This double-feature contains a comedy and a
drama that couldn’t be more different in terms of plot and tone, but both are
tinged with a similar fantastical style from French filmmaker Alain Resnais. While
neither reaches the frustrating ambiguity of a film like Last Year at Marienbad or the weightiness of his wartime films,
both have the uncanny sense of experimentation running through them,
stylistically as well as within the narrative structure. One never knows where
Resnais is headed, however familiar his films feel in their approach.
The first in
this double feature is Life is a Bed of
Roses (1983), a lighthearted exploration of imagination and childlike
wonder. The story is told through three separate narratives, each loosely
connected by themes and the common setting of a castle built in the Ardennes forest. On the eve of the First World War, a
wealthy man named Count Forbek (Ruggero Raimondi) decides to start building a
palace which is to be a haven for his friends. Attempting to create a utopian
society for a select few to start fresh after the destruction of the war, Forbek
drugs and brainwashes the participants into believing they are entering infancy
again. They are pampered with pleasant sounds and smells while other senses are
restricted, with the intention of cleansing them of their previous lives. Among
these guests are Forbek’s former fiancée (Fanny Ardant) and the man she married
instead.
Simultaneously
in the plot is a storyline taking place in present day at the same castle,
which is being used as the setting for an educational conference. Though there
is much weighty discussion over teaching methods, many of those attending seem
more interesting in the romantic entanglements provided by the meeting of
minds. An American woman named Nora Winkle (Geraldine Chaplin) bets her friend
Claudine (Martine Kelly) that the innocent public school teacher Elisabeth
Rousseau (Sabine Azéma) will be seduced by the single father (Pierre Arditi)
that Claudine is sleeping with rather than the principal speaker (Vittorio
Gassman), who often finds his way into Nora’s bed. Meanwhile there is a third
narrative taking place completely in the imagination of the children that
Claudine is tasked to watch, involving a group of prisoners who must be freed
from the confines of the magical castle.
While Love Unto Death lacks the direct fantasy
elements of Life is a Bed of Roses,
it is also unwilling to commit entirely to the realism of the world. This is
clear from the opening scene, when lovers Elisabeth (Sabine Azéma) and Simon
(Pierre Arditi) are nearly torn apart by death. Simon is pronounced dead by a
doctor after collapsing suddenly, but then he is inexplicably resurrected.
Elisabeth and Simon wrestle with the meaning of this second chance at life and
love, debating it with their close friends and clerics, Jérôme (André
Dussollier) and Judith (Fanny Ardant).
At first Simon
embraces this second chance at life, living each moment to the fullest, but it
leads to paranoia and fear as his health begins to deteriorate again. Elisabeth
struggles to connect with these feelings, promising to follow Simon in death if
he passes suddenly again. This results in a series of religious debates with
Jérôme and Judith, who are among the few privy to the miraculous event. Even
when the narrative has a relatively simple approach, Resnais provides his
unique touch in the passage of time and film editing. Each brief sequence
showing the shift from love and joy to fear and paranoia is inter-cut with eerie
sequences of a blank screen and what looks to be snow falling, layered with an
emotive score by Hans Werner Henze.
Each of the
films has its own Blu-ray disc, along with a feature-length commentary track
with critics Wade Major and Andy Klein. The special features also include a
2014 theatrical re-release trailer.
Entertainment Value:
6.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 7.5/10
Historical
Significance: 7/10
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