Love Unto Death

A French film set in a provincial town. Simon is an archaeologist. He lives with Elise. One day he collapses at home. The doctor comes, confirms the death, and tells Elise. Then he gets up. The doctor is unsure. Perhaps he was wrong, perhaps the man did not die. Simon says something else. He knows he died and came back. From there the film is a story about the after. He goes on living but is no longer the same person. A calm has come. Simon is not afraid of death and describes nothing about it. Elise cannot accept it. He has gone somewhere she cannot reach and she wants to follow. There is a couple as well. Jérôme and Judith are ministers; they work at a Protestant church and the four are old friends. The two ministers talk through belief. A miracle, an error, or a test. Simon has no answer and does not want one. What the narrative is interested in is not death but the one left behind: its idea is that the person who died reached an answer and the one remaining can reach none. Elise makes a decision. The narrative does not present it as a resolution. The form is very strange. Between the scenes there is a black screen with white particles falling across it; that interruption repeats many times through the film. The music is by Hans Werner Henze and plays over those passages. It is these passages rather than cuts that carry time. There is a great deal of talk. The narrative consists almost entirely of four people talking. The source is Jean Gruault's screenplay; he worked with Alain Resnais on several films. Sabine Azéma, Pierre Arditi, Fanny Ardant and André Dussollier are in the cast. Alain Resnais directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes formal experiment and philosophical films of conversation. Who it is not for: anyone looking for story; the narrative's event is over in the first ten minutes and the rest is entirely discussion.