Editing Alain Resnais (section)

==Early life==
Resnais was born in 1922 at [[Vannes]] in Brittany, where his father was a pharmacist.<ref>Emma Wilson, ''Alain Resnais''. (Manchester: Manchester U.P., 2006.) p.2.</ref> An only child, he was often ill with asthma in childhood, which led to his being withdrawn from school and educated at home.<ref>James Monaco, ''Alain Resnais: the Rôle of Imagination''. (London: Secker & Warburg, 1978.) p.15.</ref> He was an eager reader, in a range that extended from classics to comic books, but from the age of 10 he became fascinated by films.  For his twelfth birthday his parents gave him a Kodak 8mm camera with which he began to make his own short films, including a three-minute version of ''[[Fantômas]]''.<ref>Robert Benayoun, ''Alain Resnais: arpenteur de l'imagination''. (Paris: Ramsay, 2008). pp.22–25.</ref> Around the age of 14, he discovered [[surrealism]] and through that an interest in the works of [[André Breton]].<ref>Robert Benayoun, ''Alain Resnais: arpenteur de l'imagination''. (Paris: Ramsay, 2008). p.29.</ref>

Visits to the theatre in Paris gave Resnais the desire to be an actor, and in 1939 he moved to Paris to become an assistant in [[Georges Pitoëff]]'s company at the [[Théâtre des Mathurins]]. From 1940 to 1942 he studied acting in the [[René Simon|Cours René-Simon]] (and one of his small jobs at this time was as an extra in the film ''[[Les Visiteurs du soir]]''<ref>Suzanne Liandrat-Guigues & Jean-Louis Leutrat, ''Alain Resnais: liaisons secrètes, accords vagabonds''. (Paris: Cahiers du Cinéma, 2006). pp.176–177.</ref>), but he then decided in 1943 to apply to the newly formed film school [[Institut des hautes études cinématographiques|IDHEC]] to study film editing.<ref name="monaco17">James Monaco, ''Alain Resnais: the Rôle of Imagination''. (London: Secker & Warburg, 1978.) p.17.</ref> The filmmaker [[Jean Grémillon]] was one of the teachers who had the most influence on him at that period.<ref>Suzanne Liandrat-Guigues & Jean-Louis Leutrat, ''Alain Resnais: liaisons secrètes, accords vagabonds''. (Paris: Cahiers du Cinéma, 2006). p.180.</ref>

Resnais left in 1945 to do his military service which took him to Germany and Austria with the occupying French forces, as well as making him a temporary member of a travelling theatre company, Les Arlequins.<ref>International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers – 2: Directors; 2nd ed., edited by Nicholas Thomas. (Chicago, London: St James Press, 1991.) pp.689–692.</ref> He returned to Paris in 1946 to start his career as a film editor, but also began making short films of his own. Finding himself to be a neighbour of the actor [[Gérard Philipe]], he persuaded him to appear in a 16mm surrealist short, ''Schéma d'une identification'' (now lost).<ref name="monaco17" /> A more ambitious feature-length work, ''Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire'', has also vanished without trace.<ref>Robert Benayoun, ''Alain Resnais: arpenteur de l'imagination''. (Paris: Ramsay, 2008). p.42.</ref>