Alain Resnais, the iconic French film director, has died at age 91. He continued making films until he died, premiering his latest at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Resnais is best known for his two legendary films - Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Last Year At Marienbad.
Producer Jean-Louis Livi told the AFP that he died Saturday in Paris “surrounded by his family and friends.” His latest film was Life of Riley, based on Alan Ayckbourn’s play. The film won the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin Film Festival last month.
Resnais began his career in documentaries, culminating with the famous Holocaust short film, Night and Fog. The 30-minute film was one of the first films to show the deserted concentration camps left by the Nazis. Variety notes that the film earned the Jean Vigo prize and was even nominated for a BAFTA.
However, he began showing an interest in features, beginning with 1960’s harrowing romantic film Hiroshima, Mon Amour, written by Marguerite Duras. She was nominated for an Oscar for the script, which bent time and space to tell the story of an affair between an actress (Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese businessman.
His other masterpiece is the mind-bending Last Year At Marienbad, written by Alain Robbe-Grillet, who was also nominated for an Oscar. That film centers on an unnamed man and woman who may or may not have met at a resort before.
Resnais was a favorite at the Cannes Film Festival. His My American Uncle won the 1980 Special Jury Prize and he received the Cannes lifetime achievement award in 2009. His last film to compete there was 2012’s You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet. He was “a giant of the film world,” Cannes festival head Thierry Fremaux said Saturday.
Resnais is survived by his second wife, Sabine Azema.
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