Mélo

For someone who made his name as an avant gardist and surfer of the New Wave Alain Resnais seems to be a closet dernier gardist with a penchant for stilted boulevard theater of another age. In his current release, Pas Sur le bouche he preserves almost intact an operetta from a bygone age and here, as long ago as 1986, he ploughs a similar furrow and even uses two actors from his regular repertory - Arditi and Azema - who will re-surface in Pas sur le bouche. Assuming that oiling the wheels of creaky vehicles is worth doing at all then Resnais does it as well as anyone and it would be bordering on the impossible to assemble a cast containing, in addition to Sabine Azema, Pierre Arditi (to say nothing of his sister), Fanny Ardant and Andre Dussolier and not produce a finished product worth watching. It also says a lot for panellists and juries that one of them saw fit to bung Azema a major Best Actress gong for her work here. It's difficult to nominate an audience for this but it would seem to be pitched at something between the semi-precious Gilbert Adair crowd and the popcorn brigade. 7/10