Muriel (film)

''Muriel'' (french: Muriel ou le Temps d'un retour, link=no, literally ''Muriel, or the Time of a Return'') is a 1963 French psychological drama film directed by Alain Resnais, and starring Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée, and Nita Klein. Its plot follows a middle-aged widow in Boulogne-sur-Mer and her stepson—recently returned from military service in the Algerian War—who are visited by her ex-lover and his new young girlfriend.

It was Resnais's third feature film, following ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) and ''L'Année dernière à Marienbad'' (1961), and in common with those films it explores the challenge of integrating a remembered or imagined past with the life of the present. It also makes oblique reference to the controversial subject of the Algerian War, which had recently been brought to an end. ''Muriel'' was Resnais's second collaboration with Jean Cayrol, who had also written the screenplay of '' Nuit et brouillard'' (''Night and Fog'') (1956).

Plot

Set over a two-week period in 1962, Hélène is a middle-aged widow who runs an antique business from her own apartment in Boulogne-sur-Mer. She resides with her stepson, Bernard, who is haunted by the memory of a girl named Muriel whom he helped torture and murder while doing military service in Algeria. Hélène is visited by a past lover, Alphonse, whom she meets at the local train station one night. She finds he is accompanied by Françoise, a young aspiring actress whom Alphonse introduces as his niece, though she is in truth his young lover. That night, Françoise and Bernard go to walk around town, while Hélène and Alphonse reminisce at the apartment before she is met by her friend, Roland de Smoke, who arrives to escort her to the local casino.

Left alone at Hélène's apartment, Alphonse finds Bernard's journal, in which he writes about Muriel, and how since her death he is "no longer alive." Meanwhile, Françoise and Bernard visit the seaside, where Françoise admits to Bernard that she is in fact Alphonse's girlfriend. Bernard abruptly leaves Françoise to wander the streets alone, and goes to spend the night in a seaside shack he often stays at. When Hélène returns to her apartment, she finds Alphonse angered by her leaving him alone, which stirs up several painful memories where she left him alone. Later, Alphonse admits that, during his military service, he had intended to marry Hélène, but she had refused his invitation to live with him in Algiers. Françoise returns to the apartment after the two have retired for the evening.

At dawn, after tensions have calmed, Hélène and Alphonse spend a pleasant morning together strolling through the city, imagining the life they could have had together. Bernard again encounters Françoise on the street while riding his bicycle, and later briefly speaks with his girlfriend, who informs him she has been admitted to university in Montevideo. Alphonse later strolls along the seaside with Françoise, who tells him that she must leave him when they return to Paris. Hélène and Alphonse have lunch at a cafe, where they encounter Robert, whom Bernard served alongside in the war. She urges Robert to speak with Bernard, whom she worries has become stunted after returning from the war.

Ernest, Alphonse's brother-in-law, arrives in town, demanding he return to his wife—this revelation shocks Hélène. Later, it is revealed that Bernard has murdered Robert. In the midst of the series of troubling events, Alphonse's wife, Simone, arrives at Hélène's empty apartment. She walks from room to room, but finds no one there.

Structure

The story takes place over 15 days in September–October 1962. The published screenplay, which is divided into 5 acts, provides specific dates and times for each scene, but these are not apparent in the film. An extended sequence takes place on the first day (Act 1, a section lasting about 45 minutes: the introductions of Alphonse and his 'niece' Françoise to Hélène and Bernard, their first meal together, and then their separate evening pursuits). Another long sequence takes place on the last day (Act 5: the Sunday lunch and its revelations, and the scattering of the principal characters in their different directions). The intervening days (Acts 2–4) are represented in a series of fragmented scenes, which are chronological but seldom consecutive.Jean Cayrol, ''Muriel: scénario et dialogues''. (Paris: Seuil, 1963.)

Cast

* Delphine Seyrig, as Hélène Aughain, a widowed antique dealer, about 40 years old, who retains obsessive memories of her love affair with Alphonse when she was 16, and the unexplained manner of their separation in 1939.
* Jean-Pierre Kérien, as Alphonse Noyard, Hélène's sometime lover, who says he has spent many of the intervening years in Algeria running a bar.
* Nita Klein, as Françoise, an aspiring young actress having an affair with the much older Alphonse, and biding her time before leaving him.
* Jean-Baptiste Thierrée, as Bernard, Hélène's stepson, recently returned from doing his military service in Algeria where his role in the torture of a girl called Muriel has left him with traumatic memories.
* Martine Vatel, as Marie-Do, the intermittent girl-friend of Bernard who is ready to set off for a new life in South America.
* Claude Sainval, as Roland de Smoke, a Boulogne property-developer and amorous friend of Hélène.
* Laurence Badie, as Claudie, a friend of Hélène with whom she shares a taste for gambling.
* Jean Champion, as Ernest, the brother-in-law of Alphonse.
* Philippe Laudenbach, as Robert, a fellow-soldier with Bernard in Algeria, now an active member of the OAS.
* Françoise Bertin, as Simone
* Jean Dasté

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