Alain Resnais: Five Short Films

This set of early-career documentary shorts from Alain Resnais starts with "Paul Gauguin" (1949), utilizing the artist's writings and art to trace his trail to Tahiti. The Oscar-winning "Van Gogh" (1948) relies solely on the painter's creations to limn his life. Picasso's works are featured in an examination of the bombing of "Guernica" (1949); Robert Hessens co-directs. Resnais served up an impressionistic tour through the National Library of France in "All The World's Memory" (1956). Finally, Resnais turned an industrial commission about the origins of plastics into a subversive surprise in "The Song Of Styrene" (1957). 80 min. total. Standard; Soundtrack: French; Subtitles: English. In French with English subtitles.