Alain Resnais Cycle at the Alliance

Cinephiles ahoy! check out  the Alain Resnais Cycle starting Wed. July 6th, 6:30pm at the Alliance Française auditorium in Mumbai.                

It kicks off with Stavisky, which Resnais based  on the life of the financier and embezzler Alexandre Stavisky  and the circumstances leading to his mysterious death in 1934. This gave rise to a political scandal known as the Stavisky affair , which led to fatal riots in Paris, the resignation of two prime ministers and a change of government.

The film featured two of the most talented actors of their time: Jean Paul Belmondo as Stavisky and Anny Duperey as his beautiful wife, Arlette.  The dialogue is sharp, pointed, tightly framed, and complex. Every scene contains a lingering spatial depth and a feeling of weighted drama, colored by flashbacks and dream sequences that are rendered with fragile grace. All the while, a narrator who watches through binocular lenses follows the subtle subplots of Stavisky's love affairs, sporting affairs, and legal affairs. A thumping musical score from Stephen Sondheim completes this masterwork.