After X finishes his story, A is still unsure. And so is the audience. There are clues that support different interpretations. Did X make this story up? Is he simply a stalker who fell in love with a stranger and made up a fantasy about the year before? It is possible that A was killed the year before and he is talking to a ghost, a memory. It may even be possible that this same scene plays out year after year, with each year A promising to leave with X the next year.
This is hard a film to get into at first. The majority of the film contains voice-over narration of previous events or even the characters’ thoughts. Scenes jump between years. The direction is abstract. Background characters stand around like statues instead of moving naturally. There appears to be a shooting gallery in the hotel’s grand halls. The hotel itself changes over the course of the movie. As much emphasis seems to be put on the hotel’s décor as the characters.
While this may seem pretentious, it illustrates the themes of the story. The background people acting like statues illustrates that when someone is in love the only thing that matters is their lover. The changing scenery shows how fuzzy memory can be and how our nostalgia can betray us. The emphasis on the surroundings shows how important a single place can be in our lives. The abundance of narration shows us that our perceptions of events and reality can be drastically different.
Resnais uses some other interesting techniques to tell his story. Deep focus is used so the characters and the posh backgrounds are always in focus. No character is given more importance in a shot; it is a story of three people, and of the place. The music is driving, but played mainly on an organ. It is violent and haunting at the same time. Long tracking shots emphasize the dreamlike state of the movie.
This movie may take more than one viewing to fully appreciate. Resnais is not interested in telling you an easy-to-digest story, he is more interested in evoking a mood, and challenging the viewer to think. It makes you reflect on love, memory, loss, and life.
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