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Muriel, or The Time of Return
Muriel, or The Time of Return
7.6
/10
2,059 Ratings

MURIEL, OR THE TIME OF RETURN

Muriel ou Le temps d'un retour

Directed by Alain Resnais
France, Italy, 1963
Drama

Synopsis

A middle-aged widow, living with her stepson, reunites with an old flame, and both grow increasingly haunted by their own past. Meanwhile, the stepson, a former soldier, is troubled by the memory of a girl named Muriel who he met while deployed in the Algerian War.

Synopsis

A middle-aged widow, living with her stepson, reunites with an old flame, and both grow increasingly haunted by their own past. Meanwhile, the stepson, a former soldier, is troubled by the memory of a girl named Muriel who he met while deployed in the Algerian War.

Our take

A richly nuanced drama of memory and history, this enigmatic masterpiece was Alain Resnais’s overwhelming follow-up to Last Year at Marienbad. A tale of personal and political hauntings starring the magnificent Delphine Seyrig, Muriel is as breathtakingly edited as it is emotionally devastating.