Resnais picks up Silver Lion at Venice

Veteran French director Alain Resnais has a second Venice award to his credit with "Coeurs/Private Fears in Public Places". Based on the play by Alan Ayckbourn and written by Jean-Michel Ribes, "Coeurs" follows his Golden Lion in 1961 for "Last Year at Marienbad". Jean-Michel Ribes is an actor, director and writer best known for "Palace", "La galette du roi" and "Rien ne va plus".

Interviewed by Cineuropa, Resnais remembers: "During the first 45 minutes of Last Year at Marienbad, the audience reacted very violently, responding to the dialogue in the film with deafening laughter. I turned to the organisers: 'let’s stop the film, this is painful!' Then, after a series of images, most of the audience members began applauding, a respectful silence grew and, ultimately, the Golden Lion. My directing career could have ended definitively that night because I would never have been able to come back to Venice with another film." See the full interview here.