Mon oncle d'Amérique

The lives of three disparate people, an uppercrust raised public news director (Roger Pierre), a middle class socialist actress (Nicole Garcia), and a farmboy turned factory manager (Gerard Depardieu) lives intertwine at moments of crisis, and all to demonstrate the social theories of scientist Henri Laborit (who also appears as himself. Alain Resnais My American Uncle is supremely directed, acted, and edited. very unique and sometimes fascinating while employing clips from nature, laboratory mice, and old French movies featuring Jean Marais, Jean Gabin, Danielle Darrieux.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Hiroshima, mon amour

A French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) shooting an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a local architect (Eiji Okada) and the two sustain a lengthy conversation which conjures up both memories of the bombing and, for her, those of her childhood and a disturbing incident during the German occupation. With its dreamlike, unrestricted narrative, Alain Resnais' Hiroshima, mon amour was an instrumental work that helped to break the mold of conventional filmmaking and usher in the French New Wave films of the 1960s. Written by Marguerite Duras, it features tremendous performances from Riva and Okada and stunningly bleak photography.

Last Year at Marienbad

At a party at a French chateau, a woman referred to only as A is approached by a man known only as X who tries to convince her they met a year ago at another gathering, while another man, M, who may or may not be her husband, looms in the shadows. Alan Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad, from a screenplay by Alain Robbe-Grillet, is a hypnotic, jigsaw puzzle of a movie which achieves the incredible feat of suspending disbelief entirely in a work completely devoid of plot.