It’s a new month, which means it’s time to celebrate a new director in Rialto Channel’s Director’s Series. Every Sunday throughout October you’ll be able to study the work of French director Alain Resnais, who began his illustrious career in the 1940s, and turned 90 this year.
It’s a new month, which means it’s time to celebrate a new director in Rialto Channel’s Director’s Showcase. Every Sunday throughout October you’ll be able to study the work of French director Alain Resnais, who began his illustrious career in the 1940s, and turned 90 this year.
Resnais began making 8mm films at home in Brittany at the age of 14, and once he finished school moved to Paris during the German Occupation to train as an actor. He quickly moved on to attend the Institue de Hautes Etudes Cinematograhie, but left this course as he looked for practical experience.
In the early 40s Resnais began making 16mm short films, many of which profiled prominent artists of the day. In 1948 he released a documentary called Van Gogh, which was so successful it was re-made on 35mm film. The film used Van Gogh’s own images, accompanied by a soundtrack and narration. It wasn’t just a profile of the artist’s life and work; it also gave audiences an idea of how Van Gogh saw the world.
The film went on to win at the Venice Film Festival and Academy Awards. These art documentaries were the perfect practice ground for Resnais to experiment with the relationship between reality, imagination, memory and consciousness; themes he would explore throughout his career.
The Rialto Director’s Showcase brings you two of Resnais’ early feature films, Hiroshima, Mon Amour (Hiroshima, My Love), his 1959 debut feature, and L’Annee Derniere a Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad), from 1961.
Hiroshima, Mon Amour began as a collaboration between Resnais and author Marguerite Duras. It was supposed to be a documentary about the atomic bomb, but it turned into a fictional film; a love story set against the disaster of Hiroshima. A worldwide hit, Resnais became regarded as a leading member of the French New Wave, or “nouvelle vague”. The Cahiers du Cinema described Hiroshima, Mon Amour as the first truly “modern film.”
While Resnais was associated with the French New Wave group, he felt more at home with the “Left Bank” group of directors who also had a background in documentary making, an interest in left wing politics, and a desire to experiment artistically.
For his next film, L’Annee Derniere a Marienbad, Resnais collaborated with avant-garde novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet. Time, place and memory are explored in this visually surreal film, which broke all the rules of traditional narrative filmmaking. It showed the same situations played over and over from different perspectives, and critical reaction was mixed. However, L’Annee Derniere a Marienbad went on to win the Golden Lion at the 1961 Venice Film Festival.
The series also features two of Resnais later works, Stavisky, from 1974 and the Oscar nominee, Mon Oncle d’Amérique (My American Uncle), from 1981.
Stavisky stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as a conman and ex-convict who scams Paris’ wealthy and political elite in the 1930s by selling phony stock. Based on a true story it’s an accessible and elegant film and, thanks to the recent global financial crisis, also remarkably relevant.
Mon Oncle d’Amérique was based on the work of the non-fictional works of French biologist Henri Laborit, who appears in the film as himself. It examines what it means to be human, and the motivations behind human behaviour, through the lives of three fictional characters - René (Gérard Depardieu), the manager of a textile factory, Jeanine (Nicole Garcia) a theatre actress, and Jean (Roger Pierre), an up-and-coming politician.
Mon Oncle d’Amérique is regarded as the last truly experimental work of Resnais, and wraps up this October’s Director’s Showcase.
Don't miss the opportunity to view some of the most iconic cinematic images of the 20th Century. Catch the work of Alain Resnais, every Sunday evening throughout October at 8.30pm.