#478: RESNAIS, Alain: Last Year At Marienbad (1961)

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RESNAIS, Alain (France)
Last Year At Marienbad [1961]
Spine #478
Blu-ray
OOP


Not just a defining work of the French New Wave but one of the great, lasting mysteries of modern art, Alain Resnais' epochal Last Year at Marienbad has been puzzling appreciative viewers for decades. Written by radical master of the New Novel Alain Robbe-Grillet, this surreal fever dream, or nightmare, gorgeously fuses the past with the present in telling its ambiguous tale of a man and a woman (Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig) who may or may not have met a year ago, perhaps at the very same cathedral-like, mirror-filled château they now find themselves wandering. Unforgettable in both its confounding details (gilded ceilings, diabolical parlor games, a loaded gun) and haunting scope, Resnais' investigation into the nature of memory is disturbing, romantic, and maybe even a ghost story.

94 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
in French
2:35:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2009
Director/Writer


Screenplay by Alain Robbe-Grillet.
Alain Resnais was 39 when he directed Last Year at Marienbad.

Other Resnais films in the Collection:

#197: Night And Fog (1955)
#196: Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
#824: Muriel, Or The Time Of The Return (1963)

The Film

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Forty-six page booklet featuring an essay by critic Mark Polizzotti and a section on Robbe-Grillet’s evolving attitude toward the film, including the author’s introduction to the published screenplay and comments by film scholar François Thomas.

Commentary

None.

Audio interview

With Resnais, recorded exclusively for this release.
Documentary

On the making of Last Year at Marienbad featuring interviews with many of Resnais’ collaborators.
Video interview

With film scholar Ginette Vincendeau on the history of the film and its many mysteries.
Two short Documentaries

By Resnais: Toute la mémoire du monde (1956) and Le chant du styrène (1958).
Original theatrical trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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