French Literature Reviews - 2026

É. Costeix, Alain Resnais. La mémoire de l'éternité
Art and Visual Culture

Éric Costeix, Alain Resnais. La mémoire de l'éternité

Paris: L'Harmattan, coll. "Champs visuels", 2013.

EAN 9782343009353.
Price: 25 EUR

250 p.

Publisher's overview:

Alain Resnais's body of work has left a profound mark on world cinema. Balancing classicism and modernity, it is deeply rooted in a distinct literary, philosophical, and cinematic context. While referencing several of his other films as well as those of various contemporary and near-contemporary filmmakers, this book focuses primarily on the director's first two feature films, Hiroshima mon amour and Last Year at Marienbad. The methodological tools employed in the sequence analyses offer a uniquely original approach, uncovering a distinct visual rhetoric. They provide a fresh perspective on Alain Resnais's cinema, making a major contribution to broader discussions on the representation of the invisible. The memory images and mnemonic processes in Hiroshima mon amour and Last Year at Marienbad are grounded not only in the pursuit of instantaneous truth, but also in the quest for a privileged moment to recreate it in accordance with an ideal of eternity. Above all, this perpetual reminiscence rests upon an enigma whose origin is the "natural image," the ultimate model of imitation.

Éric Costeix holds a Ph.D. from the University of Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne in Arts and Art Sciences. He teaches film studies at the François Rabelais University of Tours. He is the author of Cinéma et Pensée visuelle, Regard sur John Carpenter and André Téchiné : Le Paysage Transfiguré (L’Harmattan).

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Alain Resnais and Modernity

1.1. Literature and Cinema

1.2. From Classical to Modern Cinema

1.3. Cinema, Temporality, and Thought

2. Memory in Image

3. A Fractured Memory: Between Guilt and Redemption

4. Memory in Action

5. Eternity: Between Mobility and Stasis

6. The Eternized Moment

7. The Memory of Water

8. A Framework for Eternity

Conclusion

Index

Bibliography

Alain Resnais remains a central figure in the French New Wave, a movement characterized by a departure from traditional narrative structures toward more experimental and subjective forms of storytelling. His work frequently engages with the intersection of literature and cinema, reflecting a broader intellectual interest in the nature of time and the subjective experience of history. This study focuses on the director's first two feature films, Hiroshima mon amour and Last Year at Marienbad, situating his aesthetic within the tension between classical conventions and modern cinematic language.

The analysis centers on the representation of memory and the pursuit of an eternal moment within the cinematic frame. The text examines mnemonic processes and the enigma of the natural image, addressing the interplay between guilt, redemption, and the fluidity of time. The book provides a perspective on the representation of the invisible in cinema. Readers interested in the intersection of film studies and the philosophy of time may find this examination of Resnais's early oeuvre relevant.