Wow. The most unexpected, out-of-the-blue surprise I’ve ever received at a film festival came today from one of my cinema icons, the legendary French New Wave director Alain Resnais at the press conference for Les Herbes Folles/Wild Grass, his film in competition. Before asking a question at the Cannes press conferences, we stand to identify ourselves and our media. After I’d done so, complimented him on his career, and asked my question about directing, Resnais said, “If I may digress for a moment, it amuses me and pleases me that you’re representing the St. Louis Post Dispatch because I subscribed for years to this newspaper. It’s a wonderful coincidence that here you are from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch asking me a question. I subscribed to this newspaper because I loved L’il Abner so much and was very sorry when Andy Capp died [1979].” My astonishment remains, and what a wonderful gift he’s given us with his kind words.

Wild Grass, breezy and entertaining, showcases Resnais’ love of the theater of the absurd, especially Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco; in other words, the story includes flights of fanciful interior monologues interlaced with realistic interactions. Based on Christian Gailly’s L’Incident, to which Resnais says he remained determinedly faithful, the film begins with the theft of Marguerite Muir’s purse and Georges Palet’s accidental discovery of her wallet lying by his car in a parking garage. Subsequent events bring Marguerite and Georges into both contentious and enthralled contact in offbeat and humorous ways that involve the police, friends, Marguerite’s dental patients, and a much adored Spitfire airplane. Marguerite has a pilot’s license and a small group of admirers for her restoration of the Spitfire, a prop which figures in the unexpected and puzzling conclusion.

Wild Grass lives up to the inspiration for the title—the grasses and trees that grab a foothold in the most inhospitable places such as gaps in stone walls, cracks in sidewalks, or inches of soil on a rocky hillside. Resnais relishes the metaphor of this environment, seeing his characters as barely hanging onto their footholds in society, so offbeat are their ideas and reactions. Shifting effortlessly between Marguerite and Georges, Wild Grass takes us into their interior worlds, and their responses to each other surprise and delight. Beautifully paced to the rhythm of the music (Resnais played jazz while they were shooting) and the comic moments that dominate, Wild Grass needs an audience ready to play along with the unpredictable approach and the tongue-in-cheek humor. It’s not exactly what film fans would expect from the early Resnais, famous for Night and Fog (1955), Hiroshima Mon Amour (1958), and Last Year at Marienbad (1960). More along the liens of Providence (1976) or My Once d’Amerique (1980), as playful as Same Old Song (1997), Wild Grass may be a bit of a trifle but it’s a most endearing one.

Diane Carson, a freelance writer from St. Louis, has reviewed and taught film for over two decades. She’s covering the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for STLtoday.com.