Film Forum

France, 2014
Directed by Alain Resnais
Starring Sabine Azéma, Hippolyte Girardot, Caroline Silhol, Michel Vuillermoz,  Sandrine Kiberlain, André Dussollier, Alba Gaïa Kraghede Bellugi
Adapted from the play Life of Riley by Alan Ayckbourn
DCP. Approx 110 min. In French with English subtitles.

“Resnais’ gentle, muted swansong… A trio of couples are united in shock and anxiety as they hear that their old friend, George Riley, is terminally ill, with just a few months left. All of the women have some emotional or sexual history with Riley (who, like Godot, remains absent from the stage) and when they sentimentally invite him to take part in an amateur drama production they’re involved with, these long-submerged tensions rise to the surface.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
 

Reviews

“The film’s surreal levity conveys the amused, farsighted perspective of an old man whose sense of the absurd hasn’t curdled into bitterness.”
– Stephen Holden, The New York Times