Resnais’ (Last Year at Marienbad, Private Fears in Public Places) 48th feature sees him in accessibly playful form as he continues to explore the male mid-life (or in this case late-life…) crisis to witty and revealing effect.
While the basic tale of a man returning the discarded wallet of a woman who has just been robbed and proceeding to stalk, and be stalked by, her may sound contrived (and it is), Resnais is such a skillful artist that it’s almost impossible not to be sucked in.
Written by long-time collaborator Alain Robbe-Grillet, father of the Nouveau Roman, and himself a filmmaker of considerable note, this is a real narrative treat.
Visually sumptuous, this arresting brain-teaser of a film feels like a particularly playful old man’s metaphysical day-dream. It’s hard to believe that Resnais is now 87 years old and clearly more than ever in control of his directorial skills as this deceptively simple tale unpeels like an onion to explore the emotional twists and turns of ageing in a film part thriller and part psycho-sexual daydream.
