Blu-ray, DVD Release: Muriel, or The Time of Return

By
Laurence
– May 26, 2016Find Others: Blu-ray, DVD, Movie, New Release, NewsGet More: , ,

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 19, 2016
Price: DVD $22.99, Blu-ray $27.99
Studio: Criterion

Alain Resnais’s (Je t’aime, Je t’aime) 1963 drama Muriel, or The Time of Return, the director’s follow-up to his landmark Last Year at Marienbad, is as radical a reflection on the nature of time and memory as its predecessor.

Delphine Seyrieg in Muriel, or The Time of Return

Delphine Seyrig in Muriel, or The Time of Return

The always luminous Delphine Seyrig (Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles) stars as an antique shop owner and widow in Boulogne-sur-Mer, whose past comes back to haunt her when a former lover reenters her life. Meanwhile, her stepson is tormented by his own ghosts, related to his service in France’s recently ended war in Algeria.

Featuring a multilayered script by Jean Cayrol, and inventively edited to evoke its middle-class characters’ political and personal realities, the fragmented, emotionally powerful Muriel reminds viewers that the past is always present.

Presented in French with English subtitles, Criterion’s editions of the film contain the following:

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Excerpt from the 1980 documentary Une approche d’Alain Resnais, révolutionnaire discret
  • Excerpt from a 1969 interview with actor Delphine Seyrig
  • Interview with composer Hans Werner Henze from 1963
  • New interview with film scholar François Thomas, author of L’atelier d’Alain Resnais
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • An essay by film scholar James Quandt
Buy or Rent Muriel, or The Time of Return
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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.