July 18th: SAME OLD SONG (Alain Resnais, 1997)

Six people connected in various ways are caught up in romantic interests.

Considered a peripheral member of the French New Wave, Alain Resnais was older than most of his contemporaries in the movement. He studied both theatre and film editing before the mid-1940s, and after spending time in the army during World War II, made a series of documentary shorts, most notably Night and Fog, about the Nazi concentration camps. His first two features, Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Last Year At Marienbad, were revolutionary in their narrative structures and experiments with non-linear time.

By the 1980s, Resnais had moved into somewhat lighter fare, having assembled a group of regular acting collaborators, and began integrating the other arts (music, theatre, opera) into his films. The two-part production Smoking/No Smoking, adapted from a British play, introduced him to writing and acting team Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri, who won a César award for their screenplay.

Resnais's producer suggested the filming of an opera, but Resnais instead began developing an original script with Jaoui and Bacri. He also wanted to pay tribute to British screenwriter Dennis Potter, whose best-known works Pennies From Heaven and The Singing Detective had characters singing period-specific songs to reflect their mental states. The choice was made to select songs from the whole history of French popular music, including modern recording artists, excerpts from which would be lip-synced on screen by the actors, usually in the middle of normal dialogue.

Joining Jaoui and Bacri in the cast are other Resnais regulars André Dussollier, Pierre Arditi, and Sabine Azéma (also the director's wife), as well as Lambert Wilson (the Matrix trilogy) and singer/actress Jane Birkin. Songs used in the film include artists such as: Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Dutronc, Josephine Baker, Charles Aznavour, Maurice Chevalier, Édith Piaf, Johnny Hallyday, and Birkin herself.

The film was shot on location in Paris, by cinematographer Renato Berta, veteran of works by Louis Malle, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, and Resnais. The visual approach is straighforward compared to earlier Resnais films, aside from one scene where images of sea creatures are overlaid with shots of the actors.

Same Old Song was a big success in France financially and critically. It won 7 Cesar awards, including Best Film, Actor (Dussollier), Supporting Actor (Bacri), Supporting Actress (Jaoui), and Original Screenplay for Jaoui and Bacri. Jaoui would move onto directing her own films, and Resnais finished his career with more stage/musical adaptations.

Running time is 2 hours.