Have you ever had the experience of getting together with an old friend you haven't seen for maybe ten, twenty, or thirty years? Ever had that experience where you pick up conversation with that person as if you had just seen them yesterday? No getting to know one another all over again, just continuing as it was many years ago.

Have you ever been the third wheel at such a get-together? Your spouse, for example, has invited an old high school chum for dinner and they spend the evening talking about all of their old gang and who married whom and who went off to war and never came back. You look at your spouse living in this other world and you wonder if this is the same person whom you thought you knew so well. You suddenly realize that there is a lot about your beloved that you really don't know so much about after all. All of those hidden memories packed away like memorabilia in an old trunk. Each of us strolls through our lives carrying a mind full of memories and experiences that make us who we are and which color our reactions to everything that happens. The older one gets, the more of this memory baggage is carried along.

Subjective memory is what the film Muriel is all about. In fact, the nature of memory and its influence on our experiences is the favorite subject matter of French director Alain Resnais. He liked nothing more than to explore how the experience of each person is shaped by an inescapable past. Each of the characters in Muriel is old enough to have accumulated many such memories. Time flies by so quickly and, as it scurries along, our respective histories pile up on us. Consider the lyrics of this song from Muriel, sung near the end by the character named "Ernest."

Not only autos go a hundred. How annoying.
Time too rushes on. How insane.
Take it easy, Mister Time, slow down on the curve!
Yesterday, a kid, today white hair.
"Already!"

It's at 25-30 we talk of how old we are "already."
At 35-40, we say it less; even less at 50, "already."
When very old, we don't say it at all.
We look at the old photos, see ourselves in mama's arms, full of joy.
She says, "He's six months, already."

Man always 30; woman 20 – a dream.
No hope; we must age and die.
There is happiness down here, but since we don't see it,
We prefer to fear the future, regret the past, and say,
"Already, already."

Historical Background: Speaking of memory, we tend to remember Alain Resnais as linked to the French New Wave because his first film, Hiroshima Mon Amour, appeared in 1959, which also was to be the birth year of the Nouvelle Vague. In point of fact, however, Resnais was older than the New Wave auteurs and came out of a more conventional film school background, rather than making the jump from critic to director. Resnais did, however, share the preference of the New Wave directors for jump cups and montage editing. Beginning with his second film, Last Year at Marienbad (1961), Resnais' films were and are often described as "difficult" or "impenetrable," not only for their typically deep thematic substance, but for the stylistic elements as well. Muriel (1963) was Resnais' third film, and was followed by such gems as La Guerre est Finie (1966), Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime (1968), Stavisky (1974), Providence (1977), Mon Oncle d’Amerique (1980), Life is a Bed of Roses (1983), and Melo (1986). Resnais' work will generally appeal more to those who enjoy cryptic wit and intellectual stimulation from a film than those looking for either conventional entertainment or an intensely emotional experience. Resnais often adapted literary works by the likes of such elliptical writers as Marguerite Duras, Henri Bernstein, Jorge Semprun, and Alain Robbe-Grillet. The script for Muriel was provided by Jean Cayrol, who had previously provided Resnais with the script for Night and Fog (1955) (one of the greatest documentary films of all-time).

The Story: The basics of the plot are fairly easy to describe, but reveal little about the film's essence. Hélène Aughain (Delphine Seyrig) is a middle-aged widow who sells antiques out of her home. She shares the apartment with her moody stepson, Bernard Aughain (Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée), son of her deceased husband, Gerard Aughain. On a whim, Hélène has invited an old flame, Alphonse Noyard (Jean-Pierre Kérien), to pay her a visit and stay awhile, despite that fact that she has a current lover, Roland de Smoke (Claude Sainval). Alphonse, who has spent the last fifteen years in Algiers, shows up at the train station, but Hélène is a bit late in arriving, which would be of little consequence except in the context of their previous relationship. When Hélène finally does arrive, it turns out that Alphonse has brought along his mistress, Françoise, though he coyly introduces her as his niece. Alphonse is presently married to a woman named Simone whom we never meet, though we do later encounter her brother, Ernest (who provided the song lyrics displayed above). As Alphonse and Hélène share old times and try to sort out their feelings for one another, past and present, Françoise feels like the third wheel mentioned above and begins to take an interest in Bernard, who is close to her own age. Bernard, however, is already involved with Marie Dominique (Martine Vatel).

