Dir. Alain Resnais, France/Italy, 1961, 94 mins, in French with English subtitles
Cast: Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha Pitoëff
Review by Eva Moravetz
Alain Resnais’ stylish and darkly baroque surrealist piece Last Year In Marienbad is to film lovers what Marmite is to enthusiasts of palatal pleasures: one either loves it or hates it. Released in 1961 – and re-released now on its 50th anniversary by the BFI – it has divided both critics and audiences ever since. Some have called it a masterpiece while others have accused it of being ponderously pretentious and deliberately obscure.
With a screenplay by Alain Robbe-Grillety, the film is set in a grandiose palace and garden, where an obsessed stranger (Giorgio Albertazzi) pursues a strikingly beautiful woman (Delphine Seyrig), claiming that they have met before. ‘X’ (the stranger’s name as there are no names for the characters) tells ‘A’ (the attractive woman) that they had a love affair the year before but she did not then go away with him and promised she would meet him again and decide what to do. ‘X’ is convinced that the time has come but ‘A’ does not seem to remember anything, while her sinister looking husband ‘M’ (Sacha Pitoëff) hovers ominously in the background.
What is striking about the film from the beginning is its stunning black and white cinematography and rich symbolism. As ‘X’ follows ‘A’, we are taken through the geometric gardens, magnificent corridors and drawing rooms of a rococo chateau laden with rich ornaments and imposing paintings. There are dark shadows and corners strengthening the film’s quality as a surrealist noir, and instead of a clear plot, Last Year In Marienbad enfolds like a dream; nothing is certain and there are always alternatives. Is it certain that ‘A’ cannot remember the encounter with ‘X’ or does she just pretend not to? Has ‘X’ really met her before or does he just say so in order to impress? Is ‘M’ her husband or a possessive lover who asserts control over her? We cannot even be certain whether ‘X’ is part of the story or if he is the creator of it. We do not get clear answers to these questions but are presented with suggestions to feed our own fantasies and draw our own conclusions.
Seyrig is dazzling as the evasive ‘A’ pursued by the handsome and intense Albertazzi. There is a bird-of-paradise-like quality about her; it is in her movements and elusiveness, enhanced by her large, enigmatic eyes and make up, while her wardrobe designed by Coco Chanel adds to her flamboyance. Her dreamlike character conjures up figures from classic silent movies, whereas her lover/husband Sacha Pitoëff exerts a foreboding, vampiric presence with his imposing stature, dark features and piercing eyes.
All the other people in the film remain on the periphery of each scene as emotionless dummies or decorative props. The only person who displays any degree of feeling is ‘X’ but even that is restricted to love-struck obsession. The statuesque frigidity of the other guests in the chateau mirrors the marble statues posed on their pedestals in the garden, boosting the theatrical sense of the film, but at the end it is only ‘X’ who can stir ‘A’s emotions because he is the only character who displays any in the first place.
Last Year In Marienbad won the Golden Lion at the 1961 Venice Film Festival and was nominated at the 1963 Academy Awards in the Original Screenplay category. Resnais has been praised for his cinematic achievement and his intellectual understanding of complex, abstract meanings, although he has never considered himself part of the New Wave group of directors. In Last Year In Marienbad he demonstrates how mental images can be substituted for dialogue, and even while rejecting chronological storytelling, he still manages to tell us something about the human soul. However, it is exactly these qualities – obscurity, uncertainty, illusion and irrationality – that are logs for the fire for the antagonists of the film, because these are the qualities that baffle us and prevent us from seeing clearly and feeling secure.
If you are after action, character, emotional drama and a stormy plot, this film is not for you. To use Resnais’s own words, the film is best described as ‘an opera libretto with very beautiful and very simple words, which are endlessly repeated.’ Strictly for New Wave fans only.
love to know what you think of some of my work and music videos 
