Muriel (French: Muriel ou le temps d'un retour, literally Muriel, or the Time of a Return) is a 1963 film by French film director Alain Resnais. Muriel followed Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) and Last Year at Marienbad (1961) and was Resnais' second collaboration with Jean Cayrol, who had also written the screenplay of Night and Fog (1955).
Hélène (Delphine Seyrig), a widow who runs an antique business from her own apartment in Boulogne-sur-Mer, is s...
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Muriel (French: Muriel ou le temps d'un retour, literally Muriel, or the Time of a Return) is a 1963 film by French film director Alain Resnais. Muriel followed Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) and Last Year at Marienbad (1961) and was Resnais' second collaboration with Jean Cayrol, who had also written the screenplay of Night and Fog (1955).
Hélène (Delphine Seyrig), a widow who runs an antique business from her own apartment in Boulogne-sur-Mer, is suddenly visited by a past lover (Jean-Pierre Kérien). Her stepson, Bernard (Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée), is tormented by the memory of a girl named Muriel whom he had participated in torturing in Algeria.
As in his previous works, Resnais explores past, present and memory, though this time he uses a linear narrative. Muriel's montage is strongly characterized by jump cuts, a style that is introduced early on during the first scene. The film is also punctuated by a recurrent female vocal sung in an operatic manner. Predominant is the idea that one...
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