Alain Resnais was born in Vannes in 1922. One of the principal French documentarists in the 1950's, he was strongly criticised for the anti-colonialist messages conveyed through Les statues meurent aussi (1952) and Nuit et brouillard. He made his subject short-length film debut with "˜Hiroshima, mon amour', which was deeply innovative on the level of film story-telling and the representation of psychological processes. He continued his career spending most of his effort in probing the depths of the human soul, making some of the milestones in the history of cinema such as L'anneÌe dernieÌ€re a Marienbad (1961), Muriel, ou le temps d'un retourn (1962), Mon oncle d'AmeÌrique (1979) and the latest Smoking, No smoking (1994).
