Product Review

Alain Resnais s Muriel, or The Time of Return, the director s follow-up to Last Year at Marienbad, is as radical a reflection on the nature of time and memory as its predecessor. The always luminous Delphine Seyrig (Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles) stars as an antique shop owner and widow in Boulogne-sur-Mer, whose past comes back to haunt her when a former lover reenters her life. Meanwhile, her stepson is tormented by his own ghosts, related to his service in France s recently ended war in Algeria. Featuring a multilayered script by Jean Cayrol, and inventively edited to evoke its middle-class characters political and personal realities, the fragmented, emotionally powerful Muriel reminds viewers that the past is always present.

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Excerpt from the 1980 documentary Une approche d Alain Resnais, révolutionnaire discret
- Excerpt from a 1969 interview with actor Delphine Seyrig
- Interview with composer Hans Werner Henze from 1963
- New interview with film scholar François Thomas, author of L atelier d Alain Resnais
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by film scholar James Quandt