A non-linear puzzle that I never tried to solve, but that’s still absorbing for its cutting scenes of a relationship’s highs and lows. They come in quick snatches because Claude Rich is a guinea pig for a time machine experiment. The scientists intend only to send Rich back to one minute in the past, but instead he flies back-and-forth like a pinball through scenes from the past year or so of his life. Some moments last mere seconds. Some for a few minutes. Some scenes repeat, but shorter or longer. The hook that emerges is Rich’s previous failed suicide attempt and his ambiguous motivation for it. The machine affords him little time to fix his problems, but there is one problem that he can solve: that failed suicide. That’s quick and easy. This isn’t for everyone. It’s a cold film from a director, Alain Resnais, who allows no character here to charm us. It’s science fiction from a French bohemian who doesn’t care a whit about technology or speculation. He merely sets up the scenario and then takes an extended cigarette break to ponder over small, quiet moments. The film is his secondhand smoke.