Muriel (2007)

Muriel on DVD

Muriel is a complex and strong movie that touches upon several themes like alienation, memory and identity, and it is considered part of the french new wave. It's not as experimental as Marienbad, and it has a different style than Hiroshima (it's in colour to begin with), but is as spellbinding. The DVD is a little short on extras (an interview which was quite good), and I prefer white to yellow subtitles, but the transfer is good. Recommended. July 23, 2008

Brilliant for a limited audience

I was entranced by Last Year at Marienbad when it came out and was a huge fan of the Nouvelle Vague when it washed up on our shores, too. I had missed Muriel and was eager to see it when I came upon it recently.

I could ponder about why it failed to touch me in any way when Marienbad made such an impact. In a strange way my reaction mirrors the theme of the film--how memory changes things. I was young and impressionable, then, the same age as Helene (Delphine Seyrig) was, when she fell in love so many years earlier. On an impulse she has written her ex-lover and invited him to visit her, hoping to recapture the love they had once known, but nothing is the same.

Now she's older, has survived the war, settled in the provinces and has her own struggles with her business, money, and her family. The ex-lover has white hair, has to wear an overcoat to keep warm and, well, things just aren't as magical as they once were, back in Paris.

Likewise for me, the stylistic breakthroughs that were so stunning at the time strike me as sort of quaint and even silly. We think that the young woman accompanying the ex-lover is his niece but then we find out that she's his present lover and later she mentions marriage to Helene's step-son. And then we find out that the ex-lover who seems to be Helene's avid suitor again is really married to the sister of some man who shows up towards the end of the film. These elements are obviously meant to be wonderously unconventional, I guess, and, in the 60's being unconventional was definitely the way to go but to me, now, I'm settled and living in the provinces and no longer impressed by wierdness.

You could compare this to the huge breakthrough in painting when Picasso, for one, shattered the conventional way of looking at things. Women suddenly had two eyes on the same side of their heads. I still love to look at Picasso, but Resnais, not-so-much.

For the true cineaste this must be an important film. For the average viewer of 2007 who is no longer impressed by the novelty of the style this might be something to miss. It depends on what you're looking for. There are interesting points on how memory deceives us, I suppose, and musings on identity, which may have been news at that time. There are important historical references to the war in Algeria and WWII which would have had a significance to the French viewing public at that time. Delphine Seyrig is lovely. The music is appropriately bizarre and suits the mood of the film. Many will find it haunting, others, annoying.

For me, Muriel is a curious museum piece...something for the head, nothing for the heart. I wonder how I'd like Marienbad now? I think I'll just keep the happy memories. September 27, 2007

muriel,an early movie of Alain Resnais

It is a kind of movie you have to watch very carefully.The characters are difficult to personalize. Delphine Seyrig trying to come back to a past far away, but not forgotten,a lover, who at the end is only a cheat, a son who returned from Algiers with too many problems, friends who are not related to her real life and a lot of memories which have to be recycled, in order to have a sense. All this stuff is masterly managed by Resnais,although is not easy to follow in the movie. The grade I consider deserves the movie, turns out from a climate present along the movie which is the main asset of the film. July 3, 2007

Muriel

Made in the wake of his masterful "Last Year at Marienbad"(sadly not yet on DVD), Resnais's cinematic puzzle concerns memory, regret, self-identity, and the psychological effects of war. In a complicated but wholly fascinating plotline, no one appears to be exactly what they say they are, and Resnais exploits the tensions with cunning effectiveness, especially when he introduces Alphonse's mysterious "friend," de Smoke (Claude Sainval). Perhaps the film's most radical departure from convention is the director's unconventional editing method, which creates jarring disunities in time and space, thus reinforcing the emotional turbulence on-screen. One of the first films in France to deal squarely with the Algerian War--for which it was censored--"Muriel" is a captivating story about people trying to reclaim the past in order to reshape their present. June 28, 2007

a meditation on the past and how it influences our lives..

Alain Renais, often considered an outsider of sorts, crafts his movies like a poet crafts his poems.. He seems to like to play with the notion of time and its meaning.. I noticed this in 'Hiroshima mon amor' and now again in 'muriel'.. it is a beautiful approach to making movies... i was so taken aback by the fluidity of the cuts from one place to another one moment to another it feels modern and yet it challenges us in a very basic way.. The characters in this movie appear to be struggling with continuing their lives in the face of past traumas - yet this message is one we can all take to heart (aren't we all in a similar boat?).. My favorite aspects of this movie are the camera shots.. often evoking modern photography.. and the seemless pacing and editing - which make this one of the most powerful movie experiences that i have seen... Now i hope that 'last year at marienbad' will be released on dvd... May 23, 2007

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