Part of Alain Resnais
Sunday, March 13, 2011, 3:30 p.m.

35mm print from MK2

Dir. Alain Resnais. 1986, 112 mins.

With Sabine Azéma, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi, and André Dussolier. Resnais made one of his greatest films by adapting a somewhat trashy 1929 melodrama by little-known playwright Henry Bernstein. The story, about a violinist who falls in love with his best friend’s wife, unfolds under a painted sky in a deliberately theatrical, dreamlike world. “Resnais invests the original meaning of 'melodrama' (drama with music) with exceptional power and beauty, cutting and moving his camera with impeccable dramatic logic to give the performances maximum voltage.” (Jonathan Rosenbaum).

Free with Museum admission.

Download the program notes