Our Resnais

Alain Resnais surrounded by his film family Cannes 2012 – © AFP / Alberto Pizzoli

By Gilles Jacob 

Alain Resnais, who has just embarked on his final journey to the clouds and the wild grasses of Marienbad, was nothing less than a national treasure. France can boast two filmmaking geniuses, both advanced in years but blessed with an incredibly inventive youthfulness. Godard, who is half-Swiss, and  Alain Resnais – our  Resnais.

Since his childhood, since his first Pathé Baby – in the days before video games, in Vannes or anywhere else, Resnais toyed with the cinema…. scrabbling, inventing, searching, innovating and creating… and above all never making the same film twice.

His work, which draws on time, memory, creation, daily life, English humour, artistic innovation and a dozen other values, fifty technical novelties, a hundred discoveries of actors and technicians, arose out of the political awakening of his friend Chris Marker. It was a time of war, of Hiroshima, concentration camps and colonialism…

How could he not take sides, not become passionate? The years passed, and with them the days, decades, films, love affairs and works flowed. Life itself moved inexorably on. Little by little, Alain became increasingly interested in the human ordinariness of daily life, to which he brought an original charm: the little foibles of everyday existence, couples, the game, the theatre, searching for a flat, a song. Yes, that song we all continue to hum. And theatre of course, which is the very art of becoming other… and often with theatrical results. Moving ever onwards towards lightness, grace. We are such ephemeral beings. What possible significance do we have? Having covered life from every possible angle, Resnais took ever greater pleasure in filming, in unearthing filmic correspondences in order to surprise both himself and the troupe of actors who adored him, who worshipped him, like his wife Sabine Azéma, or his faithful friends Pierre Arditi, André Dussollier, and countless others.

For these reasons, and in order to highlight his immense importance and his longevity, I have called for a state funeral, with cinemas at half-mast. In the fullest awareness that if  such an unusual and grandiose funeral were to come about, despite Resnais’ wish for an intimate ceremony, and his refusal to accept a Légion d’Honneur, both I and the entire public – and not just filmgoers – would be deeply moved. We might for example dedicate the next Festival de Cannes to him and hold a vigil to remember his achievements in the presence of the French President. His disciples are legion. I think he would perhaps laugh at this, but he  was a man I admired and loved for his ability to listen and his simplicity. He had the best kind of life… the life of his dreams.

(Source: The Huffington Post, 02/03/2014)