Love Unto Death (1984) User Reviews

Agape/Thanatos

[Polaris_DiB · 8/10 · 10 July 2009]

Alain Resnais films are uncanny in the way that they aren't really edited for continuity, but instead the shot seems to finish right where a memory has edited. Love unto Death is at times a quiet existential drama and a roundly creative magical realist movie, and either way treats the audience to a whole new aspect of the Eros/Thanatos relationship... or perhaps creates a new relationship, that of Agape/Thanatos.

The beginning is like a bizarre surrealist horror movie. A woman desperately runs around the house while a man lays dying in his bed--did she kill him, or what happened? Soon that tension is dissolved as a doctor arrives and pronounces him dead, but from there a newer, stranger drama begins: the man wakes up, and after being dead the woman and man fall in love to actually quite tragic consequences. Meanwhile, their friends, who are both priests, watch on and submit their own debate into the nature of love, faith, and devotion.

Resnais always seems to have some device to make these sorts of narratives work, and what's so amazing about his films is that those devices always work. In this case, Resnais intercuts the scenes with shots of snow falling to an arousing orchestral score, which fades off and bleeds into the subsequent shots that continue the story. Trapped in this elegiac aside periodically, the film develops a rhythm not too unlike an epic poem, and I got strange flashbacks to Dante's Divine Comedy from this one, despite the lack of direct reference within the movie. Resnais is known as a very poetic filmmaker but this extends past just the cinepoem structure to something that forces a degree of introspection in the viewer, which has the possibility to bring to surface some odd recollections. Memory-narrative, Resnais creates.

--PolarisDiB

The Necessity of Remembrance

[ilpohirvonen · 8/10 · 24 February 2011]

After going through a huge financial failure in 1967 with Je ta'ime, je t'aime Resnais rose back in 1977 with Providence. In 1980 he came up with My American Uncle which was quite a financial success and, got even an Oscar nomination for Best Writing. Alain Resnais has always been able of creating something completely original and breaking all expectations, shaking the way we look at film and creating new rules. He has always been interested in past and memory, he sees memory as an instrument of imagination through which one tries to reconstruct one's past. He has been portraying these time travelers who are in between of past and presence (Je t'aime, je t'aime), who keep asking themselves what happened in Hiroshima and Marienbad, Algeria and Spain. L'amour à mort wasn't the first time Resnais dealt with memory and oblivion, but unlike in his other films, he portrayed our attempt to try avoid remembrance and the necessity of it.

L'amour à mort is the director's tenth feature and to my mind represents a certain climax in his career. The film requires its viewer to throw oneself into the wonderfully confusing world of the director and accept his unique rules of the game. It's an ambitious, unusual and rich film, full of clever insightful details that please the viewer at so many levels.

Resnais has always made the unexpected. After seeing Providence (1977) and My American Uncle (1980) I was expecting a somewhat similar film. But what I got was something completely different, in a good way, since I ended up liking L'amour à mort more than the two mentioned before. Unusually for Resnais the film has got a linear storyline: Elisabeth and Simon are a couple, deeply in love. All they need is each other, and their only friends are the priest Jérôme and his wife Judith. One day, in the first scene, Simon dies but resurrects during the same scene. First he doesn't remember anything about his afterlife experience but eventually things start to come up to his mind; a river he had to cross, sounds and a melody he tries to catch.

The film focuses on discussions about life and death between Simon, Elizabeth, Jérôme and Judith. Simon and Elizabeth don't really believe in God, but don't care enough to recognize atheism. Judith is somewhere in between and Jérôme is, as a priest, a fundamental Christian, who is unable of commenting anything without a bible verse. Alain Resnais is religiously an agnostic. He doesn't claim that he understands the universe but isn't interested in religious riddles. Resnais has said that L'amour à mort isn't a philosophical film, which might be quite hard to believe at times. Since the film has got a strong existentialist touch but perhaps Resnais wanted to highlight that this is more of a film about love. Love and death, and how they interbreed.

