Life Is a Bed of Roses

Count Michel Forbek (Ruggero Raimondi) wants to build a utopia, a place made over from nothing in the early years of the twentieth century. Alain Resnais cuts that project against a school conference where teachers and guests tangle in romance, and against a fantasy that carries the name of Georges Méliès. Walter Guarini (Vittorio Gassman) and Livia Cerasquier (Fanny Ardant) move through the film's three stories, each one handed to the next like a card.