Mélo Alain Resnais

Released in 1986, the film is based on a boulevard theatre play written by Henri Bernstein in 1929, centred on a love triangle. Maniche is a spoiled emancipated woman married with the loving and carrying Pierre. The couple invites Marcel for dinner, a friend of Pierre from the Conservatoire and now famous violinist. Maniche is charmed by the visitor’s solitary look. The new love sees the daylight under the watch light of a paper moon.

Besides the naive tone which comes from the original melodrama, the director brings the conventions of the theatrical art. The fact that the film should be realistic is not relevant to Resnais. His actors have emphatic monologs shot in long takes. Besides, the French director would accentuate the meaningful moments by changing abruptly lightening having for sole motive spotlighting the actors’ emotions.

Mélo never gets hilarious; if the actors play like on the stage, limits of acting are not pushed further. Indeed, cinema is different from the theatrical representation since it’s capable to get closer to the subject, and “to penetrate” the events. Here, Resnais’ attention moves from the sentimental aspects of the plot to the observation of a neurotic existence.

Gabriela Filippi