am i this stupid? am i an idiot? i've never felt so pissed, frustrated and a fool like this before. near the ending i was getting overstimulated and developing vertigo when the scene kept changing every fucking second to each and every character, and then the ending came up and i just straight up wanted to kms. i fucking hate every single second of because it was so well made. the characters chemistry was god tier, i was yearning for their love and nostalgic affair. in the end, i turned out to be more miserable than helene, i felt so enslaved in love.

am i this stupid? am i an idiot? i've never felt so pissed, frustrated and a fool like this before. near the ending i was getting overstimulated and developing vertigo when the scene kept changing every fucking second to each and every character, and then the ending came up and i just straight up wanted to kms. i fucking hate every single second of because it was so well made. the characters chemistry was god tier, i was yearning for their love and nostalgic affair. in the end, i turned out to be more miserable than helene, i felt so enslaved in love.

Admittedly, it took a minute for my brain to pick up on what was happening because a lot of the shots, while beautiful, kind of come at you real fast and scattered, to the point it can be a bit jarring. My favorite theme is the take on one character who actually experienced war and its atrocities and mirrored by someone who lies about his experience. The parallels are interesting and, while the pacing can be confusing because of jumping scenes and angles, it seems a bit intentional to sort of play on the idea of memories and how scattered they can be.

Admittedly, it took a minute for my brain to pick up on what was happening because a lot of the shots, while beautiful, kind of come at you real fast and scattered, to the point it can be a bit jarring. My favorite theme is the take on one character who actually experienced war and its atrocities and mirrored by someone who lies about his experience. The parallels are interesting and, while the pacing can be confusing because of jumping scenes and angles, it seems a bit intentional to sort of play on the idea of memories and how scattered they can be.

Muriel n’est jamais montré à l’écran mais pourtant en entendant son nom ça nous crée une sensation de honte et de dégoût envers Bernard. Bernard est hanté par se mauvais souvenir au point où il aimerait s’en détacher, bien qu’il fasse ça au début seulement en disant à Hélène que c’est en quelque sorte son épouse il ment pour se voiler la face et transformer se souvenir de haine en amour. Mais biensur ce n’est pas si facile que ça et la meilleure manière qu’il a eu de se détacher de se souvenir s’est en tuant son camarade militaire Robert qui est en quelque sorte ‘le souvenir de Muriel’. 

Dans le cas de Hélène elle aussi est hanté par un souvenir, le souvenir de son mari décédé et celui de son ancien amant. Un amant qui lui ment devant son visage en lui ramenant une maîtresse dans ça propre maison qui est beaucoup plus jeune que Hélène, comme pour montrer qu’Alphonse n’a pas eu besoin de Hélène pour avoir une vie épanouie, alors que Hélène souffre énormément et n’arrive pas à s’ouvrir jusqu’au point où elle est devenue antiquaire en vendant les meubles et sûrement ausis les meubles de son mari comme geste pour l’oublier et avancer.

Muriel n’est jamais montré à l’écran mais pourtant en entendant son nom ça nous crée une sensation de honte et de dégoût envers Bernard. Bernard est hanté par se mauvais souvenir au point où il aimerait s’en détacher, bien qu’il fasse ça au début seulement en disant à Hélène que c’est en quelque sorte son épouse il ment pour se voiler la face et transformer se souvenir de haine en amour. Mais biensur ce n’est pas si facile que ça et la meilleure manière qu’il a eu de se détacher de se souvenir s’est en tuant son camarade militaire Robert qui est en quelque sorte ‘le souvenir de Muriel’. 

Dans le cas de Hélène elle aussi est hanté par un souvenir, le souvenir de son mari décédé et celui de son ancien amant. Un amant qui lui ment devant son visage en lui ramenant une maîtresse dans ça propre maison qui est beaucoup plus jeune que Hélène, comme pour montrer qu’Alphonse n’a pas eu besoin de Hélène pour avoir une vie épanouie, alors que Hélène souffre énormément et n’arrive pas à s’ouvrir jusqu’au point où elle est devenue antiquaire en vendant les meubles et sûrement ausis les meubles de son mari comme geste pour l’oublier et avancer.

sentimental and realistic. beautiful cinematography. can feel a little disengaging and unnecessarily ambiguous but maybe that’s the point.

sentimental and realistic. beautiful cinematography. can feel a little disengaging and unnecessarily ambiguous but maybe that’s the point.

Less of a puzzle than Last Year at Marienbad and less fragmented than Hiroshima Mon Amour, Muriel, or the Time of Return’s examination of the past and the present is dependent upon secrets and mementos of the past surrounding the characters at almost all times. Living among antiques, Hélèn welcomes Alphonse - a past lover - and his supposed niece into her home. Bernard, her stepson, is not too fond of the arrangement, and is living with trauma of his own from the recent war. The way that Alphonse talks about war versus how Bernard talks about it is telling. The way that Bernard and Françoise talk about love is markedly different from how Hélèn and Alphonse talk about it. Ultimately, Muriel is about a failure to reckon with the past and how it builds upon the present. The opening sequence of Hélèn dealing with the demands of a client all while the image cuts between different detailwork of different antiques further supports this contrast between the past and modernity

Less of a puzzle than Last Year at Marienbad and less fragmented than Hiroshima Mon Amour, Muriel, or the Time of Return’s examination of the past and the present is dependent upon secrets and mementos of the past surrounding the characters at almost all times. Living among antiques, Hélèn welcomes Alphonse - a past lover - and his supposed niece into her home. Bernard, her stepson, is not too fond of the arrangement, and is living with trauma of his own from the recent war. The way that Alphonse talks about war versus how Bernard talks about it is telling. The way that Bernard and Françoise talk about love is markedly different from how Hélèn and Alphonse talk about it. Ultimately, Muriel is about a failure to reckon with the past and how it builds upon the present. The opening sequence of Hélèn dealing with the demands of a client all while the image cuts between different detailwork of different antiques further supports this contrast between the past and modernity