Love unto Death
1984 film by Alain Resnais
Love unto Death (original title: L'Amour à mort) is a 1984 French drama film directed by Alain Resnais.
Plot
Elisabeth, a scientist, lives with Simon, an archaeologist. One night, Simon suffers a seizure and is declared dead by a doctor. After a grieving Elisabeth screams for him not to be dead, Simon unexpectedly comes back to life. Elisabeth and Simon discuss the experience with their friends, protestant pastors Judith and Jérôme. Simon seems at first to have resumed a normal life, but being "dead" for a short moment has left him tormented and bitter. He reveals to Elisabeth that he saw many people in the afterlife and expresses a desire to go back there, as he now feels out of place in the world. Elisabeth, who doubts that Simon actually died and does not believe in the afterlife, pleads for him to remain with her. Simon eventually has another seizure and dies for good. Elisabeth comes to believe that it is now her destiny to join him wherever he is.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Love unto Death” is 1984 film by Alain Resnais. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Love, unto and Death, not as a finished interpretation.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1138846. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1984.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Love unto Death” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.