Alain Resnais

Directing

Alain Resnais

Born — Died

1922-06-03 — 2014-03-01

Place of birth

Vannes, Morbihan, Bretagne, France

Known for

Directing

Credits

53 titles

Alain Resnais (3 June 1922 – 1 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career 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 which included Night and Fog (1955), an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps. Resnais began making feature films in the late 1950s and consolidated his early reputation with Hiroshima mon amour (1959), Last Year at Marienbad (1961), and Muriel (1963), all of which adopted unconventional narrative techniques to deal with themes of troubled memory and the imagined past. These films were contemporary with, and associated with, the French New Wa…

Known for

Cinépanorama poster
8.7

No synopsis available yet.

Cinépanorama

1956

Ciné regards poster
5.0

No synopsis available yet.

Ciné regards

1978

Hiroshima Mon Amour poster
7.7

The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress 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.

Hiroshima Mon Amour

1959

Last Year at Marienbad poster
7.4

At a weekend gathering, a man tells a woman that they had spent time there together a year prior. But, the woman has no recollection whatsoever and is convinced that he is simply fabricating the encounter. The more he speaks about their activities the previous year however, the more compelling he becomes. The question remains however – did they meet previously or not?

Last Year at Marienbad

1961

Night and Fog poster
8.3

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Night and Fog

1956

Muriel, or the Time of Return poster
6.9

In the seacoast town of Boulogne, antique furniture saleswoman Hélène lives with her stepson, Bernard, who's back from military duty in Algiers. An old lover of Hélène's comes to visit, Alphonse, with his niece Françoise; he too is back from Algiers, where he ran a café. Bernard speaks of his fiancée, Muriel, whom Hélène has not met. The past is obscured by guilt, misperceptions, and missed possibilities. Appearances deceive, things change. As Hélène and Alphonse try to sort out a renewal, everyone seems off-kilter just enough to hint that all cannot end well.

Muriel, or the Time of Return

1963

Film credits

2020s · 4 titles

Belmondo: The Incorrigible poster
7.8

Charismatic and resourceful, seducer and daredevil, Jean-Paul Belmondo has always played his roles as he lived, at a thousand miles an hour. He had only one passion: to entertain the public with his smile, his naturalness, his energy, his stunts. But contrary to appearances, his destiny was full of pitfalls. This film lifts the veil on a founding childhood that allowed him to overcome many obstacles throughout his life thanks to the tutelary figures of his father and mother. Told from the inside with the help of his autobiography, interviews and unpublished archives, this epic story traces the career of this turbulent young actor who launched the New Wave in Breathless before becoming the popular Bebel, an indestructible and provocative vigilante. From film to film, this documentary paints an intimate portrait of a man who built himself up to reach the top: his triumphs but also his trials, his doubts, his secrets, his angers, his clowning, his disappointments or his personal dramas.

Belmondo: The Incorrigible

2022

Morceaux de Cannes poster
2.0

We thought we'd seen, read, and heard everything there was to see about the Cannes Film Festival, from the glitz and gossip to the scandals and censorship. And yet, Emmanuel Barnault's "Morceaux de Cannes" (Pieces of Cannes), by this leading expert on Italian and French cinema, convinces us otherwise. The third largest event in the world (after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup) reveals its secrets only sparingly, as this film attests. The result of passionate research in the INA archives, these 52 minutes, without interviews or voice-over narration, string together rare and sometimes previously unseen footage. Taken together, they tell a surprising, original, and heartwarming story of the Festival. On the beach, on a street corner, in a restaurant, or in the privacy of a hotel room, these forgotten archives summon the greatest filmmakers, actors, and actresses of the last seventy years, from Jean Cocteau to David Lynch, for an anthology of the Festival's history.

Morceaux de Cannes

2021

Alain Resnais, the Audacious poster
8.2

A genius inventor of forms, Alain Resnais is one of the fathers of cinematic modernity. This portrait, rich in archives, looks back on the career of a discreet non-conformist, in perpetual search of renewal to fight against anxiety.

