# Wild Grass
**Wild Grass** (French: *Les Herbes folles*) is a 2009 French-Italian romantic comedy directed by [Alain Resnais](https://www.edgepedia.org/alain-resnais), adapted from Christian Gailly's 1996 novel *L'Incident*. Its plot turns on a stolen handbag and a found wallet: Georges Palet, a middle-aged married man, picks up the red wallet of the dentist and amateur pilot Marguerite Muir in a parking lot, and the two strangers are drawn into an unexpected, turbulent relationship.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/les-herbes-folles/) • [2](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jun/17/wild-grass-resnais-film-review)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Les Herbes folles*; working title *L'Incident*[3](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Wild-Grass__264090.html) |
| Director / source | Alain Resnais, from Christian Gailly's novel *L'Incident* (Éditions de Minuit, 1996)[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/les-herbes-folles/) • [4](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D132036.html) |
| Production / release | Produced 2008; French release 4 November 2009; 104 minutes; France-Italy co-production[5](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/29273/wild-grass) |
| Cannes 2009 | In Competition; the jury, presided by Isabelle Huppert, gave Resnais a special award for his career and contribution to cinema[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/les-herbes-folles/) • [4](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D132036.html) |
| Lead cast | André Dussollier (Georges Palet), Sabine Azéma (Marguerite Muir), Anne Consigny, Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, Michel Vuillermoz; Édouard Baer as off-screen narrator[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/les-herbes-folles/) • [6](https://www.screendaily.com/wild-grass-les-herbes-folles/5001423.article) |
| Key crew | Screenplay Alex Réval and Laurent Herbiet; cinematography Eric Gautier; music Mark Snow; editing Hervé de Luze; production design Jacques Saulnier; producer Jean-Louis Livi[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/les-herbes-folles/) |
| Box office | 445,816 admissions in France on a budget of 11,000,000 EUR; $4,834,890 worldwide gross[4](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D132036.html) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156143/) |
| Critical scores | Metascore 65 (generally favorable); 68% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer[8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/wild-grass/critic-reviews/) • [9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/herbes_folles) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Marguerite Muir (Sabine Azéma) has just bought a pair of expensive shoes in a Paris boutique when a thief on roller blades snatches her handbag and discards its contents in a parking lot. Georges Palet (André Dussollier), middle-aged and married to Suzanne (Anne Consigny), finds the red wallet and becomes fascinated by its owner's photograph and pilot's license. He is reluctant simply to return it or hand it to the police, and Marguerite, retrieving her wallet, is curious about who found it. As the two navigate the social protocols of giving and acknowledging thanks, obsession and turbulence enter their otherwise ordinary lives.[10](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/wild-grass.shtml) • [2](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jun/17/wild-grass-resnais-film-review)
In the first half of the film Georges bombards Marguerite with letters and phone calls.[11](https://www.scmp.com/article/732459/wild-grass) Marguerite, a dentist with her own pilot's license and a part-share in a functioning Spitfire, eventually takes Georges and his wife for a flight from an airfield.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jun/17/wild-grass-resnais-film-review) • [12](https://girard.perso.math.cnrs.fr/FILMS.pdf) The action is interspersed with enigmatic close-ups of wild grass growing through asphalt, the image that gives the film its title.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jun/17/wild-grass-resnais-film-review)
## Production
Resnais came to the project through the producer Jean-Louis Livi, who had asked him to make a film. Initially the plan was to adapt a stage play, but Resnais, having encountered the writer Christian Gailly on a radio program hosted by Alain Veinstein on France Culture, read Gailly's novel and called Livi the next day to say he had found the "blue note" they had been looking for.[13](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/113/163/41841/presse/wild-grass-presskit-english.pdf) Resnais said the novel's characters made him think of grasses that grow because their seeds have fallen where there was no hope they would take root: the two characters had no reason to fall in love and did not want to.[14](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/108190.html)
Although Resnais had often worked closely with major writers such as [Marguerite Duras](https://www.edgepedia.org/marguerite-duras) and [Alain Robbe-Grillet](https://www.edgepedia.org/alain-robbe-grillet), this was the first time he brought an already existing published novel to the screen. The film was originally to be titled *L'Incident* like the novel.[4](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D132036.html) Resnais was 87 when he completed the film in 2009 in time to take it to Cannes.[15](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jul-02-la-et-wild-grass-20100702-story.html) He cast two of his favorite actors, Sabine Azéma and André Dussollier, in the leads; it was Azéma's ninth film with the director and Dussollier's seventh.[4](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D132036.html)
At the Cannes press conference Resnais said the novel had fascinated and hypnotized him and that he had stayed as close to it as possible, noting that Gailly specializes in raising questions he then never answers, and that he had tried to reproduce that quality in the film.[16](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2009/press-conference-resnais-azema-and-dussollier-on-wild-grass/)
