Product Details

• Actors: Sabine Azéma, Pierre Arditi, André Dussollier, Fanny Ardant, Jacques Dacqmine
• Directors: Alain Resnais
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: French
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: KINO VIDEO
• DVD Release Date: February 19, 2008
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0011367RK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #223,788 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

An incomparable masterpiece! --Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

Product Description

Alain Resnais, the legendary, daring, and acclaimed director of Night and Fog, Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Last Year at Marienbad, adds an offbeat entry into his stunning oeuvre with Mélo, a loose adaptation of Henri Bernstein s celebrated 1929 play. Resnais s first solo credit for screenplay in almost 40 years, Mélo tells the story of Marcel (Andre Dussollier) and Pierre (Pierre Arditi), two lifelong friends who are also concert violinists. While Marcel has gone on to stardom, Pierre has settled into a contented family life with his beautiful wife Romaine (Sabine Azema - A Sunday in the Country). But all is not perfect; Pierre is unaware that Romaine is having an affair with Marcel. For Mélo, Azema won the Cesar (France s Academy Award) as Best Actress, playing a woman so consumed by guilt, she eventually takes deadly measures to end her infidelity. Also featured in the film is renowned French actress Fanny Ardant (8 Women, The Woman Next Door).

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, July 8, 2008

By 

Mr. Steiner (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mélo (DVD)

Alain Renais' brilliant reworking of a melodramatic 1920's play is a highly creative act of directorial experimentation. Taking a largely vacuous story of a love triangle between a concert violinist and his friend's wife, Renais is able to transcend the limitations of his material through the brilliance of the performances and the exquisite mise en scene. This is a true masterpiece of form, and a genuine testament to the filmmaker's considerable talent.

5.0 out of 5 stars One of his best., January 20, 2012

By 

Yoselovich Boris - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mélo (DVD)

I like A.Resnais' films.They always deal with the issues that interest me - love,passion,memory,conscience.For me "Melo" is one of his best,with outstanding performances from S.Azema,P.Arditi and A.Dussolier.It's a painful story about a love triangle between good,old friends and it's tragic consequences.Great playing,nice cinematography,taut and viewer-friendly (A.Resnais is famous for his rather complicated narration) script makes this movie a real pleasure to watch.Highly recommended.

4.0 out of 5 stars Mélo, for melodramatic, July 13, 2011

By 

J. A. Eyon "Little Raven" (Seattle - USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mélo (DVD)

producer Marin Karmitz explains in the utterly fascinating featurette available in the Kino DVD how the movie came about - how he enjoyed the 1929 stage play by Henri Bernstein - but needed to make a movie on a meager budget

the result is a totally (or almost totally) set bound movie - but brilliantly rendered natural by the use of theater motifs - eg - a program like you would get at the theater is used for the credits - and relatively large leaps of time are indicated by shots of a closed curtain - there are even some obviously fake backgrounds in the first scene

i kept expecting the camera to backup and reveal an audience - but it never did

the story is a formula love triangle - the dialog is 1929 melodramatic - often spelling out in overwrought terms that would nowadays be left for the audience to fill in - still for me - outside those moments - it was a fascinating character study

the actors helped - Resnais' usual suspects - Sabine Azéma - André Dussollier - Pierre Arditi - and in a smaller role - Fanny Ardant - all acquitting themselves very well

as usual - it's a visual treat - but more intense than usual for Resnais thanks to the old fashioned play - while i didn't enjoy it as much as other films these people made - it did keep me wondering and caring how things were going to turn out