Same Old Song

Life and love inextricably intertwined with and ventriloquised by song and cinema, as a source of both contemporary melancholy and malaise, and an uncanny redemptive power. Argues that if Paris was saved from the Nazis, then perhaps, in the years since, it has not been saved from the French themselves, and from the industrialisation of everyday aesthetic life. Possesses the rare quality of continuously improving as it goes along. See Bernard Stiegler, Symbolic Misery, Volume 1, pp. 20-44.

Pretty much the exact middle ground between the smart-yet-lightweight vibe of Not on the Lips and the smart-yet-mundane-and-hopelessly-bourgeoisie vibe of Private Fears in Public Places (utilizing cast from both, no less). Or as one character in the film puts it "absurd... incoherent, cold" which could just as well describe almost any of Resnais' films (to his credit, this line feels almost like a subtle in-joke). As much as i admired certain aspects of this, i'm not sure that i "got it".

The dubbed song gimmick doesn't work for me at all. It's a shame, too, because otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed it. The intertwining plots touch on some interesting emotional states and the performances sell them completely.