Alain Resnais: a decade in film.
(DVD or VCD)

Special features include: Trailer for "Life is a bed of roses", "Love unto death", "Mélo", "I want to go home" on each respective disc. "Life is a bed of roses" disc includes "Resnais est un roman" a documentary on the making of La Vie Est Un Roman. "Love unto death" disc includes interview with Pierre Arditi. "Mélo" and "I want to go home" discs include interview with Marin Karmitz.

Life is a bed of roses: Vittorio Gassman, Ruggero Raimondi, Geraldine Chaplin, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi.

Love unto death: Sabine Azéma, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi, André Dussollier, Jean Dasté.

Mélo: Sabine Azéma, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi, André Dussollier, Jacques Dacqmine.

I want to go home: Adolph Green, Laura Benson, Linda Lavin, Gérard Depardieu, Micheline Presle.

Life is a bed of roses (1983): The film is divided into three strands or parallel stories. The first part is set around the first decade of twentieth century in the Ardennes, where Count Forbeck (Raimondi) unveils his architect's designs for a utopian city of happiness. In a modern day parallel, a group of teachers and professors now inhabiting Forbek's baroque castle, seek a new form of education and enlightenment through the use of the imagination and under the guidance of another guru, Guanini (Gussman).The third segment depicts a Wagnerian fantasy landscape of kings and dragons, the imaginations of the children of some of the professors at the school.

Love unto death (1984): Simon and Elizabeth, an affectionate couple who live happily in love until Simon experiences a sudden and seemingly fatal seizure. When he revives miraculously, Simon grows increasingly obsessed with his brush with death until another seizure ends his life.

Mélo (1986):Tells the story of two lifelong friends and violinists, Marcel and Pierre. While Marcel has gone on to stardom, Pierre has settled into a contented family life unaware that his wife is having an affair with Marcel. Plagued by guilt, Pierre's wife eventually takes deadly measures to end the affair.

I want to go home (1989): Cleveland cartoonist Joey Wellman accepts an invitation to show his work at an exclusive Parisian gallery. He suffers the pains of travel to a foreign country in hopes of reconciling with his estranged daughter Elsie, who is trying her best to rid herself of her American provinciality and become French by emulating the great intellectual Christian Gauthier.

MDA rating: NC16.

DVD; NTSC; region 1.

In French with optional English subtitles.

I want to go home: Venice Film Festival, Golden Osella: Best Screenplay, 1989, Jules Feiffer

I want to go home: Venice Film Festival, Pasinetti Award: Best Film, 1989, Alain Resnais