In the end, Simon decides to commit a suicide because he is unable to live after experiencing something in hereafter, he has to get back there. It is absolutely necessary for him to remember it. When Simon has killed himself Elizabeth finds herself in a dead end - she's a prisoner of love. This brings an intriguing perspective on the film; is Alain Resnais depicting the paradox of love and freedom? The characters certainly talk about freedom, and this brings us back to the existentialism in the film. Certainly the conception of freedom in L'amour à mort is indeterministic; we are not guided by fate, but our choices are necessary, so we aren't free. Elizabeth is still controlled by her emotions, her love for Simon from whom she can't let go. Love is Elizabeth's religion and death guides it.

Love you to death

[jotix100 · 6/10 · 15 August 2009]

In a solitary house in the country, a botanic researcher, Elisabeth, coming home happens to see her lover sprawled on the floor, by the bed. She cannot do anything to wake him up and calls a doctor, who proceeds to tell Elisabeth the man is dead. Imagine our surprise when moments later, Simon, refreshed and somewhat recuperated appears to her. Fortunately for the couple, the doctor made a mistake in his assessment.

Alain Resnais' film is from the period where he was involved in more esoteric matters. Working with his frequent collaborator, Jean Gruault, he made a film that deals with the obsessions of Simon with death, and how he deals with it. Elisabeth, who loves Simon, wants him so, that even she decides to do whatever it takes to follow Simon to the beyond. The film is told in brief scenes interspersed by blackness, what one can interpret as a trip to the beyond among galaxies, or a trip during a dark night in the midst of a snow storm.

Mr. Resnais was preoccupied by questions about theology that have no easy answers, as Simon is told by a couple of Protestant ministers, Judith and Jerome. In fact, Jerome offers a sarcastic advice to Elisabeth at a low point in her desperation over having lost Simon. "What if there is nothing?", he asks her. Elisabeth finds out about Judith own involvement with Simon, something she did not even suspect.

The director brings back the four principals, Sabine Azema, Pierre Arditi, Fanny Ardant, and Andre Dussolier together again. Having worked with them in the making of "La vie est un roman", must have impressed him to include them in his new film. The actors show great chemistry following Mr. Resnais orders in this enigmatic film. The film wants to make the viewer ponder on that ultimate moment of our lives.

An easy to understand film from renowned French Cinéaste Alain Resnais

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 7/10 · 11 February 2008]

Master cinéaste Alain Resnais likes to work with those actors who are a part of his family.In this film too we see Resnais' family members like Pierre Arditi, Sabine Azema, André Dussolier and Fanny Ardant dealing with serious themes like death,religion,suicide,love and their overall implications on our daily lives.The formal nature of relationship shared by these people is evident as even friends, they address each other using a formal you.In 1984,while making L'amour à mort,Resnais dealt with time,memory and space to unravel the mysteries of a fundamental question of human existence :Is love stronger than death ? It was 16 years ago in 1968 that Resnais made a somewhat similar film Je t'aime Je t'aime which was also about love and memories.Message of this film is loud and clear :true and deep love can even put science to shame as dead lovers regain their lost lives leaving doctors to care for their reputation.L'amour à mort is like a game which is not at all didactic.It is a film in which the musical score is in perfect tandem with its images.This is one of the reasons why this film can easily be grasped.

Love And Death And The Whole Damn Thing

[writers_reign · 23 May 2004]

Resnais assembles four staples of his repertory company for a downbeat exploration of love, faith, death, call it what you will - or twelfth night.

You need stamina to sit through a sub-Bergman philosophical tract that not only doesn't get anywhere but doesn't seem to WANT to get anywhere. You could argue that it's better to travel hopefully than to arrive and you could further argue that with fellow travellers of this quality - Sabine Azema, Andre Dussollier, Pierre Arditi, Fanny Ardant - it's not even bad to travel indefinitely and if you are one of those then this is the journey for you but a short break it's not. As is to be expected from such a stellar cast the acting is certainly out of the right bottle but frailer hearts may wish to exchange this bottle for the one with the skull and crossbones on the label long before half way. For olive lovers only. 7/10

For those who enjoy near-death - or even death - experience.

