Alain Resnais

Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais
	File:Resnais.jpg
Born	June 3, 1922; Vannes, Morbihan, Bretagne, France
Occupation(s)	film director, producer,

Alain Resnais (born June 3, 1922 in Vannes, France) is a French film director, and a key founder of the french new wave or nouvelle vague film movement. Although he has had a long and fruitful career, Resnais is best known internationally for three of his early works: Night and Fog (1955), Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), and L'Année Dernière à Marienbad (1961).

Career

Highly regarded in his native country of France, Alain Resnais began making films in the mid-1940's after completing his studies at L`Institut hautes études cinématographiques. He made several short films during this time, such as Guernica (1950), based on the Picasso painting and the town and battle that inspired it, and most famously, Night and Fog (1955).

He completed his first full-length film in 1959, called Hiroshima, Mon Amour. It as a romantic drama about a young girl filming an anti-war film in the rubble and reconstruction of Hiroshima. There, she has an affair with a Japanese architect and soon their relationship must end as she returns to Paris. This movie was a grand success for Resnais, garnering him international fame and cementing his place in the French New Wave.

He worked regularly from then on. Although not especially prolific, in comparison at least to his fellow filmmakers of the French New Wave, he has nonetheless achieved great success. In the 1980's, he experienced a disappointment after the critical and box office failure of several films. With Smoking/No Smoking(1993), he regained his once lost cinematic prowess.

Alain Resnais is still creating more filmic out-put, most recently with Coeurs(2006), known as Private Fears in Public Places in North America.

Personal Life

He was married to Florence Malraux, the only daughter of the late French statesman André Malraux and his first wife, Clara Goldschmidt. Florence often worked on Resnais's films. His current companion is French actress Sabine Azéma.

Collaborators

Many of his films were produced by Anatole Dauman and Argos Films who also produced films for other Left Bank film makers such as Chris Marker.

Awards

Prix Jean Vigo in 1954 and 1956
Silver Lion at Venice Film Festival 2006 for Coeurs (aka Private Fears in Public Places).

Trivia

The previews for Resnais's films never show clips from those films. As in the French preview for Pas sur la bouche, the trailers usually consist of Resnais himself speaking.

Filmography

Cœurs (2006)
Pas sur la bouche (2003)
On connaît la chanson (1997)
Smoking/No Smoking (1993)
Gershwin (1992)
Contre l'oubli (1991)
I Want to Go Home (1989)
Mélo (1986)
L'amour à mort (1984)
La vie est un roman (1983)
Mon oncle d'Amérique (1980)
Providence (1977)
Stavisky (1974)
L'an 01 (1973) (New York scenes)
Cinétracts (1968)
Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968)
Loin du Vietnam (1967)
La Guerre est finie (1966)
Muriel (1963)
L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961)
Hiroshima mon amour (1959)
Le chant du Styrène (1958)
Le mystère de l'atelier quinze (1957)
Toute la mémoire du monde (1956)
Night and Fog (1955)
Les statues meurent aussi (1953)
Pictura (1952)
Gauguin (1950)
Guernica (1950/I)
Châteaux de France (1948)
Les jardins de Paris (1948)
Malfray (1948)
Van Gogh (1948)
L'alcool tue (1947) (as Alzin Rezarail)
La bague (1947)
Journée naturelle (1947)
Le lait Nestlé (1947)
Portrait d'Henri Goetz (1947)
Van Gogh (1947)
Visite à César Doméla (1947)
Visite à Félix Labisse (1947)
Visite à Hans Hartnung (1947)
Visite à Lucien Coutaud (1947)
Visite à Oscar Dominguez (1947)
Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire (1946)
Schéma d'une identification (1946)
L'aventure de Guy (1936)

Introductory volumes

Wilson, Emma, Alain Resnais (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006)

External link

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