La Vie est un roman

Conceptually intriguing but wildly uneven (as might be expected from such hyper-formalist conceits). As par usual with Resnais it's very handsomely made all-around but also pretty dry and bloodless. I thought the faux-Rohmer storyline worked pretty well, the other two much less so. Overall it could have definitely used more musical sequences, and even then Chantal Akerman had much greater results with the same idea in Golden Eighties.

A highly unusual, playful assault on ideas concerning how to lead humanity out of disharmony and unhappiness, what it is to educate children, the nature and function of imagination, etc. With this, LOVE UNTO DEATH and SAME OLD SONG, Resnais explores various ways of incorporating music into cinematic storytelling, and in all three cases the results are very effective in perhaps surprising ways. Easy to understand audiences being totally turned off by this, but Resnais was a genuine experimenter.

I'd seen enough Resnais to expect an unusual film, but him taking the piss to this extent was unexpected.

A vida é um romance estreava há 40 anos no Festival de New York. A primeira vez que o vi há mais de uma década num mês especial dedicado ao Resnais no Canal Futura não fiquei muito impressionada e me parecia justo ele ser um filme meio esquecido na filmografia do cineasta. Revendo hoje gostei muito mais, como sempre Resnais aborda com experimentalismo o tempo do cinema e o resultado não poderia ser melhor. Box Versátil O Cinema de Alain Resnais.