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Last Year at Marienbad

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Dans le labyrinthe de Marienbad

Original title

L'année dernière à Marienbad

Year

1961

Running time

91 min.

Country

France

Director

Alain Resnais

Screenwriter

Alain Robbe-Grillet

Cast

Music

Francis Seyrig

Cinematography

Sacha Vierny (B&W)

Producer

Co-production France-Italy;

Cineriz, Cocinor, Terra Film, Precitel, Cormoran Films, Argos Films, Como Films, Les Films Tamara, Cinétel, Silver Films

Genre

Drama. Mystery. Romance | Nouvelle vague (New Wave). Surrealism. Experimental Cinema. Cult Movie

Synopsis

A cinematic puzzle, Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad is a radical exploration of the formal possibilities of film. Beautifully shot in Cinemascope by Sacha Vierny, the movie is a riddle of seduction, a mercurial enigma darting between a present and past which may not even exist, let alone converge. The film stars Giorgio Albertazzi as an unnamed sophisticate attempting to convince a similarly nameless woman (Delphine Seyrig) that they met and were romantically involved a year ago in the same enormous, baroque European hotel. In the end, it hardly matters -- they're not characters so much as pawns anyway. Hypnotically dreamlike, Last Year at Marienbad is a surrealist parody of Hollywood melodrama, a high-fashion romance with a dark, alien underbelly. According to screenwriter Alain Robbe-Grillet, the movie is a pure construction, without a frame of reference outside of its own existence -- the lives of its characters begin when the lights go down, and conclude when they come back up. - Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Rankings Position

#93 Best French Movies of all time
#108 Best Mystery Films

Awards: 1962: Oscar: Nominated for Best Original Screenplay

1962: BAFTA Awards: Nominated to Best Film

1961: Venice Film Festival: Golden Lion - Best Film

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Critics' reviews

"The poster child of cinematic modernism, one of those early-'60s event films that seemed to break every rule classical Hollywood ever codified."

Budd Wilkins: Slant
"Remains one of cinema's glorious enigmas, endlessly compelling and intriguing."

Kevin Thomas: Los Angeles Times
"The movie is what it is -- a sustained mood, an empty allegory, a choreographed moment outside of time, and a shocking intimation of perfection."

J. Hoberman: Village Voice
"Be prepared for an experience such as you've never had from watching a film"

Bosley Crowther: The New York Times
"It is a deliberate, artificial artistic construction. I watched it with a pleasure so intense I was surprised (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"

Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
"Profoundly mysterious and disturbing, a para-surrealist masterpiece whose nightmarish scenario appears to have been absorbed from Buñuel and Antonioni and transmitted onward to Greenaway."

Peter Bradshaw: The Guardian
"Obscure, oneiric, it's either some sort of masterpiece or meaningless twaddle."

Geoff Andrew: Time Out

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Ranking Lists Position

61 My Favorite French Movies (52)

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Last Year at Marienbad

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