Resnais is a director and editor, one of the key figures of the French New wave. He started making films at the age of 14 and later studied acting with René Simon. In 1934 he enrolled in the newly established Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographie, but abandoned it the very next year because he believed that the classes were too theoretical. During the war he acted in the performing group Les arlequins and after the war he first started to direct. His first film was the short surrealist Schéma d'une identification (1946) and his feature film debut was Open for Inventory Causes (Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire, 1946). He made a series of documentary silent films Visite (1947), which were portraits of different artists. His documentary about the famous artist, Van Gogh (1947), made in 16 mm, was so popular that it was transferred to 35 mm and re-released a year later. It won an Oscar for Best Short Film in 1950. He made several other documentaries about art: Guernica (1950), Gaugin (1950) and Statues Also Die (Les statues meurent aussi, 1953). In the mid-1950s he began collaborating with writers. The first of these collaborations was with Jean Cayrol on the innovative documentary film about the Holocaust Night and Fog (Nuit et brouillard, 1955). His most famous work, which won the sympathy of both critics and viewers and placed him among the members of the French New Wave, is Hiroshima, My Love (Hiroshima mon amour, 1959), based on Marguerite Duras’s book of the same title. His film Last Year at Marienbad (L' année derničre a Marienbad, 1961) won the Golden Lion in Venice. Afterwards he made Muriel ou Le temps d'un retour (1963) and The War Is Over (La guerre est finie, 1966). After the financial failure of the film Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968) he did not make any films for six years and in 1974 made Stavisky.... The drama Providence (1977) was his first film in English. My American Uncle (Mon oncle d'Amérique, 1980) won the Jury’s award and the FIPRESCI award in Cannes. He also directed Life Is a Bed of Roses (La vie est un roman, 1983), Love Unto Death (L' amour à mort, 1984), Mélo (1986), I Want to Go Home (Je veux rentrer à la maison, 1989), Smoking/No Smoking (1993), Same Old Song (On connaît la chanson, 1997), Not on the Lips (Pas sur la bouche, 2003) and Private Fears in Public Places (Coeurs, 2006). After Les herbes folles (2008), he made Vous n'avez encore rien vu (2012.) and Aimer, boire et chanter (2013.) which is his last film.