369. L'Année Dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad) (1961)

Directed by Alain Resnais

Synopsis

Two people (A and X) might or might not have had an affair and then might or might not have made a date for the following year. The woman (who may or may not be married to M) may be alive or dead seems to believe or not what the man recollects from their combination. They may or may not end up leaving Marienbad (or is it some place else?) together.


Review

Sometimes films are more interesting than actually entertaining. This is, most definitely, the case here. You might find yourself nodding off throughout the film but it does stay with you afterwards and there are interesting questions posed by it that you will reflect on.

This kind of film serves a strong purpose in the way that it opens doors to use experimental techniques in more "entertainment-centred" films. Marienbad has plenty of things to detest, it is French to the point of ridicule, full of affected artificiality, clichés and unnatural speech. And then it has the good things from it being French, like a certain depth of both acting and concept, and Coco Chanel designing the women's clothes.

In the end it is food for thought, is X the writer of the film endlessly changing the story? Is A dead? Are both X and A dead and is M imagining the whole thing? In the end it is all fruitless because it means nothing. But an interesting and very pretty nothing.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film is famous for its enigmatic narrative structure, in which truth and fiction are difficult to distinguish, and the temporal and spatial relationship of the events is open to question. The dream-like nature of the film has fascinated and baffled audiences and critics, some hailing it as a masterpiece, others finding it to be incomprehensible. Among the notable images in the film is a scene in which two characters (and the camera) rush out of the chateau and are faced with a tableau of figures arranged in a geometric garden; although the people cast long dramatic shadows, the trees in the garden do not.

Online, first part: