In all his film work Resnais constantly searches for new forms: "I want to make films that are experiments. All experiments are interesting." This implies a refusal of anything that seems like a mere repetition, yet despite this Resnais's work does have a unity. On the surface his short films form a heterogeneous agglomeration: films on art and the Spanish Civil War, negro culture, the concentration camps and the French national library, the prevention of accidents and the manufacture of polystyrene…. Resnais evolves his method of collaboration, lays down the basis of his style and clarifies his personal attitude to the issues raised. Above all the films are linked by the seriousness of mind with which each commission is approached…. (p. 37)

The content of Van Gogh's paintings [in his first short, Van Gogh] is selected and fused in the same way that a director might deal with real...