Alain Resnais: La guerre est finie (1966)

To artists and historians, at least, the Spanish Civil War remains endlessly fascinating and inspiring. Alain Resnais' La guerre est finie (1966), crisply shot in black and white, deals with the shadow war that continued after the Mussolini and Hitler-supported Franco forces overthrew the fragile democratically elected republic in 1939. 

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was a key testing ground and prototype for the Second World War and did not really end until after the death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco (1892-1975). Even now in Spain, the period of rule by Franco and his Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista / Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive remains highly controversial and socially unresolved. Then again, in the USA, the American Civil War 150 years after its height is not fully absorbed, either. Perhaps neither ever will be.

La guerre est finie stars such international luminaries as Yves Montand, Geneviève Bujold and Ingrid Thulin. Yves Montand has the same kind of laconic strength of presence as Sean Connery and Clint Eastwood in the mid-1960s, but his historically grounded character can't perform the same type of near-miraculous decisive victories that their more archetypal James Bond or Man with No Name characters can.  For him, there is no particular saving of the day. Instead, the shadow war must go on through decades of exile.

La guerre est finie makes a perfect companion film for Costa-Gavras' 1969 masterpiece film Z. Not only do both have the continuity of Yves Montand in the starring role, but they also both have the cohesive and intelligent, intense and witty screenwriting of Jorge Semprún (1923-2011) to unite them. 

 Today's Rune: Possessions. 

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Marguerite Duras was no stranger to tragedy and complexity. Born in Saigon (April 4, 1914) as Marguerite Donnadieu just before the onset of the First World War, she lost both parents at a young age and subsequently became a writer; she changed her name to Duras while living in Nazi-dominated France during the Second World War. Her writing changed from a formulaic traditional style to more probing and deeper approaches, using flashback and memory sequences. Given that today is Hiroshima remembrance day, it's worth mentioning her screenwriting role in the 1959 black and white film, Hiroshima Mon Amour, directed by Alain Resnais.

Hiroshima Mon Amour [aka Hiroshima, mon amour] has a haunting tone and look, and tells the complicated stories of two people (played well by Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada) who fall in love in Hiroshima after the Atomic attack; both have survived the atrocities of war, and much is revealed about their pasts and the universally sorrowful human plight.













Marguerite Duras wrote 34 books (mostly novels), directed or co-directed some fifteen independent films, and died on March 3, 1996.

Today's Rune: Journey. 

Au revoir. . . . .

Alain Resnais: L'Année dernière à Marienbad

Alain Resnais' L'Année dernière à Marienbad / Last Year at Marienbad (1961) won't seem particularly bizarre to anyone even tangentially familiar with Surrealism, Existentialism, Theatre of the Absurd, The Twilight Zone (1959-1965) or David Lynch films. 

If you are not in an altered state at the beginning of this flick yet stick with it, you probably will be by the time it's done.

As Joyce Carol Oates posed the question also in the 1960s, where are you going, where have you been? Where are we now? Who are we? Where is here? Were we here before at Marienbad?  Who is the man with the Italian accent?  What does it mean if some things cast shadows and others don't?  Who is Godot and why are we waiting for him? Makes perfect sense that these kinds of questions might be inspired by the War, the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We need to be asking the same kinds of questions in 2011, too.

If nothing else, enjoy the visuals.

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Marguerite Duras was no stranger to tragedy and complexity. Born in Saigon (4/4/1914) as Marguerite Donnadieu just before the onset of the First World War, she lost both parents at a young age and subsequently became a writer; she changed her name to Duras while living in Nazi-dominated France during the Second World War. Her writing changed from a formulaic traditional style to more probing and deeper approaches, using flashback and memory sequences. Given that today is Hiroshima remembrance day, it's worth mentioning her screenwriting role in the 1959 black and white film, Hiroshima Mon Amour, directed by Alain Resnais.

Hiroshima Mon Amour has a haunting tone and look, and tells the complicated stories of two people who fall in love in Hiroshima (played well by Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada) after the Atomic attack; both have survived the atrocities of war, and much is revealed about their pasts and the universally sorrowful human plight.

Marguerite Duras wrote 34 books (mostly novels), directed or co-directed some fifteen independent films, and died on March 3, 1996.


Today's Runes: Defense; Flow.

Au revoir. . . . .