theatricality and demented, doom-filled atmosphere are of a piece with the mind creating them, straining out a fictionalized version of his family’s lives while hovering over toilet seats, crashing to the floor in agony, and colliding with images of mortality. In his mind, the images of his two sons, his wife, and his daughter-in-law shift and reform malevolently. Every bodily need and emotional impulse is confused one for the other. And in the end — oh, the resolution — this film is impossibly perfect.

So, it pretty much sounds amazing. I've heard the score by Miklos Rozsa (released by Italian CD label CAM), which is absolutely gorgeous.

It's okay for the most part, but I find the pomposity of it a little overbearing. And I guess Resnais couldn't have truly known how bad his actors sounded, but the tone is never quite right. Everything is too wry and self-satisfied, especially Gielgud's narration. Moments where the characters slip into vulgarities (about erections, underwear stains, and so forth) sound hollow and forced. But the ending really does make it all worthwhile.

Can't remember anything about the score, I'm afraid.

I just got an email telling me that Same Old Song is coming out on R1 DVD this Tuesday from what used to be New Yorker (?)

A good quality 1.66:1 pillarbox upload of Providence was uploaded last week: Part 1

The user is from Sweden and he got it from a torrent site. I wonder where it originated?

Here's something perfectly weird. The National Gallery in DC was going to show Hirsoshima Mon Amour this weekend, but they just sent out an e-mail that says, "Because of circumstances beyond the Gallery's control, Hiroshima mon amour has been withdrawn from all future public screenings."

Is that just poorly worded or is something nefarious going on here? I'll try to find out if nobody's heard anything.

They're showing Je t'aime, je t'aime instead, which is so rarely seen that I wouldn't complain.

Fiery Angel wrote:They're showing Je t'aime, je t'aime instead, which is so rarely seen that I wouldn't complain.

Oh, I'm not complaining about being able to see Je t'aime (which I've never seen). I'm just disturbed that it says Hiroshima has been withdrawn from "all future public screenings." That's a pretty definitive sentence, unless of course some dipshit just worded it poorly.

I stand by my work

"Because of circumstances beyond the Gallery's control, Hiroshima mon amour has been withdrawn from all future public screenings."

That's in reference to an ongoing, nasty rights dispute. I had drop the film at the last minute from my own program after having reserved it months in advance for the same reason. Fortunately, I was quickly able to get a new print of Muriel in as a replacement, but it is very troubling that a film as important as Hiroshima, Mon Amour is now out of circulation indefinitely. The same thing has happened with Renoir's great "Crime of Monsieur Lange."

My understanding is that this is related to a recent change in French law that makes it possible for the "estate" of anyone involved in a film to sue for any number of reasons (always in search of a monetary settlement or a portion of the rights, of course).

Thanks for the info. I was more than curious about that. My fear was that a French Beatrice Welles acquired the rights to the film, which sounds like essentially what happened.

ptmd wrote: The same thing has happened with Renoir's great "Crime of Monsieur Lange."

Oh dear, would that be the explanation for the non-appearance of that film in the CC despite it being more or less confirmed for a long time now?

Here's a brief response from the French Embassy's press attaché:

Apparently there's a conflict between the copyright-owners, and so we can't screen it until it's been cleared up. We're hoping the issue will be resolved, but until then we've included "Je t'aime Je t'aime" instead.

It doesn't add much, I know, but he doesn't make it sound too dire.

Oh dear, would that be the explanation for the non-appearance of that film in the CC despite it being more or less confirmed for a long time now?

I have no idea, since video rights are sometimes handled differently from public exhibition rights, but it's entirely possible. I can definitely assure you, though, that public screenings are blocked right now.

The Hiroshima Mon Amour dispute will, of course, be resolved at some point, but it's been going on for more than a year now and who knows how long it will drag out.

For any Chicago-area folks out there who may be unaware, the Gene Siskel Film Center kicks off a Resnais series this weekend. I've only seen Marienbad, so I'll be trying to get to as many as I can. Exciting.

Glenn Erickson's review of PROVIDENCE is now up at World Cinema Paradise.

Could anyone recommend a good book on Resnais? Preferably with a fair amount of biographical content and information on failed or abandoned projects. I'm especially curious about his aborted adaptation of Hergé's The Black Island.

Good Resnais site in French:

http://nezumi.dumousseau.free.fr/resnaisbio.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


For example, click on Stavisky for a useful timeline of the film.

Also, in-depth description of events in Hiroshima mon amour.

hearthesilence wrote:Nicely illustrated remembrance by Marvel comic creator Stan Lee, who became a close friend to Resnais and his collaborator on an ambitious science-fiction screenplay called The Monster Maker.

Thanks, that was great! Hard to imagine less likely collaborators.

Funniest bit is when Stan Lee describes his cartoon version of Resnais as "someone who doesn't make any money, whose movies don't get produced."

Resnais was always a big comic book fan. During the same period, he was also working on a project with Jim Steranko (I don't think this is the same as the Stan Lee project), and of course he later directed a (terrible) movie from a Jules Feiffer script. I have a vague recollection that there were more comics-related projects over the year, but they all fell through.

zedz wrote:Resnais was always a big comic book fan. During the same period, he was also working on a project with Jim Steranko (I don't think this is the same as the Stan Lee project), and of course he later directed a (terrible) movie from a Jules Feiffer script. I have a vague recollection that there were more comics-related projects over the year, but they all fell through.

Also La vie est un roman has designs by French comic book artist Enki Bilal.

He also worked with Lee Falk on a film version of Mandrake the Magician, which is prominently featured (among some other comics) in Toute la mémoire du monde. That foundered, according to Resnais, due to casting difficulties—Resnais couldn't think of anyone in the part other than Ronald Colman, who was unavailable on account of being dead. Shawn Levy's biography of Paul Newman claims Newman was later attached, but I think this may be conflating two separate Mandrake projects.

I was wondering:

How was Smoking/No Smoking handled during its theatrical release? Was it shown as one film? Is it considered as just a single film?

They were meant to be shown separately so that the viewer could choose which one to see first (or even just watch one part if they were so inclined for some reason). The Variety review claims that multiplexes in France had separate screens for each film so they could be shown simultaneously.