Muriel is the most difficult, by far, of Resnais' three feature films, but it is clearly drawn from the same repertoire of themes as the first two. (p. 23)

The reason Muriel is difficult is because it attempts to do both what Hiroshima and what Marienbad did. It attempts to deal with substantive issues—war guilt over Algeria, the OAS, the racism of the colons—even as Hiroshima dealt with the bomb, pacifism, and collaboration. But it also, like burden of this double intention—to be both concrete and abstract—doubles the technical virtuosity and complexity of the film….

Unlike Hiroshima Mon Amour and L'Année Dernière à Marienbad, Muriel directly suggests an elaborate plot and complex interrelationships. [Resnais] gives us a chain of short scenes, horizontal in emotional tone, which focus on selected undramatic moments in the four main characters…. Muriel, like L'Année Dernière à Marienbad, should...