Alain Resnais, the Audacious

2022

Bacri, comme un air de famille poster
7.3

Jean-Pierre Bacri was never happy about anything. But beyond the caricature of the grumpy man, from his apprenticeship years to his death in January 2021, this film tells the story of this quintessential Frenchman: a man turned towards others, an actor by accident, a moralist by vocation, who was left unaffected by flattery and false honors by success, and ready for all kinds of anger when it was necessary to speak out against injustice and stupidity. The film tells the story of how Jean-Pierre Bacri's life changed several times: from Algeria to France when he was eleven years old in 1962; from bank clerk to apprentice theater actor; from Pieds-noirs film star to screenwriter for Alain Resnais; and from Cannes playboy to Agnès Jaoui's mad lover, the most decisive encounter for his life as well as for his work

Bacri, comme un air de famille

2022

Series credits

Behind the camera

Hiroshima Mon Amour poster
7.7

The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress 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.

Hiroshima Mon Amour

1959

Last Year at Marienbad poster
7.4

At a weekend gathering, a man tells a woman that they had spent time there together a year prior. But, the woman has no recollection whatsoever and is convinced that he is simply fabricating the encounter. The more he speaks about their activities the previous year however, the more compelling he becomes. The question remains however – did they meet previously or not?

Last Year at Marienbad

1961

Night and Fog poster
8.3

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Night and Fog

1956

Muriel, or the Time of Return poster
6.9

In the seacoast town of Boulogne, antique furniture saleswoman Hélène lives with her stepson, Bernard, who's back from military duty in Algiers. An old lover of Hélène's comes to visit, Alphonse, with his niece Françoise; he too is back from Algiers, where he ran a café. Bernard speaks of his fiancée, Muriel, whom Hélène has not met. The past is obscured by guilt, misperceptions, and missed possibilities. Appearances deceive, things change. As Hélène and Alphonse try to sort out a renewal, everyone seems off-kilter just enough to hint that all cannot end well.

Muriel, or the Time of Return

1963

Life Is a Bed of Roses poster
5.7

In this whimsical fable, Resnais deftly interweaves three story lines: the creation of an early-20th-century utopia; romantic high jinks at a school conference; and a fantasy sparked by F/X pioneer Georges Méliès.

Life Is a Bed of Roses

1983

Je T'Aime, Je T'Aime poster
6.6

Recovering from an attempted suicide, a man is selected to participate in a time travel experiment that has only been tested on mice. A malfunction causes the man to experience moments from his past in a random order.

Je T'Aime, Je T'Aime

1968

Providence poster
6.6

On the eve of his 78th birthday, ailing, alcoholic writer Clive Langham spends a painful and sleepless night mentally composing and recomposing scenes for a novel in which characters based on his own family are shaped by his fantasies and memories, alongside his caustic commentary on their behaviour.

Providence

1977

The War Is Over poster
6.5

On his way from Madrid to Paris, Diego, a chief of the Spanish Communist Party, is arrested at the border for an ID check but manages to flee. When he arrives in Paris, he searches for one of his comrades to prevent him from going to Madrid where he could be arrested.

The War Is Over

1966

Stavisky... poster
5.9

Biarritz, 1933. Charm and talent assist small-time swindler Serge Alexandre, alias Stavisky, to bribe his way into the centre of French politics. But when his great scam involving millions is exposed, he brings the government to the verge of collapse and the country to the brink of civil war.

Stavisky...

1974

I Want to Go Home poster
4.8

Joey Wellman, an American cartoonist from Cleveland now largely forgotten at home, visits France with his partner Lena to attend an exhibition in Paris about the comic strip (bande dessinée) which features his work. He also hopes to be reconciled with his daughter Elsie who has been a student in Paris for two years, in flight from the American culture of which she sees her father as a typical example. Elsie is naively infatuated with French literature, and is trying to secure an introduction to the brilliant university professor Christian Gauthier, an expert on Flaubert but also an enthusiast for comic books. The meeting of father and daughter goes badly, but Elsie is persuaded to join Joey and Lena for the weekend at the country house of Gauthier's mother, Isabelle. During a comic-themed masquerade party, all of the characters are made to reconsider their present and past relationships.