Hélène takes her guests home and fixes up places for each of them to sleep. Bernard is somewhat displaced in the process and goes to live in the studio that Hélène also owns. Most of the rest of the film consists of the conversations involving these four main characters and a handful of others. What's interesting about these characters in the emotional baggage that each carries around with them in the form of their memories and how it colors their reactions to one another and the events in their lives. We learn that Hélène and Alphonse were lovers near the beginning of World War II. Both had witnessed the bombing of the seaport where Hélène still resides. At the pivotal moment in their affair, Alphonse had proposed marriage to Hélène, but the letter containing the proposal was destroyed by the man who had been asked to post it – Ernest. From Alphonse's point of view, Hélène never showed up for their rendezvous at the Globe d'Or that would have led to their spending their lives together. From Hélène's point of view, Alphonse had never been ready to commit to her. Hélène's more immediate problem is that she's become a compulsive gambler.

Bernard has another kind of memory in his portfolio – a very traumatic one. He had spent 22 months in North Africa during the Algerian War and had witnessed the titular young woman named "Muriel" being tortured to death by some of his comrades in arms. He had even contributed to her torture, though apparently less actively than the others, especially the ringleader of the group, Robert. Bernard is tormented by the memories of Muriel and spends much of his time collecting "evidence" of what happened. When some of that evidence is destroyed, he ultimately takes the task of exacting "justice" into his own hands.

Themes: The theme, as in many Resnais films, can be summed up as the vagaries of memory and how it shapes our personalities and perceptions.

Production Values: What makes this film special is the way that Resnais develops the rather thin plot with a mystifying playfulness. Using rapidly intercutting montage sequences, Resnais reveals the subjective perspectives of all of his four main characters, more or less concurrently. This extremely subjective technique is situated at the opposite pole of filmmaking philosophies from the realism often espoused by the New Wave directors and the Italian postwar Neo-realists. Resnais also gives us a sense of the psychological instability of his characters by repeated use of jump-cuts. There's also some surrealism in this film to suggest memory operations and their influence on each character's perception of present reality.

The cinematography is mostly noteworthy for its use of color. There are a lot of rich hues (suggesting the high emotional significance of many memories) but the saturation level is relatively low (suggesting the imprecision and fading of old memories). I would have preferred fewer dimly lit scenes. The musical score by Hans Werner Henze, a well-known composer of electronic music, is thoroughly abstract and surreal.

The best known of the cast members, by a wide margin, is Delphine Seyrig, who played Hélène. I thought her performance the best of the lot in this film. She can also be seen in Last Year at Marienbad (1961), Accident (1967), Stolen Kisses (1968), and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972). Jean-Pierre Kérien, who played Alphonse, also worked in Trapeze (1986). I would have liked to see Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée reveal a little more of Bernard's inner torment. The character of Françoise wasn't well enough developed for my taste, either. Whether the deficiency lies in the script or with Nita Klein's performance, I am uncertain.

Bottom-Line: I've enjoyed every Alain Resnais film that I've seen so far, without exception. This one is very interesting, but I wouldn't put it among the top tier of Resnais' work. Would I recommend it to a friend? I can think of a couple of friends to whom I might recommend this film, but I would not recommend it to most of my friends or acquaintances. If I did, I would expect most to stop asking me for suggestions. You have to have some patience and an intellectual bent to invest in a film like Muriel. Those who have already enjoyed other Resnais films are likely to find their way to this one as well. I wouldn't suggest it as a first exposure to Resnais. Muriel is in French with English subtitles and has a running time of 116 minutes.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age