La guerre est finie
With Yves Montand, Ingrid Thulin, Genevieve Bujold.
France, 1966, 35mm, color, 122 min.
French with English subtitles.
Among Alain Resnais’ most stylistically accessible and politically committed films, La guerre est finie examines the consequences of a veteran Republican fighter’s (Montand) ardent dedication to the overthrow of Franco’s regime. Challenged by younger revolutionaries to realize that the center of political struggle has shifted away from him, he is forced to make choices about his life and political ideals. In a series of premonitions told in marvelous flash-forwards near the film’s conclusion Resnais makes a powerful statement about memory and aspiration, commitment and faith.
PRECEDED BY
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Guernica
Directed by Alain Resnais and Robert Hessens.
France, 1950, 16mm, black & white, 13 min.
Resnais’ powerful documentary layers fragments of Picasso's epic Guernica cancas and other paintings with Paul Elouard’s poetry to create a moving protest against war and a hymn to mankind’s still unrealized potential. One characteristic element of Resnais’ mature style evident in this early work is his use of montage to project a new vision of reality and to create a subtle, surprising interplay of visual image and literary text.