Muriel

Muriel (, literally Muriel, or the Time of a Return) is a 1963 French psychological drama film directed by Alain Resnais, and starring Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée, and Nita Klein. Its plot follows a middle-aged widow in Boulogne-sur-Mer and her stepson—recently returned from military service in the Algerian War—who are visited by her ex-lover and his new young girlfriend. It was Resnais's third feature film, following Hiroshima mon amour (1959) and L'Année dernière à Marienbad (1961), and in common with those films it explores the challenge of integrating a remembered or imagined past with the life of the present. It also makes oblique reference to the controversial subject of the Algerian War, which had recently been brought to an end. Muriel was Resnais's second collaboration with Jean Cayrol, who had also written the screenplay of Nuit et brouillard (Night and Fog) (1956). Plot Set over a two-week period in 1962, Hélène is a middle-aged widow who runs an antique business from her own apartment in Boulogne-sur-Mer. She resides with her stepson, Bernard, who is haunted by the memory of a girl named Muriel whom he helped torture and murder while doing military service in Algeria. Hélène is visited by a past lover, Alphonse, whom she meets at the local train station one night. She finds he is accompanied by Françoise, a young aspiring actress whom Alphonse introduces as his niece, though she is in truth his young lover. That night, Françoise and Bernard go to walk around town, while Hélène and Alphonse reminisce at the apartment before she is met by her friend, Roland de Smoke, who arrives to escort her to the local casino. Left alone at Hélène's apartment, Alphonse finds Bernard's journal, in which he writes about Muriel, and how since her death he is "no longer alive." Meanwhile, Françoise and Bernard visit the seaside, where Françoise admits to Bernard that she is in fact Alphonse's girlfriend. Bernard abruptly leaves Françoise to wander the streets alone, and goes to spend the night in a seaside shack he often stays at. When Hélène returns to her apartment, she finds Alphonse angered by her leaving him alone, which stirs up several painful memories where she left him alone. Later, Alphonse admits that, during his military service, he had intended to marry Hélène, but she had refused his invitation to live with him in Algiers. Françoise returns to the apartment after the two have retired for the evening.