Another of Alain Resnais's examinations of the creative powers of the mind. The specific subject is a dying novelist's rather nasty fictional world and the richly ambiguous relationship of that world to the real one; and the treatment is marked by Resnais's patented juxtaposition of an icily elegant surface and troubled waters below. It is quite remarkable how undisturbed this surface remains, despite infusions of idiomatic British humor and scatological dialogue from scriptwriter David Mercer, who is perhaps best known for Morgan (this is Resnais's first film in the English language). John Gielgud as the randy old novelist delivers what might be his best screen performance, and Miklos Rozsa contributes one of the great musical scores of the Seventies, a darkly romantic work that harks back to the mood and manner of his film noir scores of the Forties. With Dirk Bogarde, Ellen Burstyn, David Warner, and Elaine Stritch. (1977) — Duncan Shepherd
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