[guy-bellinger · 6/10 · 8 August 2022]

Not my favorite work by Resnais. What I liked the most about « L'Amour à mort » was the interpretation, especially that of Sabine Azéma, who gives herself 150% to her character, exploring all its facets, from her frenzy of panic to her final iron determination through all sorts of intermediate states. Pierre Arditi is amazing in a morbid role, in which he is not a specialist, to say the least. Fanny Ardant shows a welcome restraint in her role as a pastor while Dussollier is rather dull, in accordance actually with his character and his ready-made answers, taken from the Bible.

As for the direction, the editing and camera movements, they are, as always with Resnais, full of mastery and the whole thing is presented both in an experimental and traditional style (as of "Last Year at Marienbad" and "Melo" were juxtaposed in the same continuum). It, personally, got bothered by its experimental side, namely the musical inserts on a black background sprinkled with luminous flakes. They interrupt the thread of the narrative no less than... 52 times! With a music by Hans Werner Henze (nothing to do with "Pas sur la bouche" or "On connaît la chanson"!) which got on my nerves: for me the contemporary music score suggests too easily the psychic imbalance (which, in my opinion, should be present in the live sequences) while underlining in large strokes the "dialogue with the beyond". If one is sensitive to this score, there is no doubt that it will give an extraordinary relief to this "call from beyond"; unfortunately, it did not work for me, it only provoked irritation and constituted, by what I would qualify its pretentious abstraction, a brake to the emotion. Worse, these musical tableaux encroach greatly on the development of the story and prevent a psychological deepening, which would have contributed to a better adhesion: it would have been a good point for example to have Elizabeth's passionate love for Simon "felt" rather than given for granted. We know one thing about Simon: he is attracted to death, but what about his power of seduction over Elizabeth (and thus over the viewer)? We also know too little about his job as an archaeologist. The same goes for Elisabeth's job as a scientific researcher, we only get snippets of it. Didn't the passion about research (Simon's on the past, Élisabeth's for the future) bind the two lovers, at least partly though?

At first, I thought I would like the film without reservations, especially given the intensity of the opening: Simon's "false" death, his "resurrection", Elizabeth's distraught reaction. The rest of the film also resonated with me, when it came to the desire of the couple not to miss out on life, to live each moment of their existence to the full, to travel. But then came Simon's fascination for the "other side". A fascination I do not share at all. Those undefined creatures from that undefined « beyond » (a timeless elsewhere heavily symbolized by the river and its eddies) may attempt to attract me, like they do Simon, I won't heed their call. For what do they offer him once he has crossed the Styx? Not much in truth: nothing else but their vague company in the heart of a no man's land where after a terrible feeling of cold one feels good! A soft bliss, a stagnant beatitude, which looks very much like the paradise of religion and its eternal and unchanging happiness.

I felt like shouting "Take care of yourself, Simon, you have a young, lively, pretty companion, and you prefer joining these inconsistent specters!" "And you, Elisabeth, what madness this Paschalian bet is, to die in order to eventually join (even if there is only one chance in a million!) your missing lover. This is nothing but the delusion of a sick mind. A completely insane hope".

I finally lost interest, mainly on account of Elizabeth's behavior, presented as the height of love-passion, as the summit of mad love, therefore as subject to admiration. I am afraid I do not admire Élisabeth. I respect her, I take note of her determination but do not approve of it. As Judith says, by dying to join Simon (with an infinitesimal chance of success), Elisabeth kills future loves, future children, of potential future beautiful things. The worst thing, she is apparently unaware of, is that by killing herself, she has a 99.9% chance of also killing... the memory of Simon. In my opinion, this collateral damage is a very bad move, not to be admired.

