MURIEL Movie Review

Muriel, Ou le Temps d'un Retour
The Time of Return
Muriel, Or the Time of Return

Alain Resnais's 1963 Muriel is the story of Hélène (Delphine Seyrig), a middle-aged widow living in Boulogne with her stepson, Bernard (Jean-Baptiste Thierée). Recently returned from the war in Algeria, Bernard is something of a mess. He's obsessed with memories of an incident that took place in Algeria—the torture and murder of a girl named Muriel—in which Bernard apparently participated. Concurrently, Hélène's lover of 20 years earlier (Jean-Pierre Kerien) shows up for a visit, with his new young mistress (Nita Klein) in tow. These characters—and others—interact in the film, reflecting on their unresolved, haunting memories of days past. As in Last Year at Marienbad and Hiroshima Mon Amour, it is the relationship of those memories to the present that most intrigues the director, yet the structure of Muriel is so fragmented and splintered that the film—while beautiful and disturbing—is nearly abstract. It's almost as if a Dadaist had picked up the various pieces of film shot for the movie, tossed them in the air, and assembled them just as they came down. Interpretations of Muriel tend to speculate not only on the film's meaning, but on its plot—you can't be sure of what's going on here, but in Resnais's scheme, emotional reality seems to be more important than linear continuity. That's not necessarily all bad, but it's instructive to know before seeing it that even for Resnais, Muriel is an experimental film in the extreme, and will be a completely different experience for each viewer.

NEXT STOP … Last Year at Marienbad, Mrs. Dalloway, Providence

1963 115m/C FR IT Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Kerien, Nita Klein, Jean-Baptiste Thierree; D: Alain Resnais; W: Jean Cayrol; C: Sacha Vierny; M: Georges Delerue. Venice Film Festival ‘63: Best Actress (Seyrig). VHS HTV, FCT