Last Year at Marienbad

Rating:
Summary: Memory is imagination pinned down
Review: Last Year at Marienbad is a "love story," although not a "story" in the conventional narrative sense, since the fragmented images cannot be scanned chronologically. The "story" is not told rather it is described using a juxtaposition of physical images, through memories and associations, projected through a space-time continuum, which destroys both linear chronology and fixity. Resnais built a captivating puzzle-like film, a labyrinth, which at time resembles the optical illusions of Escher or the surreal world of Magritte. Any attempt to provide a satisfying chronology for the film would contradict the assumptions upon which it was built, as well as the manner in which it is presented.

Marienbad is a ciné-roman, a cinematic novel, that is, a particular way to tell a story, which by definition involves space and time. It is not simultaneously a novel and a film, but it uses certain techniques of the novel and of the cinema. Resnais uses a variety of cinematographic techniques: the use of "atmosphere," or mise-en-scène, to provoke an emotional response on the audience's part; the use of "dream" sequences, flashbacks and flash forwards as they relate to imagistic or observational characterizations of a character's imagination; the use of visual and audio montages to disrupt the chronological time and replace the temporal and linear narration by his mise-en-scène's spaces. As a result, it is necessary to view each Resnais film completely in order to understand its structure and discourse. This is especially true for Marienbad, where a second and even a third viewing are necessary to fully appreciate the structure and the details.

Marienbad is lyrical, but by its framings, has the precision of a documentary, undermining the cinematographic writing and heralding the future films of Duras, Robbe-Grillet, or Jean-Luc Godard. Resnais uses extremely short scenes, with purposely too dark or over-exposed shots, obscure image flashes, shot with reframing that allow for the intrusion of characters. Certain scenes are repeated several times, with variants. At times, the actors' clothing changes in the same scene, resulting in blurring the distinctions between past, present, and future, reality and fantasy The fluid camera moves everywhere with unrestricted freedom, a character unto itself. The dialogues are in the form of leitmotifs. The secondary characters utter disjointed, repetitive bits of conversations, and have a strange tendency to freeze in mid-sentence, or even to speak without making a sound. All of these effects are mesmerizing, and contribute to destabilizing the viewer. The mystery is further sustained by the names of the characters, which are only initials.

Everything contributes to destroying chronology and setting an ambiguous mood. The music at the film's "beginning" is typically "end of film" music. Using staggered sound tracks of the narrator's (X's) voice after the music further enhances this impression. Through most of the film, the sound of a single organ, playing an excruciating music score mostly in a minor key which seems to have come from a horror film, accompanies the action. Minor keys conjure melancholy and insecurity. X and A, dancing a slow waltz whose music, instead of being joyful and exuberant, recalls Sibelius' Valse Triste, does not contribute in any way to lighten the mood.

Games are pervasive in this film, symbolizing destiny (dominoes), and also the domination of M (who plays poker with determination and coldness, successfully bluffing his adversaries). But the most notable game shown in the film is a variation of the game of Nim, which from the release of the film on became known as "the game of Marienbad." M haughtily announces "I could lose, but I always win." In this particular version of Nim, which is based on binary representation of the number of items in the game at any give time, the one who first starts the game cannot win against an experienced player, such as M. And M, who proposes the contests, always manages, under the cover of courtesy, to make his adversary begin the game.

The first theme of Marienbad is love, which does not require much explanation. X is or was in love with A (or was it with A? If not, then A will do), and A, as befits any beautiful woman, plays hard-to-get (or maybe she is not attracted by a bore such as X).

The second theme is Resnais' favorite: the elusiveness and subjectivity of memory, but also, its persistence and inescapability. As in Hiroshima Mon Amour, Resnais explores the effects of time and memory on the emotions of a pair of would-be lovers. In his hands, the time elements of memory, whether retrospective or prospective, find realization as cinematic images, which the author manipulates through editing, effusing a non-chronological structure to his work. In Marienbad, Resnais shows us the hotel, its corridors, its salons, and its garden, together taken as an explicit metaphor for the "mind," traveled by the roving camera, the "self" exploring its memory.

There are so many things to discover in Marienbad that, like the "story," the possibilities are endless. There are two possible ways of viewing this film. In the first, a Cartesian approach, the viewer will try to somehow impose a linear, rational structure and invariably will find the film difficult, if not totally incomprehensible. In the second way, the viewer will just let him or herself be carried away by the extraordinary images and the mise en scène, and he or she will find the film completely obvious. And the "bonus" resides in the fact that upon subsequent viewings, one can reassemble this puzzle-like film in as many different ways as one's imagination allows, making it each time a new viewing experience. Viewers in the first category will probably give the film a negative rating; those in the second category will give it a five-star rating. I give it a five star.



Rating:
Summary: Elusive film!
Review:
If you are looking for a lineal film beware with this artwork. A trio at a forlorn spa, a man who desperately attempts to lure a mysterious woman away with him. This picture works out at several levels , it demands your attention without any concessions. You have to build the complex web of allegoric symbols and narrative rapture. Hailed by international critics, you will love it or may be you don't but it will never you let you indifferent.

To me it a real masterpiece who demands from you to get immersed in Antonion films such L' eclisse, The Adventure and Le Grido.

A must for any serious and hard fan lover of the cinema. Art in its major expression!



Rating:
Summary: caveat emptor: technical details
Review: This DVD is now out of print, and going for as much as $250. I reckon the sort of person who spends $250 on a DVD will want to know about the technical details, which for some reason Amazon reviewers never bother with. (For that matter, if you're spending $250 on the DVD, I'm going to assume you've already seen the film, so I won't bother discussing the film itself.)

Just like many other Fox/Lorber products, the transfer is quite poor. It is, however, much better than a typical Fox/Lorber product. Many of their products literally look like VHS quality, but at the very least, this looks, well, better than that. But the image still isn't crisp, and there is more shimmer than on ten disco balls. From any other company, this transfer would be completely unacceptable, but since this is Fox/Lorber, the picture quality almost seems like a pleasant surprise.

There are, of course, no extras to speak of. The picture is non-anamorphic and all that. You get the film, English subtitles, and that's it.

So, if you absolutely must have this film on disc, go ahead, but if you're not familiar with Fox/Lorber's horrendous transfers, well, now you've been warned.

Rating:
Summary: An enduring classic for movie lovers!
Review: This movie is simply amazing. If you want to engage in an unforgettable experience, then you must see this movie. I have tried to obtain a copy, but my efforts have been hindered by price constraints. One day I will have to buy Last Year at Marienbad, for my DVD collection is not complete without it.

Rating:
Summary: Quel dommage!
Review: In Alain Resnais' 1961 feature there is A, X et M posing in decontructionist metaphors a Chanel.

Whether the movie has to do with "The Invention of Morel", the anthropological archetypes of Claude Levi-Strauss or whether or not it is a French or Italian film is meaningless.

Because, whatever angle you take, it just doesn't matter.

Rating:
Summary: ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz.........
Review: A chronicle of what happens when the truth comes knocking in your life. At first the wild love affair while on holiday, but an affair only: When this heart comes back to carry you off for good, there's denial, conflict, and ultimately the hard choice between it and your stalwart, practical mate: the life you'd been leading so comfortably, so accommodatingly, for so long. Enthralling.