The present and the past coexist, but the past shouldn't be in flashback.

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. Both men denied that the film was about Spain but when it was entered for the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1966 an objection from the Spanish government caused it to be withdrawn and it was shown out of competition. After winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival the film attracted great attention and provoked many divergent interpretations of how it should be understood encouraged by interviews in which Robbe-Grillet and Resnais themselves appeared to give conflicting explanations of the film.

He had closer links to the 'Left Bank group' of authors and filmmakers who shared a commitment to modernism and an interest in left-wing politics. These films were contemporary with and associated with the French New Wave or nouvelle vague though Resnais did not regard himself as being fully part of that movement.