Alain Resnais: la mémoire de l’éternité par Éric Costeix
2016; American Association of Teachers of French; Volume: 89; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/tfr.2016.0124
ISSN2329-7131
Autores Tópico(s)Photography and Visual Culture
Resumodosage du non-dit à travers une esthétique dénudée d’artifices,mais c’est aussi l’examen radioscopique du sentiment d’empathie dans un univers aussi changeant qu’imprévisible. DePauw University (IN) Cheira Belguellaoui Costeix, Éric. Alain Resnais: la mémoire de l’éternité. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2013. ISBN 978-2-343-00935-3. Pp. 250. 24 a. In a monograph devoted to memory in Resnais’s work, one might not anticipate the extensive use of language borrowed from iconography and the Eucharist, any more than one would expect references to Michael Myers and the Halloween horror series. Yet all of this, and much more, figures into Costeix’s book. This densely-written study of the creation and preservation of memory in Resnais’s œuvre is provocative in the depth and breadth of its analysis. Although it focuses primarily on the early features Hiroshima mon amour (1959) and L’année dernière à Marienbad (1961), other Resnais films are examined too, including Mon oncle d’Amérique and Nuit et brouillard. Likewise , one finds references to a vast assortment of other filmmakers in just about every genre, from Renoir, Godard, and Truffaut to Hitchcock, Spielberg, and Woo. The examples all support the author’s assertion that Resnais is a filmmaker of Anamnesis and that cinema in general is the medium best suited for Remembrance (the capital letters are the author’s,a trait some readers may find distracting).This claim is unpacked over eight chapters that are accompanied by an introduction, conclusion, bibliography, and index (one regrets the absence of a filmography). Following an extensive first chapter that contextualizes Resnais in terms of philosophy (from Aristotle to Deleuze), literature (especially le nouveau roman), and film (Rive droite versus Rive gauche, influence of the New Wave), the text pursues its exploration of Hiroshima mon amour and L’année dernière à Marienbad.According to Costeix, these films not only represent, but also construct and sustain memory by working with and through a series of juxtapositions such as present-past, near-far, in-out, memory-forgetting, light-dark, solid-liquid,immobility-motion,body-spirit,pure-impure,animate-inanimate,realityimagination .As with the process of transubstantiation, these dualities are transcended by a sort of fusion which renders memory both universal and eternal. The union of stillness and movement is particularly striking, for still photos create an illusion of a permanent but forgettable present, while moving images become a form of memory in action. This emphasis on the image, argues the author, establishes Resnais as an iconophile and his cinema as a superior form of cultural memory, for film is a directlyaccessible medium that counteracts the human tendency to forget and leads toward catharsis and redemption. This analysis is reinforced by close study of Resnais’s innovative cinematography, notably his use of montage, still shots, and complex traveling sequences. Furthermore, consideration is given to the more technical facets of moviemaking , from the way filmic images are perceived by the human eye to the processes 198 FRENCH REVIEW 89.4 Reviews 199 whereby images are captured on film and projected on screen. This attention to form as well as content is one of the strengths of this work.While its intricacies may be a lot for non-specialists to absorb, it is worth the effort for anyone interested in the cinema of Resnais or the theme of memory and film. University of the Cumberlands (KY) Laura Dennis Dardenne, Jean-Pierre et Luc, réal. Deux jours, une nuit. Int. Marion Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongione. Fleuve, 2014. Comme son titre l’indique, le dernier film des frères Dardenne suit Sandra deux jours et une nuit durant, qui doit convaincre ses seize collègues de voter pour son maintien au sein de l’entreprise. Tâche difficile, car voter ainsi leur en coûtera: maintenir la jeune mère de deux enfants dans ses fonctions, cela veut dire pour eux renoncer à une prime de mille euros promise par leur patron. Émérites découvreurs de talents (Olivier Gourmet, Jérémie Renier, Émilie Dequenne), les frères Dardenne donnaient pour la première fois dans Le gamin au vélo (2011) le rôle...
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