I Want to Go Home

1989

My American Uncle poster
7.0

Professor Henri Laborit uses three people's stories to discuss behaviourist theories of survival, combat, rewards and punishment, and anxiety: René is a technical manager at a textile factory and must face the anxiety caused by corporate downsizing; Janine is a self-educated actress/stylist who learns that the wife of her lover is dying and must decide to let them reunite; and Jean is a controversial career-climbing writer/politician at a crossroads in life.

My American Uncle

1980

Same Old Song poster
7.0

Business executive Odile seeks a new, larger apartment. Her younger sister Camille, having completed her doctoral thesis in history, is a Paris tour guide. Simon is a regular on Camille's tours as he's attracted to her. However, Camille has fallen for Marc, and they begin an affair. Nicolas is also looking for an apartment, since he hopes to eventually have his family join him in Paris.

Same Old Song

1997

Wild Grass poster
5.9

A quirky woman who spends her free time as a pilot has her purse stolen; a mysterious man finds her wallet, and they embark on a peculiar romance.

Wild Grass

2009

Smoking / No Smoking poster
6.5

Two actors portray eighteen Yorkshire villagers, who offer several iterations of their lives depending on whether or not they lit a cigarette at a certain point in time.

Smoking / No Smoking

1993

Love Unto Death poster
6.7

Elisabeth and Simon have been deeply in love for two months when Simon momentarily dies, but returns to life. Despite declining further medical tests, the couple are forced to grapple with the possibility of his death. Eventually, they tell their close friends Jérôme and Judith Martignac about the event. The Martignacs are both clerics, and Judith has just been giving a funeral service for a villager who committed suicide, though Jérôme would have nothing to do with suicide...

Love Unto Death

1984

Far from Vietnam poster
7.2

In seven different parts, Godard, Ivens, Klein, Lelouch, Marker, Resnais, and Varda show their sympathy for the North-Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War.

Far from Vietnam

1967

Not on the Lips poster
5.7

A musical drawing room farce set in Paris circa October, 1925. Middle-aged Gilberte flirts with men but loves her husband Georges, wishing he were more demonstrative. He's negotiating a deal with American Eric Thomson, who turns out to be Gilberte's first husband from an annulled and secret stateside marriage. Along with her sister Arlette, Gilberte begs Eric not to tell Georges about their past. Meanwhile, a young artist, Charly, pursues Gilberte while Arlette tries to match him with the young Huguette, who loves him. Will Eric play along or try to re-win Gilberte's affection? Can Gilberte play one off against another? And who will manage to kiss whom on the lips?

Not on the Lips

2003

Mélo poster
6.9

In 1920s Paris, violinists and lifelong friends Pierre Belcroix and Marcel Blanc are happy with their lives, although Marcel has become famous and Pierre has not. Pierre is married to Romaine, a stylish young flapper. However, Marcel meets and falls in love with her, which Marcel little suspects.

Mélo

1986

Mélo poster
6.9

In 1920s Paris, violinists and lifelong friends Pierre Belcroix and Marcel Blanc are happy with their lives, although Marcel has become famous and Pierre has not. Pierre is married to Romaine, a stylish young flapper. However, Marcel meets and falls in love with her, which Marcel little suspects.

Mélo

1986

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet poster
6.6

From beyond the grave, celebrated playwright Antoine d'Anthac gathers all his friends who have appeared over the years in his play 'Eurydice'. These actors watch a recording performed by a young acting company, La Compagnie de la Colombe. Do love, life, death and love after death still have any place on a theater stage? It's up to them to decide. And the surprises have only just begun...

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

2012

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet poster
6.6

From beyond the grave, celebrated playwright Antoine d'Anthac gathers all his friends who have appeared over the years in his play 'Eurydice'. These actors watch a recording performed by a young acting company, La Compagnie de la Colombe. Do love, life, death and love after death still have any place on a theater stage? It's up to them to decide. And the surprises have only just begun...

