French film director Alain Resnais (born 1922) was one of the most noted innovators in the history of twentieth- century film. His many film credits include Night and Fog, Hiroshima, Mon Amour, and Marienbad.

After paying his dues as an actor, editor, screenwriter, and assistant director in the 1940s and 1950s, Resnais emerged as a leading member of the French cinema's New Wave. His themes, which frequently involve memory, history, and time, revolutionized film conventions. Resnais's films typically involve characters who, though their outward appearances seem conventional, inevitably find themselves caught up in existential dilemmas. In the course of his career Resnais has collaborated with many top writers, among them Marguerite Duras, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jean Gruault, Jorge Semprun, and Jean Cayrol. As one of the foremost proponents European art cinema, Resnais has profoundly influenced other film makers, if only by forcing them to examine their own assumptions about their...