Muriel, or the Time of Return
Director: Alain Resnais
Year Released: 1963
Rating: 1.0
If you asked me to name you the most challenging and impenetrable films ever made (that I've seen), this film would probably be at - or very close to - the top of the list (Ruiz and Hou can't be neglected, either). A work designed to infuriate with cryptic dialogue and rapid editing, it's as if Resnais thought, after making Hiroshima, Mon Amour and his masterpiece Last Year at Marienbad, that they were too lightweight and too elementary in execution and he really needed to puzzle the hell out of everyone. After two viewings of Muriel - the last one being about six years ago - I'm not convinced this is rewarding in the slightest (unlike either Marienbad or Hiroshima, Mon Amour), merely a work of narrative trickery, terminal coyness and diminished returns. Perhaps I'm not the ideal audience the director requires - or as "attentive" as I should be - but since I'm still not sure what the movie's about (aside from faulty memory ... or the curse of memory, in the case of a soldier), or that the characters are 'real' on any level, I can't claim to care very much. Gets credit (and a boost up from zero stars after the first viewing) for daringness, but little else.
