Actually those are the two films that I like the least from Resnais!
I really like Le Guerre est finie and have been planning on posting about it on the Notebook for some time. Resnais doing a thriller, very cool, but somewhat of a disappointment after Muriel, but what wouldn’t be?
“But what wouldn’t be?”
Indeed, some of Resnais’ “lesser work” feels very disappointing compared to his own greater work, and yet few of Resnais’ films that I have seen are near “bad” (though, for my buck, Melo was pretty durned bad).
—PolarisDiB
La Guerre est Finie was a “comeback” for Resnais after the commerical disaster of Muriel (his greatest film)
Stavisky is a marvel but its chief components are Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer and Stephen Sondheim — with Semprun bring up the rear.
Melo is a masterpiece.
Brandon
Just watched the two Jorge Semprun-written Resnais films “The War Is Over” and “Stavisky…”. Very good movies, both having themes of exile and great performances by mainstream stars. Both are explorations of huge political events (aftermath of the spanish civil war and the 1934 stavisky scandal) that tell personal, small-scale stories instead of re-telling the stories that were in the newspapers. Pick up the published screenplays also – cheap used copies are available online.