Muriel ou Le temps d'un retour (1963)

Director:

Alain Resnais

Writer:

Jean Cayrol (writer)

Release Date:

13 March 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In the seacoast town of Boulogne, Hélène sells antique furniture, living with her step-son, Bernard...

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Delphine Seyrig	...	Hélène Aughain
Jean-Pierre Kérien	...	Alphonse Noyard
Nita Klein	...	Françoise
Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée	...	Bernard Aughain (as Jean-Baptiste Thierrée)
Claude Sainval	...	Roland de Smoke
Laurence Badie	...	Claudie
Jean Champion	...	Ernest
Jean Dasté	...	L'homme à la chèvre / The Goat Man
Martine Vatel	...	Marie-Dominique, aka Marie-Do
Julien Verdier	...	Le loueur de chevaux / The Stableman
Philippe Laudenbach	...	Robert
Nelly Borgeaud	...	La femme du couple d'acheteurs
Catherine de Seynes	...	Angèle
Gaston Joly	...	Antoine, le tailleur / Antoine the Tailor
Gérard Lorin	...	Marc

Also Known As:

Muriel, il tempo di un ritorno (Italy)
Muriel, or the Time of Return
The Time of Return

Runtime:

Brazil:112 min | USA:116 min | USA:115 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | Mono

Certification:

Hong Kong:I | Finland:K-12

Company:

Alpha

Movie Connections:

References Tirez sur le pianiste (1960)

Soundtrack:

Dejà

Not much here

Resnais was known for literary--sometimes too literary--films adapted from works by Marguerite Duras, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Henri Bernstein, Jorge Semprun. The debate around him always had to do with his level of contribution to the project. Muriel is an example of how Resnais submerged his own talent in the service of the script (by Jean Cayrol, the Holocaust survivor who wrote Nuit et brouillard). This is a talky, static story of love ended by war that is pushed and pulled around by editing, and sometimes drowned by Henze's music.

Delphine Seyrig is playing a woman, Helene, ten years older than she is; her hair is streaked with gray for realism but it looks contrived. Jean-Pierre Kerien as Alphonse, the man she almost ran away with in 1940, looks like a stuffed animal: he is never interesting to watch. Jean Baptiste Thierree plays Bernard, the army veteran and step-son of Helene, who can't forget about the woman his unit tortured to death in Algeria. His scenes are jerky, overly primed for emotion. His face betrays little of the torment he must feel.

All the actors play somewhat exaggeratedly, as though they were trying to make themselves noticed amid the hub-bub of the music and editing. One scene in which Alphonse's brother-in-law starts telling the guests at a party about who he really is is destroyed by the music; what could have been a beautifully funny and vicious moment is lost. A story that is basically a rewrite of Brief Encounter, or any war-time weeper you like, does not need all these stylistic flourishes. A disappointing film.