La vie est un roman (1983)

Director:

Alain Resnais

Writer:

Jean Gruault (writer)

Release Date:

20 April 1983 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy | Musical

Plot:

Three intertwined tales. On the eve of the First World War, Count Forbek starts to build a fantastic castle in the Ardennes forest...

Plot Keywords:

Education | Eccentric | Drugs | Dream

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Vittorio Gassman	...	Walter Guarini
Ruggero Raimondi	...	Comte Michel Forbek / Count Michel Forbek
Geraldine Chaplin	...	Nora Winkle
Fanny Ardant	...	Livia Cerasquier
Pierre Arditi	...	Robert Dufresne
Sabine Azéma	...	Élisabeth Rousseau
Robert Manuel	...	Georges Leroux
Martine Kelly	...	Claudine Obertin
Samson Fainsilber	...	Zoltán Forbek
Véronique Silver	...	Nathalie Holberg
André Dussollier	...	Raoul Vandamme
Guillaume Boisseau	...	Frédéric
Sabine Thomas	...	Marie
Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu	...	School Teacher
Rodolphe Schacher	...	Pierre
Jean-Claude Arnaud	...	Le conducteur de la camionnette
Lucienne Hamon	...	Juliette Watelet
Jean-Louis Richard	...	Pére Jean Watelet
Hélène Patarot	...	Thi Lan
Flavie Ducorps	...	La fille de Nora Winkle
Jean-Claude Corbel	...	Le héros légendaire
Jean-Michel Dupuis	...	Laplaud, le maître de la maternelle
Michel Muller	...	Bertin
Philippe Laudenbach	...	L'éducateur ennemi de la rêverie gratuite
Cathy Berberian	...	La nourrice
Marc Adjadj
Nelly Alard
Tony Ammirati		(as Tony Amirati)
Sébastien Angebault
Jérôme Anger
Michel Batilliet
Francine Bergé	...	Young Lady
Jean-Noël Bert
Philippe Besson
Tomasz Bialkowski
Patricia Bilal
Charlotte Bonnet
Bérangère Bonvoisin
Valérie Bousquet
Michel Brinquier
Linda Bruno
Robert Cantarella
Catherine Cauwet
Elisabeth Chailloux
Pierre Charras
Raphaëline Chauvière
Eve Cotton
Jean Crubelier		(as Jean Crubellier)
Yann Dedet
Garrick Dowhen
Jean-Pierre Dravel
Valérie Dréville
Nicolas Dumayet
Michelle Dumon
Jean-Marie Duprez
Thierry Ferrer
Serge Feuillard
Eric Franklin
Pierre Frano
Marie Gascon
François-Eric Gendron
Marjorie Godin
François Guétary
Jean Henry
Hervé Hiolle
Bernard Hug
Louis Julien
Pierre Julien
Laura Koffler
Chantal Ladesou
Kristine Lamouret
Jean-Claude Lecas
Noëlle Leiris
Annie Le Youdec
Jean-Pierre Lituac
Carole Lixon
Pierre Londiche
Ham-Chau Luong		(as Luong-Ham-Chau)
Janine Magnan
Fabienne Mai		(as Fabiène Mai)
Madette Marion
Anne-Marie Mayfair
Antoine Mikola
Françoise Morhange
Pierre Namia
Svetlana Novak
Charlène Paquette
Valérie Pascale
Jean-Pierre Pauty
Guylène Péan
Isabelle Pichaud
Odile Poisson
Luc Ponette
Françoise Rigal
Danièle Rimbaud
Marie Rivière
Yannick Rocher
Jean-Louis Rolland
Violetta Sanchez
Gabriella Sheer		(as Gabriella Scheer)
Caroline Sihol
Laurent Spielvogel
Valérie Stroh
Alexandra Szypulska
Nicolas Tronc
Jacques Vrignaud
Jean-Claude Weibel
Fabienne Guyon	...	Play back Elisabeth (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nathalie Holberg	...	Véronique
Martine Guillaud	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Alain Resnais

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean Gruault		writer

Produced by
Philippe Dussart	....	producer

Original Music by
M. Philippe-Gérard

Cinematography by
Bruno Nuytten

Film Editing by
Jean-Pierre Besnard
Albert Jurgenson

Production Design by
Enki Bilal
Jacques Saulnier

Costume Design by
Enki Bilal
Catherine Leterrier

Production Management
Jean Lara	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jean Léon	....	assistant director
Florence Malraux	....	assistant director
Guy Pinon	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Pierre Lenoir	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Philippe Brun	....	camera operator
Gérard Rival	....	grip
Alain Tanguy	....	electrician

Editorial Department
Jean-Pierre Besnard	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Cathy Berberian	....	singing voice
Fabienne Guyon	....	singing voice: Sabine Azéma

Other crew
Sylvette Baudrot	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Fideline Films
• Films A2
• Filmédis
• Les Films Ariane
• Soprofilms

Distributors

• Acteurs Auteurs Associés (AAA)
• Artificial Eye (1984) (UK)
• International Spectrafilm (1984) (USA) (subtitled)
• Soprofilms

Also Known As:

Life Is a Bed of Roses (USA)
A Vida É um Romance (Brazil) (TV title) (Portugal) [pt]
La vida es una novela (Argentina) (Mexico) [es]
Das Leben ist ein Roman (West Germany) [de]
I zoi einai ena romantzo (Greece) [el]
La vita è un romanzo (Italy) [it]

Runtime:

110 min | Argentina:111 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Certification:

Italy:T | UK:PG | USA:PG | Argentina:Atp

Company:

Fideline Films

2 utopian/idealistic experiments are contrasted... with fallible human beings responsible for results

A utopian experiment around the time of World War 1 is contrasted with an educational concourse/seminar of today. Both experiments look at idealistic solutions for the problems humans have of living with one another. Both experiments are "polluted" by idealism itself and by the very real human beings who take part in the experiments. Making a movie about philosophy is strange enough.... but this movie is a MUSICAL... and the music is lovely. The most interesting thing is that the tragedy and madness of the first experiment is contrasted with the comedy of the failure of the second experiment to make a broad statement about the inevitable failure of idealism in a world of fallible human beings. This technique is similar to Griffith's cutting in Intolerance.... Even as you laugh at the comedy, you can see how easy it would have been to fall into tragedy. The film is a perfect delight that sticks with you.

The two utopian experiments are contrasted with a medieval story that seems to comment on the other two stories....In fact, the medieval story is an idealistic view of the world as the children see it. So there are, in fact, three ideals contrasted. This makes for a very complicated structure which you may ignore if you just want to watch the interactions of the characters or listen to the delightful music.