1963 drama
Rating: 17/20
Plot: A woman, her step-son, her old lover, and his niece enjoy each other's company for a couple of weeks.
"It's hard to follow you."
That's a line of dialogue, but at first, I was pretty sure it described the movie as well. And this film, from Alain Resnais who directed two movies I have absolutely loved (Hiroshima Mon Amour and Last Year at Marienbad) did perplex me with its jumpiness and seeming lack of interest in its narrative. With 813 shots (and only one tracking shot), this has a rhythm that I don't believe I've seen in another movie. It's almost off putting initially, and I can imagine a lot of people giving up on this one early. I was always intrigued, however, and trusted Resnais. Eventually, I fell into that rhythm, and while some of the narrative pieces didn't quite make sense after this first viewing, I ended up understanding these characters on a deeper level than I normally do with a movie.
Those characters are trapped in this place that "feeds on memories," and like in those aforementioned Resnais masterworks, this explores the ideas of time and place and memory. It toys with the viewers' expectations and seemingly toys with the characters as well.
It's a real tightrope walk this one, a director having this idea to piece together a story like this with this maddening editing, dialogue leaking into subsequent scenes, and all these narrative gaps. It's hard for me to imagine what the vision of this movie would have looked like in Resnais's head, but you have to appreciate a director like this balancing high above the crowd without a net like this.
How about Hiroshima, Marienbad, and this as a 1-2-3 punch to start a film career? Man alive!
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