Alain Resnais, whose complex, intellectual films include ‘Hiroshima, Mon Amour, ’ dies at 91

Washington Post ^ | 3/2/2014 | Tim Page

[Borges]

Alain Resnais, a French filmmaker who directed a riveting early documentary about Nazi concentration camps and whose later films “Hiroshima, Mon Amour” and “Last Year at Marienbad” melded opulent, baroque imagery with complicated narratives that could be as puzzling as they were compelling, died March 1 in Paris. He was 91.

Producer Jean-Louis Livi confirmed that Mr. Resnais had died but did not provide a cause of death.

Mr. Resnais, a major figure in international cinema in the 1950s and 1960s, was occasionally linked to the “new wave” of unconventional French filmmakers, including François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.

The new wave is often associated with films that were lyrical, fast-paced, easy to watch and imbued with a cheeky youthfulness. Mr. Resnais developed a different path. As Richard Roud, a co-founder and the first director of the New York Film Festival put it, a Resnais film was always a “calculated work of art. It is not spontaneous, it is not realistic and it is complex.”

This was true of much of Mr. Resnais’ later work but not of the short documentary with which he established his reputation. Made just a decade after World War II ended, “Nuit et Brouillard” (“Night and Fog,” 1955) is often credited as the first filmic evocation of the Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz.

[Sans-Culotte]

I really liked his film ‘Providence’, made in the late 70s.

[miss marmelstein]

How many I slept through at the Thalia as a young person...

[Rio]

confirmed that Mr. Resnais had died but did not provide a cause of death.

When you're 91, you don't need a cause.

[IronJack]

I saw “Last Year at Marienbad” in a film class in college, but I don’t remember a thing about it.

[jocon307]

“How many I slept through at the Thalia as a young person...”

I might have been snoozing in the next row!

[avenir]

The classic still from LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD.

[EveningStar]

ping

[Perdogg]

ping

[JoeProBono]

[Tenlein]

I’m one of those on the “absolutely love it” side of “Last Year at Marienbad”. I have the beautiful Criterian DVD of it - I think I’ll watch it again today in his honor.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.