Alain Resnais’s Last FIlm “Life of Riley” on DVD

Cole Smithey

Kino Lorber Releases Life of Riley, the acclaimed final film of French master filmmaker and

New Wave innovator Alain Resnais

The cinematic swan song of the director of such renowned masterworks as Last Year at Marienbad and

Hiroshima Mon Amour will be released on Blu-ray and DVD March 10th with bonus features including booklet essays by Resnais and film critic Glenn Kenny

"One of the cinema's most lighthearted and free-spirited farewells." – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

"Ebullient, beautifully stylized." – Scott Foundas, Variety

NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 23, 2015 - Kino Lorber proudly announces that it will release LIFE OF RILEY, the final film from acclaimed filmmaker and influential master of the French New Wave style Alain Resnais (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad), and starring a fine ensemble cast including Sabine Azéma, Hippolyte Girardot, Caroline Silhol, Michel Vuillermoz, Sandrine Kiberlain, and André Dussollier, on Blu-ray and DVD.

LIFE OF RILEY is set to street March 10th with a SRP of $29.95 for the Blu-ray and $24.95 for the DVD. Bonus features include booklet essays by Resnais and film critic Glenn Kenny, as well as cast interviews and the trailer.

Resnais' final film takes an optimistic view toward the subjects of death and mortality. Based on the play by Alan Ayckbourn, the film tells the story of a man, diagnosed with terminal cancer, who invites three couples to a seaside resort. There, they discover aspects of their relationships that had previously hidden beneath the surface, and cause the couples to reconsider their own feelings toward each other.

LIFE OF RILEY was released theatrically by Kino Lorber in 2014, opening in New York at Lincoln Plaza Cinema to great acclaim before moving on to national markets. Now, Kino Lorber is proud to bring this cinematic swan song from one of the masters of world cinema to Blu-ray and DVD.

SYNOPSIS:

LIFE OF RILEY (Aimer, boire et chanter) is the joyous, life-affirming final film by French New Wave legend Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad).

Resnais' third adaptation of an Alan Ayckbourn play (after Smoking/No Smoking andPrivate Fears in Public Places), LIFE OF RILEY circles around the absent George Riley, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Three couples react to the news with various degrees of emotion. The women are each separately invited to a seaside resort by Riley, and hidden resentments and insecurities in each relationship bubble to the surface, causing a re-evaluation of each couple's love.

LIFE OF RILEY features an exuberant cast of Sabine Azéma, Hippolyte Girardot, Caroline Silhol, Michel Vuillermoz, Sandrine Kiberlain, and André Dussollier. Resnais shoots the film on artificial-looking sets, setting off actors against cross-hatched backgrounds as if inside a candy-colored comic strip. The film is a beautifully realized, improbably upbeat confrontation with mortality, and a fitting capstone to a monumental career.

Life of Riley – Trailer

LIFE OF RILEY

Director: Alain Resnais

Genre: Drama

Blu-ray and DVD Street Date: March 10, 2015

Blu-ray SRP: $29.95

DVD SRP: $24.95

BONUS FEATURES:

Booklet essays by Alain Resnais and film critic Glenn Kenny

Cast Interviews

Trailer

2.55:1, 16×9 / 108 minutes / French with optional English subtitles /
5.1 Surround / Color

About Kino Lorber:

With a library of 1,000 titles, Kino Lorber Inc. has been a leader in independent art house distribution for over 30 years, releasing over 25 films per year theatrically under its Kino Lorber, Kino Classics, and Alive Mind Cinema banners, including five Academy Award® nominated films in the last seven years. In addition, the company brings over 70 titles each year to the home entertainment market with DVD and Blu-ray releases under its five house brands, distributes a growing number of third party labels, and is a direct digital distributor to all major platforms including iTunes, Netflix, HULU, Amazon, Vimeo, Fandor and others.