Happy Birthday, Alain Resnais! Born today in 1922, this French cinematographer, film editor, screenwriter and film director's career had extended over more than six decades.
After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films.
The most notable of these was in editing, directing and narrating the thirty-two-minute 1955 French black and white/color film war/documentary short film 'Nuit et brouillard' ('Night and Fog').
The most notable of these was in editing, directing and narrating the thirty-two-minute 1955 French black and white/color film war/documentary short film 'Nuit et brouillard' ('Night and Fog').
The film had been made one decade after the liberation of German concentration camps. The title is taken from the Nacht und Nebel (German for "Night and Fog") program of abductions and disappearances decreed by Nazi Germany.
Nacht und Nebel was a directive issued by Adolf Hitler on December 7, 1941 targeting political activists and resistance "helpers" in World War II to be disappeared, imprisoned, or killed.
This was while the family and the population remained uncertain as to the fate or whereabouts of the Nazi state's alleged offender. Victims who disappeared in these clandestine actions were never heard from again.
This was while the family and the population remained uncertain as to the fate or whereabouts of the Nazi state's alleged offender. Victims who disappeared in these clandestine actions were never heard from again.
Juxtaposing the stillness of the abandoned camps’ empty buildings with haunting wartime footage, Resnais investigates humanity’s capacity for violence, and presents the devastating suggestion that such horrors could occur again.
'Night and Fog' was made in collaboration with French poet, publisher, member of the Académie Goncourt born in Bordeaux and scriptwriter Jean Cayrol. He had been a survivor of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.
Among his feature-length films, Resnais is best known for directing the 1959 French/Japanese black and white romance/drama film 'Hiroshima, Mon Amour' ('Hiroshima, My Love').
The film focuses its attention towards the deep conversation between Japanese architect Lui (Eiji Okada) and French actress Elle (Emmanuelle Riva). This is what forms the basis of this celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave.
Set in Hiroshima after the end of World War II, the couple -- lovers turned friends -- recount, over many hours, previous romances and life experiences. The two intertwine their stories about the past with pondering the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city.
Two years later, 'Hiroshima, Mon Amour' won the UN Award at the 14th British Academy Film Awards.
The film was also nominated an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen. This occurred at the 33rd Academy Awards in April 1961.
'Hiroshima' had been written by French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker Marguerite Duras ('India Song'). However, she did not win.
Two months later, another film by Resnais was released of which he is best known for directing. This was the 1961 French-Italian Left Bank black and white drama/mystery film 'L'année dernière à Marienbad' ('Last Year at Marienbad').
The film had also been released in the United States as 'Last Year at Marienbad' and in the United Kingdom as 'Last Year in Marienbad'.
In this unconventional French drama, a group of unnamed aristocrats interact at a palatial château, resulting in an enigmatic tale told partially in flashback.
X ‑ The man with the Italian accent (Giorgio Albertazzi) is convinced that he has met the beautiful A ‑ The brunette woman (Delphine Seyrig) before in the Czech resort town of Marienbad, and implies they had a romantic relationship.
M ‑ The other man with the thin face (Sacha Pitoeff), who may be A's husband or boyfriend, confronts her mysterious suitor, leading to conflict and questions about the truth behind his story.
Resnais is also known for directing the 1963 French Eastmancolor drama film 'Muriel' (also known as 'Muriel, or the Time of Return').
This film, including the previous two, are all of which adapted unconventional narrative techniques to deal with themes of troubled memory and the imagined past.
This film, including the previous two, are all of which adapted unconventional narrative techniques to deal with themes of troubled memory and the imagined past.
These three films were contemporary with, and associated with, the French New Wave, though Resnais did not regard himself as being fully part of that movement.
He instead had closer links to the "Left Bank" group of authors and filmmakers who shared a commitment to modernism and an interest in left-wing politics.
Resnais also established a regular practice of working on his films in collaboration with writers previously unconnected with the cinema.
This included Duras, Cayrol, French writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet, Spanish writer and politician Jorge Semprún Maura and French-language writer of science fiction and fantastique Jacques Sternberg.
In later films, Resnais moved away from the overtly political topics of some previous works and developed his interests in an interaction between cinema and other cultural forms, including theatre, music, and comic books.
This eventually led to imaginative adaptations of plays by prolific British playwright and director Alan Ayckbourn, French playwright Henri Bernstein and French dramatist Jean Anouilh, as well as films featuring various kinds of popular song.
On March 1, 2014, Resnais passed in Paris, France. He was 91. French film producer Jean-Louis Livi confirmed that Mr. Resnais had died but did not provide the cause of death.
On March 1, 2014, Resnais passed in Paris, France. He was 91. French film producer Jean-Louis Livi confirmed that Mr. Resnais had died but did not provide the cause of death.
Renais' films frequently explore the relationship between consciousness, memory, and the imagination, and he was noted for devising innovative formal structures for his narratives. Throughout his career, he won many awards from international film festivals and academies.
Arguably the single most important director to emerge from the French New Wave, Resnais fed his early imagination a varied diet of popular films, pulp fiction, Proust, Katherine Mansfield and comic books, retaining throughout his career the ability to bridge the gap between high and low culture in his films.
Resnais had been active from 1946–2014.
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