## Style and reception
Critics described the film as a late, playful work that rejects cinematic naturalism. Eric Gautier shot much of it in vivid, saturated colors with soft-focus chic, and the film deploys whip pans, crane shots, slow motion, strange angles, and lawn-level tracking shots, a new cinematic vocabulary for the director.[17](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/wild-grass-alain-resnais-105-mins-12a-2005192.html) • [18](https://www2.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-press-release-curiouser-and-curiouser-the-films-of-alain-resnais-2011-05-26.pdf) An ever-present off-screen narrator, voiced by Édouard Baer, follows the story.[6](https://www.screendaily.com/wild-grass-les-herbes-folles/5001423.article) Reviewers noted echoes of Resnais's earlier films about memory and imagination, including *Last Year at Marienbad* (1961) and *Providence* (1976).[15](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jul-02-la-et-wild-grass-20100702-story.html) • [17](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/wild-grass-alain-resnais-105-mins-12a-2005192.html)
The film ends with a famously enigmatic flourish: a girl never before seen in the film asks her mother, "Maman, when I'm a cat, will I be able to eat Cat Munchies?"[19](https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/printout/0%2C29239%2C1898196_1898204_1900423%2C00.html)
Reception was generally favorable but divided. On Metacritic the film scored 65 from 26 critic reviews, with 17 positive, 5 mixed, and 4 negative; Time Out and Time gave it 100, while the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw called it an eccentrically stately misfire.[8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/wild-grass/critic-reviews/) • [2](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jun/17/wild-grass-resnais-film-review) Roger Ebert read the film as being about how most of what happens in our lives comes about by sheer accident.[20](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/wild-grass-2010) Audiences were cooler than critics: the Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter stood at 37% from more than 1,000 ratings, against a 68% Tomatometer.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/herbes_folles)
## Release and awards
The film premiered in [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition) at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, where the jury presided by [Isabelle Huppert](https://www.edgepedia.org/isabelle-huppert) awarded Resnais a special prize for his career and contribution to the history of cinema.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/les-herbes-folles/) • [4](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D132036.html) It was released in France and Belgium on 4 November 2009 through [StudioCanal](https://www.edgepedia.org/studiocanal), and later in Italy (30 April 2010), Romania (25 June 2010), and Spain (16 March 2012).[5](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/29273/wild-grass) Sony Pictures Classics released it in the United States on 25 June 2010 in a limited run in New York and Los Angeles, and New Wave Films released it in the United Kingdom on 18 June 2010.[10](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/wild-grass.shtml)
At the 2010 [César Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/cesar-awards) the film received four nominations: Best Film (for producer Jean-Louis Livi and director Alain Resnais), Best Adaptation (Alex Réval and Laurent Herbiet), Best Cinematography (Éric Gautier), and Best Editing (Hervé de Luze).[21](https://www.academie-cinema.org/films/les-herbes-folles/-33462/) It also screened at festivals including Toronto (Masters program), New York, São Paulo, Gent, Thessaloniki, and [Ljubljana](https://www.edgepedia.org/ljubljana).[5](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/29273/wild-grass)
## References
1. [LES HERBES FOLLES (WILD GRASS), Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/les-herbes-folles/)
2. [Wild Grass, review by Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (17 June 2010)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jun/17/wild-grass-resnais-film-review)
3. [Wild Grass, Crew United](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Wild-Grass__264090.html)
4. [Les herbes folles, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D132036.html)
5. [Wild Grass de Alain Resnais, Unifrance](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/29273/wild-grass)
6. [Wild Grass (Les Herbes Folles), review by Dan Fainaru, Screen Daily (20 May 2009)](https://www.screendaily.com/wild-grass-les-herbes-folles/5001423.article)
7. [Wild Grass (2009), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156143/)
8. [Wild Grass critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/wild-grass/critic-reviews/)
9. [Wild Grass, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/herbes_folles)
10. [Wild Grass, phase9 movie archive](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/wild-grass.shtml)
11. [Wild Grass, South China Morning Post](https://www.scmp.com/article/732459/wild-grass)
12. [Les herbes folles, Alain Resnais, film notes](https://girard.perso.math.cnrs.fr/FILMS.pdf)
13. [Wild Grass English press kit, Unifrance](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/113/163/41841/presse/wild-grass-presskit-english.pdf)
14. [Les Herbes folles (Alain Resnais, 2008), La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/108190.html)
15. [Movie Review: 'Wild Grass', Los Angeles Times (2 July 2010)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jul-02-la-et-wild-grass-20100702-story.html)
16. [Press Conference: Resnais, Azéma, and Dussollier on "Wild Grass", Festival de Cannes (20 May 2009)](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2009/press-conference-resnais-azema-and-dussollier-on-wild-grass/)
17. [Wild Grass, review by Jonathan Romney, The Independent (19 June 2010)](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/wild-grass-alain-resnais-105-mins-12a-2005192.html)
18. [BFI press release: Curiouser and Curiouser, The Films of Alain Resnais (May 2011)](https://www2.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-press-release-curiouser-and-curiouser-the-films-of-alain-resnais-2011-05-26.pdf)
19. [Wild Grass: Resnais' Delightful Con Game, by Richard Corliss, TIME (14 May 2009)](https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/printout/0%2C29239%2C1898196_1898204_1900423%2C00.html)
20. [Everything is one accident after another, review by Roger Ebert (14 July 2010)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/wild-grass-2010)
21. [Les herbes folles, Académie des César](https://www.academie-cinema.org/films/les-herbes-folles/-33462/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Romantic drama films 2000s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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