Northwest Film Forum

Director Resnais plunges into the labyrinthine corridors of memory in MURIEL, a film that was years ahead of its time with its complex editing and its refusal to validate or discount its characters’ conception of the world around them. It premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in 1963, where it was hailed as a triumph by Jean Cocteau, Jean-Luc Godard and Henri Langlois, and won the award for Best Actress (Delphine Seyrig). A middle-aged widow living in an antique-stuffed apartment in Boulogne summons her ex-lover from Paris. At the same time, her stepson is dealing with the aftermath of his Algerian war experiences. Aided by cinematographer Sacha Vierny, the exquisite music of modernist Hans Werner Henze and the underrated contribution of soundman Antoine Bonfanti, Resnais creates a remarkably rich tapestry of emotional detachment that paradoxically becomes almost unbearably moving.

"One of the ten greatest films in the history of cinema." -SIGHT & SOUND
"Alain Resnais' 1963 film surpasses his better-known LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD and HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR." -CHICAGO READER