La vita è un romanzo

The film is outrageously surreal and amazing: 'Life is a Bed of Roses' opens in cinematic photography that flows in a beautiful image of an autumnal season with gentlemen in black cloaks and top hats, and with women in colourful ball gowns who converge in a flock on a green lawn within a forest.

The film engages interest from the very beginning with the cluster of characters, focusing our attention and intriguing us with striking and interesting dialogue - there are lots are ideas swirling around here. There is humour too -tending to be macabre, but intended to be childish as well.

And so, the film begins in the grounds of a forest in Arden where a strange castle is to be built by an eccentric and wealthy Count. The invited special guests 'coo' together in chorus of astonishment as the model of the fairy tale castle is revealed. The castle is decorated in a mixture of colours with imagination to the exotic and the orient -the design and the colours are inspiring to the imagination:

The story will revolve around the castle in 3 stories of different time zones, but not involving the same characters. Ingeniously, the film moves effortlessly and mysteriously in each time zone. It is like a story within a story, and there seems to be no boundary of time.....from an ancient kingdom that intrigues - like a Shakespearian play that is set in extraordinary colours in the forest.....to a present day that is set 60 years after the castle was built ( with a fleeting and a dreamy reference to WW1, which interrupted the full completion of the castle ).....and then of course back to the first part of the story with the original guests who viewed the model castle and are back again once the castle was completed.....

There is strange music which is significant to enhance the oddness of the story, and outbreaks of singing, which accords to the style of the filming....

To simplify and reveal some of the plot details: The castle was built as a temple to accommodate the guests to live with the Count and be part of an experiment by drinking a potion that will fulfil a rebirth to bring harmony and happiness....

The present day setting of the castle is used as a private and illusive school to educate children in a new wave of development: The Holberg method. Look out for Geraldine Chaplin as she arrives with her daughter in a car that breaks down in the forest leading up to the castle. It is the Forest of Arden as Geraldine gives reference to Shakespeare as she walks off to walk to the castle, and replies to her daughter, 'As You Like It' as her child then joins 3 other children who are playing in the in forest. There are very funny and engaging scenes with the children throughout the film....

Following in the present day, the castle has been reserved to hold a conference for visiting teachers who engage together on The Holberg project of education- the lady teachers speculate on aspects of love, but misjudge the outcome....

The general theme of the film speculates on whether love is a remedy for harmony and happiness - and if a rebirth of the heart of love can materialize into this genre of peace - and can the world be a better place to live without a leader?

There are indeed threads of ideas that fuse all 3 stories together: it is a collage of ideas mixed together with visual art that delights in surreal imagination. The film is directed by Alain Resnais, and is in tribute to 3 other French film makers -Geroges Melies, Marcel L'Herbier, and Eric Rohmer: hence 3 tales absorbingly connected in fascination and mystique.

I guess that if you are going to like the film, you either have to be slightly mad, or be like Salvador Dali? I love the film -it is timeless! I think it is truly a masterpiece of film making - it is astonishing and very interesting. I feel rewarded and refreshed as though I had participated in the film myself!

Also starring Fanny Ardant.... .

Watching the first few moments, you realize it's going to be a parody - and certainly it *is* a parody, but I'm not sure of what (a fairy tale? an opera? a Hollywoodian C-movie? - if there was something like that), and I can assure you it's not worth watching. It's simply a pointless film (cf. a good parody is everything but pointless), with pretentious, shallow speeches of extremely sketchy characters. It's like a commedia dell'arte. Or better, it's like a botched commedia dell'arte. And the score... sung in an intentionally incompetent way (something Greenaway will use much more efficiently), it *is* painful to listen to (unless one wears some sate-of-the-art earplugs, haha). Go for quality movies (e.g. A. Mitta's How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor, 1976) and steer clear of this mistake.

Resnais explores the concept of Utopia in three, intermingled timelines in this musical comedy. Actually, the film is so confusingly told that I had to read up on it a little before understanding it. Generally, though, it's a pretty enjoyable little film. In the modern timeline, a group of educators gathers at a castle at a symposium for alternative education. Geraldine Chaplin makes a bet that she can get the shy Sabine Azema to fall in love with Pierre Arditi. Vittorio Gassman also co-stars in this timeline. Another plot line follows the builder of that castle (Ruggero Raimondi) as he attempts to create a Utopian society after WWI. Fanny Ardant co-stars in that timeline. The third section is kind of an operatic fantasy. The production design is really neat, but I was at a loss as to what was going on there until very near the end of the film, where it became a bit clearer. The film is occasionally a musical, and the music is pretty decent.

A utopian experiment around the time of World War 1 is contrasted with an educational concourse/seminar of today. Both experiments look at idealistic solutions for the problems humans have of living with one another. Both experiments are "polluted" by idealism itself and by the very real human beings who take part in the experiments. Making a movie about philosophy is strange enough.... but this movie is a MUSICAL... and the music is lovely. The most interesting thing is that the tragedy and madness of the first experiment is contrasted with the comedy of the failure of the second experiment to make a broad statement about the inevitable failure of idealism in a world of fallible human beings. This technique is similar to Griffith's cutting in Intolerance.... Even as you laugh at the comedy, you can see how easy it would have been to fall into tragedy. The film is a perfect delight that sticks with you.

The two utopian experiments are contrasted with a medieval story that seems to comment on the other two stories....In fact, the medieval story is an idealistic view of the world as the children see it. So there are, in fact, three ideals contrasted. This makes for a very complicated structure which you may ignore if you just want to watch the interactions of the characters or listen to the delightful music.

I saw Life is a Bed of Roses as an admirer of Ruggero Raimondi, and I do think it is not going to please everybody with a sometimes sluggish pace, the choral interruptions sometimes infuriating and while the three part structure to be interesting with some great ideas introduced the story can lack coherency with some ideas coming across as half-baked and people may find it difficult to get into. However, it is filmed very handsomely with the set and costume design beautifully rendered especially in the last tale. The score is wonderful, giddy and haunting, I loved the theme of the perfectibility of human existence. Of the three tales I found the Forbek tale to be the most well-done with the firmest ending and a genuine sense of drama. The last story was great in idea but never satisfactorily explored, apart from Robert's relationship with his son, everything else seemed underdeveloped and clichéd. I also admire Resnis' ambition, this is clearly an ambitious film and is well-intended, but the execution didn't quite come together. The characters are deliberately kept at distance, and while most are not very easy to empathise with, I did think Robert and Forbek were well-realised. The acting is good though, Ruggero Raimondi always was a fine actor even in the operatic roles like Don Giovanni and Scarpia that he was famous for, and I think he was a big reason why the first tale was believable. Fanny Ardent and Geraldine Chaplin play their roles with ardour, Ardent in particular is incredibly radiant. and Vittorio Gassman is a good Walter. As for Pierre Arditi he does appear obnoxious at first, but plays his role also with pathos. Overall, an uneven film but quite interesting. 6/10 Bethany Cox