Synopsis
In the midst of rehearsals for a new play, amateur dramatics proponents Colin and Kathryn receive the shattering news that their friend George is fatally ill and only has a few months to live.
2014 ‘Aimer, boire et chanter’ Directed by Alain Resnais
In the midst of rehearsals for a new play, amateur dramatics proponents Colin and Kathryn receive the shattering news that their friend George is fatally ill and only has a few months to live.
酣歌暢愛, Life of Riley: Aimer, boire et chanter, 사랑은 마시고 노래하며, Estimar, beure i cantar, Αγαπώντας, Πίνοντας και Τραγουδώντας, Amar, beber y cantar, რაილის ცხოვრება, Amar, Beber e Cantar, Любить, пить и петь, 纵情一曲
Omg what a WEIRD weird weird weird weird film — and a beautiful note for Alain Resnais to close on. I feel like this, next to THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE by Buñuel, is the last late film: how late can you go before you’re asked to go home and they start laughing at you and not with. So totally frivolous, silly, cheap-looking, and all the things you can say are wrong with it — but that makes it more touching? Alain Resnais is something of a Benjamin Button when it comes to his filmography: aging downwards, he embraced Penderecki and Robbe-Grillet early on and pares spiritually down to the lines of an Ernie Bushmiller, the pop of Kate Bush…
When it comes to Alain Resnai's career, clearly I struggle with his later work whose themes don't really connect with me. More importantly, the style of the films isn't one I love so I also have trouble with that.
Figuratively speaking, Alain Resnais is George Riley—the eponymous, unseen character of this delightful swan song by the late French master, who passed away just a year ago. As far as final films are concerned, Life of Riley couldn’t be a more appropriate send-off. This lively comedy of manners follows a group of high society old-timers coming to grips with the tragic news of their beloved Riley’s terminal illness. In the months leading to his death they prepare for a final stage play together, all the while reminiscing about Riley, talking about how great a man he was and how notorious his vices were—particularly his popularity with the opposite sex. He remains a playboy right to the last moment as the…
The first time Resnais cut from a master shot of someone speaking against an easily legible theatrical backdrop — one foot-wide vertical stripe of solid color next to another, the whole more or less suggestive of a real-world background — to a close-up of their head speaking against a black-and-white latticework, my immediate question was whether magnification was a new way to look at the same surface. I.e., did the two backdrops match and I'd just failed to make the connection? Not so; those heads are floating in an entirely different space. Similarly violent disjunctures throughout simultaneously encourage us to pay heightened attention to the artifice necessary to create a theatrical set and how this matches/is completely at odds with…
Whatever is going on here is beyond my ken. I think I like some aspects a lot and others I like a little. But this is not false humility; this mostly went straight over my head.
or Alain Resnais' YOU AIN'T SEEN AN INFINITELY MORE INTERESTING VERSION OF THIS LAST YEAR?
43/100
The play's the thing. You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet was brilliantly conceived, but that doesn't mean much if Anouilh's Eurydice doesn't interest you, as the film's many negative reviews made abundantly clear. By the same token, while I can appreciate Resnais' latest (and, sob, final) experiment with theatrical alienation devices, Ayckbourn's uncharacteristically thin and tedious...comedy? drama? it's so bland that I'm not even sure what was intended—anyway, it proves such a chore that no amount of ostentatiously fake shrubbery or weird decontextualized close-ups can compensate. (That's Ed, I confess that I did kind of gasp at the sudden, unexpected interior shot near the end. So that worked, at least.) Impending death once again a prominent theme, and the fact…
The circumstances of this movie are more wild than the movie itself. Riley is dying and his friends want to put on a play for him, sort of. In the lead is director Alain Resnais’ wife and some of his best friends in real life. Life of Riley was released a month after the death of its director, Resnais. It’s just not as entertaining or as strange as anything else I have see from Resnais, but it is just a bit more watchable than I would expect from the stage play set dressing, and overly chipper score.
Life of Riley is Alain Resnais imitating something similar with his previous film You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, and the result, while not up to par with his best work, is most certainly something that is worth your time. I've been a very big fan of Resnais, especially since Hiroshima mon amour and Last Year at Marienbad are two of my favourite films of all time. This being his swan song, I was hoping it would end his career in a bang, but while not quite that level I still enjoyed what I got right here.
Adapted once again from a play by Alan Ayckbourn, Life of Riley takes on a similar format which Resnais used for You Ain't Seen…
This film was never released in the theaters in Los Angeles, which is such a shame. I was waiting for it for so long. Then none of the libraries had the DVD, so I was going to rent it on iTunes, but I don't like how iTunes won't let you take screenshots. Found it at a video store near my work. I never rent videos anymore, but long story short, I had a bunch of credits and needed a third film to rent.
Less like Coeurs/Private Fears in Public Places (even though it's also based on a play by Alan Ayckbourn), it comes off more like Smoking/No Smoking (but not as long, not as good). Also leans in the same direction of Vous n'avez encore rien vu/You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet. Lots of characters, some strong performances, but overall, it's sort of weak. 6/10
i wanted to see this movie because it is mentioned in one of my favorite french books, but sadly i was disappointed :/
the acting was fake and unnatural. i don't think the problem comes from the actors: i've seen them in other movies and they are pretty good.
the staging was weird: i normally like the mix between different arts, especially theater with cinema, but here it was just badly done and too messy.