Core text

Resnais, Alain, Muriel ou le temps d'un retour (Film: 1963)

Advance preparation for seminar discussion

1. In what ways is torture remembered in the film?
2. Discuss fragmentation and memory in the film.
   
3. Examine the role of objects in the film in remembering torture.
4. Discuss the figure of Muriel.
5. Discuss the character of Bernard in light of the following comment by the scriptwriter: 'J'avais été très frappé par la gêne des garçons qui revenaient de l'armée: ils étouffaient littéralement, comme si l'expérience qu'ils avaient vécue là-bas était incommunicable. C'était un secret trop lourd pour eux. Je voulais montrer cela aussi.' (Cayrol, cited in Wilson, p. 94). *
   

(* indicates topic of student presentation)

Reading on this film

• Armes, R., 'Lazarus in our midst: Muriel ou le temps d'un retour', The Cinema of Alain Resnais (London: Zwemmer, 1968), ch.6, pp.115-132.
  
• Bailblé, C., Marie, M. and Ropars, M.-C., Muriel : histoire d'une recherche (Paris: Galilée, 1974). See here.
• Branche, R., 'Mémoire et cinéma: à propos de "Muriel" d'Alain Resnais', Vingtième Siècle 46 (1995): 191-4. Accessible through CAIRN here.
  
• Britton, C., 'Broken images in Resnais's Muriel', French Cultural Studies 1, 1 (1990): 37-46. Available electronically via the Library here.
• Cardonne-Arlyck, E. 'Espaces muets et intimité perverse: de Muriel à Caché', Contemporary French and Francophone Studies 12, 2 (2008): 265-75. Available online via the Library here.
  
• Gauch, S., 'Muriel, or the Disappearing Text of the Algerian War', L'Esprit Créateur 41, 4 (2001): 47-57. Available online via the Library (Project MUSE) here.
  
• Hill, L., 'Filming Ghosts: French Cinema and the Algerian War', MFS Modern Fiction Studies 38, 3 (1992): 787-804. Available in JISC Journal Archives via Library here.
• Monaco, J., 'Bad Memories', Alain Resnais (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), ch.5, pp. 74-95.
• O'Brien, A. J., 'Manipulating Visual Pleasure in Muriel', Quarterly Review of Film and Video 17, 1 (2000): 49-61. Available electonically via the Library here.
• Silverman, M., Palimpsestic Memory: The Holocaust and Colonialism in French and Francophone Fiction and Film (New York: Berghahn, 2013), pp. 54-60. Available via Library as e-book here.
• Wilson, E., 'Muriel ou le temps d'un retour', Alain Resnais (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009), ch. 4, pp. 87-107.