La vie est un roman (1983)

Director:

Alain Resnais

Writer:

Jean Gruault (writer)

Release Date:

20 April 1983 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy | Musical

Plot:

Three intertwined tales. On the eve of the First World War, Count Forbek starts to build a fantastic castle in the Ardennes forest...

Plot Keywords:

Education | Eccentric | Drugs | Dream

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Vittorio Gassman	...	Walter Guarini
Ruggero Raimondi	...	Comte Michel Forbek / Count Michel Forbek
Geraldine Chaplin	...	Nora Winkle
Fanny Ardant	...	Livia Cerasquier
Pierre Arditi	...	Robert Dufresne
Sabine Azéma	...	Élisabeth Rousseau
Robert Manuel	...	Georges Leroux
Martine Kelly	...	Claudine Obertin
Samson Fainsilber	...	Zoltán Forbek
Véronique Silver	...	Nathalie Holberg
André Dussollier	...	Raoul Vandamme
Guillaume Boisseau	...	Frédéric
Sabine Thomas	...	Marie
Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu	...	School Teacher
Rodolphe Schacher	...	Pierre

Also Known As:

Life Is a Bed of Roses (USA)

Runtime:

110 min | Argentina:111 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Colour:

Colour (Eastmancolor)

Certification:

Italy:T | UK:PG | USA:PG | Argentina:Atp

Company:

Fideline Films

2 utopian/idealistic experiments are contrasted... with fallible human beings responsible for results

A utopian experiment around the time of World War 1 is contrasted with an educational concourse/seminar of today. Both experiments look at idealistic solutions for the problems humans have of living with one another. Both experiments are "polluted" by idealism itself and by the very real human beings who take part in the experiments. Making a movie about philosophy is strange enough.... but this movie is a MUSICAL... and the music is lovely. The most interesting thing is that the tragedy and madness of the first experiment is contrasted with the comedy of the failure of the second experiment to make a broad statement about the inevitable failure of idealism in a world of fallible human beings. This technique is similar to Griffith's cutting in Intolerance.... Even as you laugh at the comedy, you can see how easy it would have been to fall into tragedy. The film is a perfect delight that sticks with you.

The two utopian experiments are contrasted with a medieval story that seems to comment on the other two stories....In fact, the medieval story is an idealistic view of the world as the children see it. So there are, in fact, three ideals contrasted. This makes for a very complicated structure which you may ignore if you just want to watch the interactions of the characters or listen to the delightful music.