Last Year in Marienbad (1961)
Last Year in Marienbad(FR) Directed by Alain Resnais Written by Alain Robbe-Grillet Starring Delphine Seyrig; Giorgio Abertazzi; Sacha Pitoeff
Last year in Marienbad cannot be viewed through the prism of a standard narrative film. One has to look at this singular classic in the same way one would interpret an offering from David Lynch. The difference between Last Yearand something by, perhaps, Lynch, for instance, is that the surrealism arises out of the construction as opposed to the images on screen. Written by Alain-Robbe Grillet and directed by Alain Resnais, both members of the group dubbed the Left Bankers or Nouveau Romain, and starring Delphine Seyrig as Woman A (dressed in gowns made by Chanel); Giorgio Abertazzi as X The Stranger; and Sacha Pitoeff an M The Husband, Last Yearis set in an unnamed palatial chateau (it was filmed on location in Austria and Bavaria at several different properties, although Marienbad itself is located in The Czech Republic). The fluid movement of the Scope camera, dialogue full of non-sequiturs; repetitive shots (sometimes within scenes; and sometimes with characters changing costumes); a fuzzy timeline; changing narrators; and extras who are posed like mannequins are factors contributing to the sense that this is all a dream/memory. The essential plot involves The Stranger, who claims to have made a previous connection with The Woman, who is staying at the hotel with The Husband. Though The Woman claims not to remember their encounter at another (or perhaps the same?) retreat, she may or may not have told him to wait a year for her and then they would run off together. Much supposition has been made about the meaning of the film, linking it with the works of Ibsen and Casares, imagining the whole thing as merely the playing out of a writer’s work in progress on screen, or that it is about a rape The Woman previously endured at the hands of The Stranger. Interspersed with various encounters between The Wife and The Stranger where they discuss what did or didn’t happen and whether or not they are going to become involved (again?) are various scenes of target shooting, and games of chance involving The Husband and The Stranger. While Last Year in Marienbadis certainly unlike anything else, exactly, there are identifiable connections in construct and tone with the work of Chris Marker, Marguerite Duras and the films of the period from the other left bankers, who like Resnais were working from literary references and abandoning typical and established conventions of narrative film-making. The nearly emotionless, affect-less actors and extras, ornate art works, vaulted ceilings, baroque rococo decoration, shaped topiary, formally dressed guests, constantly tracking camera, and the mostly organ score all contribute to an eerie quality that leaves one feeling some sense of dread. Like someones version of a staid, polite Gothic horror film, though neither monster nor victim is ever definitively identified.