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L'Amour à Mort (1984)

Director: Alain Resnais

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From Time Out Film Guide

Azéma and Arditi are star-crossed lovers. When Arditi is 'resurrected' from a mysterious, fatal collapse, their love is intensified but confounded by his medical and spiritual status: is he a dead man? Has he been resurrected from an afterlife he doesn't believe in? Did he dream it? Cleric friends (Ardant and Dussollier) are enlisted to solve the conundrum, only to find their own beliefs compromised. It's shot in short, oddly stylised scenes, punctuated by mysterious footage of drifting plankton (make of that what you will). Both a discourse on love, life and belief, and a tale of extreme romantic love, it looks to be Resnais' most straightforward film to date. But there's a suspect, often humorous archness about it, to suggest he may be playing one of his biggest intellectual tricks yet.

Author: JG 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

Technoguy said...

Posted on Jan 08 2009 22:47 I found it hard to warm to this film. I like Resnais but this
treatment of life overshadowed by death:when is dead man not dead,when he's mysteriously ressurrected.Even
then he's like the walking dead to his lover who's only known him briefly.This is about love unto death and
beyond.What did he learn in the afterlife before his
strange ressurrection?He liked what he saw,may have
even wanted to stay.In his 'new' life with his partner
he's like McCavity the mystery cat when he's not doing
archaeology,liable to pop off or disappear.They prepare for his redeath by wanting to do all the things
they would have like to do if they'd have lived a normal
life.Their cleric friends(another couple) cannot convert
them to a more Christian view of life and death. Arditi
dies again after getting to make mad passionate love a few times to Azema.However Azema promises to join
him in the afterlife feeling against her friends'wishes
this is the best she'll ever know of love.They are forced to question whether their religious books have lost some
types of love in translation rendering their advice futile.
Small scenes are divided up by even smaller interludes
of music by Hanze Werner Heinze and scenes of either falling snow or dust motes.I found this device irritating
after a while.Azema goes off to join her dead lover
as she walks off into the dark.I found it dour and gloomy
beyond belief.

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