After going through a huge financial failure in 1967 with Je ta'ime, je t'aime Resnais rose back in 1977 with Providence. In 1980 he came up with My American Uncle which was quite a financial success and, got even an Oscar nomination for Best Writing. Alain Resnais has always been able of creating something completely original and breaking all expectations, shaking the way we look at film and creating new rules. He has always been interested in past and memory, he sees memory as an instrument of imagination through which one tries to reconstruct one's past. He has been portraying these time travelers who are in between of past and presence (Je t'aime, je t'aime), who keep asking themselves what happened in Hiroshima and Marienbad, Algeria and Spain. L'amour à mort wasn't the first time Resnais dealt with memory and oblivion, but unlike in his other films, he portrayed our attempt to try avoid remembrance and the necessity of it.
L'amour à mort is the director's tenth feature and to my mind represents a certain climax in his career. The film requires its viewer to throw oneself into the wonderfully confusing world of the director and accept his unique rules of the game. It's an ambitious, unusual and rich film, full of clever insightful details that please the viewer at so many levels.
Resnais has always made the unexpected. After seeing Providence (1977) and My American Uncle (1980) I was expecting a somewhat similar film. But what I got was something completely different, in a good way, since I ended up liking L'amour à mort more than the two mentioned before. Unusually for Resnais the film has got a linear storyline: Elisabeth and Simon are a couple, deeply in love. All they need is each other, and their only friends are the priest Jérôme and his wife Judith. One day, in the first scene, Simon dies but resurrects during the same scene. First he doesn't remember anything about his afterlife experience but eventually things start to come up to his mind; a river he had to cross, sounds and a melody he tries to catch.
The film focuses on discussions about life and death between Simon, Elizabeth, Jérôme and Judith. Simon and Elizabeth don't really believe in God, but don't care enough to recognize atheism. Judith is somewhere in between and Jérôme is, as a priest, a fundamental Christian, who is unable of commenting anything without a bible verse. Alain Resnais is religiously an agnostic. He doesn't claim that he understands the universe but isn't interested in religious riddles. Resnais has said that L'amour à mort isn't a philosophical film, which might be quite hard to believe at times. Since the film has got a strong existentialist touch but perhaps Resnais wanted to highlight that this is more of a film about love. Love and death, and how they interbreed.
In the end, Simon decides to commit a suicide because he is unable to live after experiencing something in hereafter, he has to get back there. It is absolutely necessary for him to remember it. When Simon has killed himself Elizabeth finds herself in a dead end - she's a prisoner of love. This brings an intriguing perspective on the film; is Alain Resnais depicting the paradox of love and freedom? The characters certainly talk about freedom, and this brings us back to the existentialism in the film. Certainly the conception of freedom in L'amour à mort is indeterministic; we are not guided by fate, but our choices are necessary, so we aren't free. Elizabeth is still controlled by her emotions, her love for Simon from whom she can't let go. Love is Elizabeth's religion and death guides it.
L'amour à mort is the director's tenth feature and to my mind represents a certain climax in his career. The film requires its viewer to throw oneself into the wonderfully confusing world of the director and accept his unique rules of the game. It's an ambitious, unusual and rich film, full of clever insightful details that please the viewer at so many levels.
Resnais has always made the unexpected. After seeing Providence (1977) and My American Uncle (1980) I was expecting a somewhat similar film. But what I got was something completely different, in a good way, since I ended up liking L'amour à mort more than the two mentioned before. Unusually for Resnais the film has got a linear storyline: Elisabeth and Simon are a couple, deeply in love. All they need is each other, and their only friends are the priest Jérôme and his wife Judith. One day, in the first scene, Simon dies but resurrects during the same scene. First he doesn't remember anything about his afterlife experience but eventually things start to come up to his mind; a river he had to cross, sounds and a melody he tries to catch.
The film focuses on discussions about life and death between Simon, Elizabeth, Jérôme and Judith. Simon and Elizabeth don't really believe in God, but don't care enough to recognize atheism. Judith is somewhere in between and Jérôme is, as a priest, a fundamental Christian, who is unable of commenting anything without a bible verse. Alain Resnais is religiously an agnostic. He doesn't claim that he understands the universe but isn't interested in religious riddles. Resnais has said that L'amour à mort isn't a philosophical film, which might be quite hard to believe at times. Since the film has got a strong existentialist touch but perhaps Resnais wanted to highlight that this is more of a film about love. Love and death, and how they interbreed.
In the end, Simon decides to commit a suicide because he is unable to live after experiencing something in hereafter, he has to get back there. It is absolutely necessary for him to remember it. When Simon has killed himself Elizabeth finds herself in a dead end - she's a prisoner of love. This brings an intriguing perspective on the film; is Alain Resnais depicting the paradox of love and freedom? The characters certainly talk about freedom, and this brings us back to the existentialism in the film. Certainly the conception of freedom in L'amour à mort is indeterministic; we are not guided by fate, but our choices are necessary, so we aren't free. Elizabeth is still controlled by her emotions, her love for Simon from whom she can't let go. Love is Elizabeth's religion and death guides it.