MELO

France, 1986, 112 minutes, Colour.
Sabine Azema, Fanny Ardant, Andre Dussollier, Pierre Arditi.
Directed by Alain Resnais.

Melo was written for the screen and directed by Alain Resnais. His celebrated career began in the '50s with such films as Hiroshima Mon Amour and then into the '60s and '70s with Last Year at Marienbad, Muriel, Providence. He has adapted a 1929 play by Henry Bernstein.

The film is designed as a filmed play, the credits with the hand turning the program page, the curtains presented at the beginning and the end of each act. Lighting and staging is very much from the perspective of an audience of a play. While this confines the action, it highlights the drama between the four principal characters. The cast is strong and have appeared in others of Resnais' films.

1.The impact of the drama? Character interactions? Psychological study?

2.The use of the play by Henry Bernstein, adaptation for the screen? The film as a filmed play, the device of the hands with the program, the curtain throughout the film? Staging, lighting, camera angles? The use of close-ups and tableaux for the interaction of two characters?

3.The 1926 setting, French attitudes of the period, relationships, the theatre, music, achievement? Moral stances? Marriage, affairs?

4.Pierre as the violinist, his achievement, his lack of achievement? Being satisfied with his life? His love for Romaine? The friendship with Marcel? Their discussions, reminiscences? The infidelity of Romaine, her affair with Marcel? Pierre and his ability to believe, his disbelief? His love for Christiane? Her care for him? The death of Romaine, his grief, illness, his collapse?

5.Romaine, her affection for Pierre, the sequence with Marcel, the meal, dining out, the dancing? Fidelity towards Pierre, infidelity? Her initiative with Marcel, the seduction? The relationship between the two? The effect on her? Moral dilemma, emotional dilemma? The pathos of her killing herself, the consequences?

6.Marcel, the master pianist, his relationship with Pierre, friendship? His lifestyle, performances, tours? The infatuation with Romaine, at Pierre's home, at the restaurant, the dancing? The affair, his love for her or not, the seduction? Her fascination for him? Their interactions, discussions about their relationship, about Pierre, about Christiane? The break between the two? Her death? His response to Pierre, Pierre's illness and collapse? His own career, more callow relationships? Finally playing the music with Pierre - the future of their friendship?

7.Christiane, her friendship with Pierre, her looking after him, consultations with the doctor, her love?

8.A portrait of four people, in a period, French sensibility, loves and betrayals, emotional achievement, collapse? The background of music and the final image?