Annual Top Films Lists

Top 200 Most Anticipated Films for 2014: #122. Alain Resnais’ Life of Riley

Published on February 13, 2014

The Life of Riley

Director: Alain Resnais
Writers: Alain Resnais, Jean-Marie Bessett, Laurent Herbiet, Caroline Silhol
Producer: Jean-Louis Livi
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Sandrine Kilberlain, Sabine Azema, Andre Dussollier, Hippolyte Girardot

Another great auteur that’s had a considerable increase in output over the past several years has been Alain Resnais. He follows up his experimental 2012 film You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet with this film, which sees him returning with some regular cast members like Azema (we’d be shocked not to see her in the lineup since she’s married to the director), Dussollier and Girardot. While this sounds a bit like a wizened version of some recent Gallic films like Little White Lies, we’re sure this will be customary offbeat Resnais, and penned by writer/director Ayckbourn who penned the 2006 Resnais film, Private Fears in Public Places.

Gist: The story begins with a group of close friends discovering that one of them has only a few months left to live. This terrible news will have unexpected and very funny repercussions on this little friendly circle.

Release Date: Premieres at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival.

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Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.