La vie est un roman (1983)
(Life Is a Bed of Roses)
Country: FR
Technical: col 111m
Director: Alain Resnais
Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Ruggiero Raimondi, Geraldine Chaplin, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi, Sabine Azéma
Synopsis:
A post-modern château in the Ardennes becomes the setting for three interlocking tales set in different periods, as the castle is put to varied uses: the Middle Ages (pantomime dungeons and dragons with the oppressed poor turning to religion), the First World War (a wealthy survivor's flawed utopian scheme to achieve happiness for his elite friends) and the present day (a conference on the future direction of education).
Review:
Exuberant and somewhat wayward revue on the theme that life is best being anything but a bed of roses: the singing is downright weird, the foreign accents (Raimondi, Gassman, Chaplin) an annoyance, and the modern section is more like a trivial sex comedy. Overlong, tedious and pretentious it was part of a new direction towards theatre in the director's work, no doubt influenced by his wife Azéma, which would last the rest of his life.
(Life Is a Bed of Roses)
Country: FR
Technical: col 111m
Director: Alain Resnais
Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Ruggiero Raimondi, Geraldine Chaplin, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi, Sabine Azéma
Synopsis:
A post-modern château in the Ardennes becomes the setting for three interlocking tales set in different periods, as the castle is put to varied uses: the Middle Ages (pantomime dungeons and dragons with the oppressed poor turning to religion), the First World War (a wealthy survivor's flawed utopian scheme to achieve happiness for his elite friends) and the present day (a conference on the future direction of education).
Review:
Exuberant and somewhat wayward revue on the theme that life is best being anything but a bed of roses: the singing is downright weird, the foreign accents (Raimondi, Gassman, Chaplin) an annoyance, and the modern section is more like a trivial sex comedy. Overlong, tedious and pretentious it was part of a new direction towards theatre in the director's work, no doubt influenced by his wife Azéma, which would last the rest of his life.
(Life Is a Bed of Roses)
Country: FR
Technical: col 111m
Director: Alain Resnais
Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Ruggiero Raimondi, Geraldine Chaplin, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi, Sabine Azéma
Synopsis:
A post-modern château in the Ardennes becomes the setting for three interlocking tales set in different periods, as the castle is put to varied uses: the Middle Ages (pantomime dungeons and dragons with the oppressed poor turning to religion), the First World War (a wealthy survivor's flawed utopian scheme to achieve happiness for his elite friends) and the present day (a conference on the future direction of education).
Review:
Exuberant and somewhat wayward revue on the theme that life is best being anything but a bed of roses: the singing is downright weird, the foreign accents (Raimondi, Gassman, Chaplin) an annoyance, and the modern section is more like a trivial sex comedy. Overlong, tedious and pretentious it was part of a new direction towards theatre in the director's work, no doubt influenced by his wife Azéma, which would last the rest of his life.