Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961): France/Italy

Reviewed by Byron Potau. Viewed on Blu Ray.

Watching Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad is like walking through a museum. It’s very beautiful, a bit cold, and you’re not likely to understand everything you see. Its complex, thought provoking style is likely to alienate some viewers while enthralling others.

A man, X (Giorgio Albertazzi), meets a woman, A (Delphine Seyrig), on holiday at a luxurious hotel and is convinced they had met the previous year, possibly in Marienbad. He continues to try to convince the woman that not only had they met before, but she had asked him to wait for her, however, she insists they have never met. Also in the picture is a third man, M (Sacha Pitoeff), who may or may not be the husband or lover of the woman. M’s presence is marked mostly by the diabolical card game of which he invites X to play with him claiming though he can lose he never does.

Resnais’ complex drama is not concerned with its audience comprehending the story. The film plays with uncertainty throughout as past, present, and future are often indiscernible. Time shifts back and forth unnoticeably as the man explains in detail their previous encounter. One place may as well be another. There is no certainty when relying upon memory. Events are recounted, and then recanted by its story teller. He instills in the audience a distrust in his words, but we have no one else to rely upon. The characters do not even have names, preventing the audience even that little certainty. They could be anyone, anywhere, and their true actions remain a mystery.

Writer Alain Robbe-Grille’s dialogue has a hypnotic rhythm to it, entrancing the viewer while also being mesmerized by all of the ornate beauty of the hotel and sculpted garden scenery immaculately photographed by Sacha Vierny. The camera has a slow constant gliding movement as if it were moving the audience along whether they are ready to move forward or not.

The film is brimming with elegance. Movements seem delicate. The pacing is slow and methodical, and the constant organ music adds a mysteriousness to the events happening and being described. Jasmine Chasney and Henri Colpi’s marvelous editing blends time, memories, and places helping the film achieve its bewilderment.

Resnais’ film is a monumental achievement in the art form of cinema. His orchestration of the various elements of the film and the results he is able to achieve are inspiring. The film can be off putting, even boring to those who prefer their cinema not so abstract, but its beauty and expert handling are hard to deny, and the scenes of M’s card game are a gleeful delight.

Criterion’s Blu Ray release of the film brings all of the film’s qualities to the forefront and is a perfect way to present this film to a whole new generation of cinephiles.

DVD Extras: Audio interview with Alain Resnais exclusively for this release; New documentary on the making of the film; Video interview with film scholar Ginette Vincendeau on the history of film and its many mysteries; Two shot documentaries by Resnais, Toute la Memoire du Monde (1956) and Le Chant du Styrene (1958); Original theatrical trailer and Rialto’s rerelease trailer.