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

2012

No Smoking poster
7.7

Two actors play eighteen different roles in a story that asks the question: would my life have been different if I hadn't lit a cigarette?

No Smoking

1993

Smoking poster
7.7

Two actors play eighteen different roles in a story that asks the question: would my life have been different if I had lit a cigarette?

Smoking

1993

Lest We Forget poster
7.0

A compilation of 30 French filmmakers, Alain Resnais and Jean Luc Godard among them, who use film to make a plea on behalf of a political prisoner. Jean Luc Godard and Anne Marie Mieville's film concerns the plight of Thomas Wanggai, West Papuan activist who has since died in prison. The short films were commissioned by Amnesty International.

Lest We Forget

1991

Statues Also Die poster
6.9

Commissioned by the journal Présence Africaine, this short documentary examines how African art is devalued and alienated through colonial and museum contexts. Beginning with the question of why African works are confined to ethnographic displays while Greek or Egyptian art is celebrated, the film became a landmark of anti-colonial cinema and was banned in France for eight years.

Statues Also Die

1953

All the World's Memory poster
7.1

A documentary about the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It presents the building, with its processes of cataloguing and preserving all sorts of printed material, as both a monument of cultural memory and as a monstrous, alien being.

All the World's Memory

1956

Van Gogh poster
6.7

The biography of Dutch artist Van Gogh, illustrated only with images of his paintings and drawings, or details of those, and according dramatic musical score.

Van Gogh

1948

Guernica poster
6.1

Alain Resnais & Robert Hessen use the famous Picasso mural "Guernica" in combination with newspaper headlines in an anti-war cry against the Spanish Civil War. Narration by Jacques Pruvost highlights the Guernica atrocity of April 1937, followed by a poem by Paul Eluard read by María Casares to a discordant score by Guy Bernard.

Guernica

1951

Life of Riley poster
5.2

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 of Riley

2014

Pictura poster
10.0

A documentary film directed by seven famous directors, and narrated by several famous Hollywood actors. The film attempts to give the general filmgoing public a taste of art history and art appreciation.

Pictura

1951

Gauguin poster
6.8

A short documentary on Paul Gauguin, a French painter and sculptor.

Gauguin

1950

Private Fears in Public Places poster
6.4

Seven lonely lives in Paris: a middle-aged estate agent who believes a colleague is sending messages in video tapes she loans him; his co-worker whose Bible is close at hand in times of stress; her late-night charge, an angry, nasty bedridden old man; his son, a patient bartender; the bartender's best patron, an ex-soldier who's lost his moorings while his fiancée looks for a large flat for them; and, the estate agent's much younger sister, who answers personals and waits in cafés with a red flower pinned on her jacket. Will any connect? Can open hearts trump fears?

Private Fears in Public Places

2006

The Song of Styrene poster
6.4

Le chant du Styrène is a 1958 French documentary film directed by Alain Resnais. The film was an order by French industrial group Pechiney to highlight the merits of plastics.

The Song of Styrene

1958

The Mystery of Workshop 15 poster
7.0

A documentary film about occupational diseases shot in 1957 at the Francolor factory in Oissel. It takes the form of a scientific investigation to discover the origin of a mysterious illness that has infected a worker at the factory.

The Mystery of Workshop 15

1957

Their First Films poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Their First Films

2004

Gershwin poster
9.0

Documentary about George Gershwin directed by Alain Resnais with various celebrities speaking on their admiration and affection for Gershwin's music.

Gershwin

1993

No artwork available
10.0

A short subject about a Dutch artist who worked in : sculpture, painting, photography, and typography.

Visit to César Domela

1947

Visite à Hans Hartung poster
4.5

Directed by Alain Resnais

Visite à Hans Hartung

1947

Cinétracts poster
7.9

A series of 43 documentary shorts, directed (without credit) by several famous French filmmakers and each running between two and four minutes. Each "tract" espouses a leftist political viewpoint through the filmed depiction of real-life events, including workers' strikes and the events of Paris in May '68.

Cinétracts

1968

No artwork available
7.0

An art short subject about a visit to a French painter.

Visite à Lucien Coutaud

1947