All in all, a very well directed and superbly acted film, but whose four characters remained light years away from me. It's probably because I don't share the fascination for death of Simon, Elisabeth, Resnais or the scriptwriter Jean Gruault (who had already worked in this register with "La chambre verte" for Truffaut). Of course, if you are fond of near-death, or even death, experiences, you will react differently.

troubling but somewhere too long

[Dubman · 7/10 · 24 April 1999]

Perfect cast for a few-person drama. Simon is dead but somehow resurrects from outside. What he had seen there is displayed in form of blank spots orchestrated to a magnificent score by German avant-garde composer Werner Henze. Simon is haunted by his death, comforted by support of death people he'd seen on the other side. His girlfriend tries to hold him to life but failing to, decides to follow him after his finally occurring death. Very touchy and moving, deeply psychological, but a bit slow and somewhere even boring.

Somewhat interesting, but it's ruined by an annoying editing technique

[zetes · 5/10 · 9 March 2014]

A Bergmanesque drama about mortality and religion. In the opening scene, Pierre Arditi dies in front of his girlfriend, Sabine Azema, but then miraculously comes back to life as if nothing happened. It changes his outlook on existence, and the two go through something of a spiritual journey. Their best friends (Fanny Ardent and Andre Dussollier), both pastors at their church, try to guide them via their religion, but they don't quite buy into the Christian views. This film certainly has its interesting points, and the acting is very good. The religious and philosophical discussions are a bit flat and certainly not up to Bergman's level. Whatever I could have enjoyed in this film, though, is absolutely ruined by a horribly annoying editing gimmick: the film is comprised of very short vignettes, which is fine, but when one of these scenes ends, the film cuts to a black background with snow (or perhaps dandruff) floating around in front of it. A pretty image, once, but these shots last anywhere from ten to thirty seconds, and this must happen a hundred times. I would say these snowy shots take up a good 30 minutes of this 90 minute film. To boot, they are accompanied by a loud, obnoxious, dissonant musical score. Resnais might as well have just shouted "BRECHT!" between each scene. At least it would have been faster!

A uniquely unsettling film

[philosopherjack · 12 April 2024]

Alain Resnais' L'amour a mort is a uniquely unsettling film, stark and stripped down and unerringly focused, seeming by its nature to demand a deeply personal response but forging a rigorous cinematic space that precludes any easy identification or sentimentality. The film starts in the midst of trauma as Simon (Pierre Arditi) suffers an attack and is pronounced dead by the doctor; he comes back to life though, the whole event initially seeming like an amusing embarrassment, and one sparking a sense of liberation as Simon feels free to cut ties with people he doesn't like and to plan trips around the world. But he becomes increasingly preoccupied with the idea that he did actually die, studying the Bible and talking about how he glimpsed the afterlife, and then he's gone, with his partner Elisabeth (Sabine Azema) immediately becoming obsessed by thoughts of joining him. The couple's best friends are married clerics, allowing a certain amount of theological debate, and the film's closing words assert a belief in resurrection, but the prevailing sense is of a love and accompanying rationalization that lacks any ready explanation or reference points. Resnais closes off all easy points of explication: Simon and Elisabeth have been together for only a few weeks, undercutting any sense of a long-established love; one of the married friends reveals to Elisabeth that she and Simon had an affair years earlier and even entered into an unsuccessful suicide pact (the film daringly suggests that suicide might not be antithetical to religious belief, but rather central to it); despite the film's preoccupation with endings, Elisabeth works as a biologist developing new plant species and Simon is an archaeologist, both in their different way focusing on origins (which, however, are also inherently forms of closure). Resnais punctuates the film's mysteries with shots of swirling snow against a black background, or similar evocations of an unknown elsewhere, as if the film itself were aspiring to transcend conventional form and existence, to merge with the unknown.