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Alain Resnais pays tribute to three influential French filmmakers Georges Melies, Marcel L Herbier and Eric Rohmer with this lighthearted film about happiness and the power of the imagination. Life Is a Bed of Roses is divided into three parallel narratives. The first section is set around the first decade of the twentieth century in the Ardennes, where Count Forbeck (Ruggero Raimondi) unveils his architect’s designs for a utopian city. In a modern day mirroring of this story, a group of professors now inhabiting Forbeck’s castle seek a new form of education through the use of the imagination, under the guidance of a guru named Guarini (Vittorio Gassman Big Deal on Madonna Street). The third segment depicts a Wagnerian fantasy landscape of kings and dragons, which arises from the imagination of the children of some of the professors at the school. With ingenuity and great craftsmanship, Resnais weaves together these three threads to make Life Is a Bed of Roses a compelling and entertaining mixture of drama, satire, comedy, fantasy and music.
Original Release
04/20/1983
US Release
08/19/1984
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Vittorio Gassman | Walter Guarini |
Ruggero Raimondi | Count Michel Forbek / Comte Michel Forbek |
Geraldine Chaplin | Nora Winkle |
Fanny Ardant | Livia Cerasquier |
Pierre Arditi | Robert Dufresne |
Sabine Azema | Élisabeth Rousseau |
Robert Manuel | Georges Leroux |
Martine Kelly | Claudine Obertin |
Samson Fainsilber | Zoltán Forbek |
Véronique Silver | Nathalie Holberg |
Directors
Writers
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Vittorio Gassman | Walter Guarini |
Ruggero Raimondi | Count Michel Forbek / Comte Michel Forbek |
Geraldine Chaplin | Nora Winkle |
Fanny Ardant | Livia Cerasquier |
Pierre Arditi | Robert Dufresne |
Sabine Azema | Élisabeth Rousseau |
Robert Manuel | Georges Leroux |
Martine Kelly | Claudine Obertin |
Samson Fainsilber | Zoltán Forbek |
Véronique Silver | Nathalie Holberg |
Andre Dussollier | Raoul Vandamme |
Guillaume Boisseau | Frédéric |
Sabine Thomas | Marie |
Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu | School Teacher |
Rodolphe Schacher | Pierre |
Jean-Claude Arnaud | Le conducteur de la camionnette / The driver of the van |
Lucienne Hamon | Juliette Watelet |
Jean-Louis Richard | Pére Jean Watelet / Father Jean Watelet |
Hélène Patarot | Thi Lan |
Flavie Ducorps | La fille de Nora Winkle / Nora Winkle's daughter |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Philippe Dussart | Producer |