Comments on: L'Année dernière à Marienbad

L'Année dernière à Marienbad

Rustic Etruscan — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:17:10 -0800

The famous avant-garde movie Last Year at Marienbad is on YouTube.

From Wikipedia: "L'Année dernière à Marienbad was created out of an unusual collaboration between its writer Alain Robbe-Grillet [previously] and its director Alain Resnais [previously]. Robbe-Grillet described its basis: 'Alain Resnais and I were able to collaborate only because we had seen the film in the same way from the start, and not just in the same general outlines but exactly, in the construction of the least detail as in its total architecture. What I wrote might have been what was already in [his] mind; what he added during the shooting was what I might have written. ... Paradoxically enough, and thanks to the perfect identity of our conceptions, we almost always worked separately.'" "(No filming was done in the Czech spa town of Marienbad - and the film does not allow the viewer to know with certainty which, if any, scenes are supposed to be located there.)" Palaces at which the movie was filmed: Amalienburg, Nymphenburg, and Schleissheim, all around Munich. "The film critic Pauline Kael called it 'the high-fashion experimental film, the snow job at the ice palace ... back at the no-fun party for non-people.'" Her review of the movie in 5001 Nights at the Movies. Roger Ebert's more favorable take. Mark Polizzotti's take at the Criterion Collection. A blog post on the music. The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares, a possible influence on the movie. More on the nouveau roman. More on the French New Wave. Bonuses: "To the End," Blur I Know What You Did Last Year at Marienbad

By: griphus

griphus — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:21:26 -0800

Seeing this in the theater was absolutely incredible. Like indescribably. It needs to be seen on as big a screen as you can possibly get. Also, I still have no idea what the hell is going on in most of the movie and, more importantly, don't care. I have a little book about it I found on sale in an art school library, but I'm yet to read it.

By: CheeseDigestsAll

CheeseDigestsAll — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:24:36 -0800

It makes much more sense if you read The Invention of Morel. The Senses of Cinema link (which I came here to post) is a very good one. I recommend the book, as well.

By: Bromius

Bromius — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:32:02 -0800

Watching this for the first time, I realized how derivative the mid-90s Calvin Klein Obsession ads were.

By: Rustic Etruscan

Rustic Etruscan — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:42:23 -0800

That was the campaign I was thinking of. Meant to add it to the Bonus section. Here's an ad from the 1985 Obsession campaign, if that's the right one. Here's SNL's Compulsion.

By: Rustic Etruscan

Rustic Etruscan — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:45:06 -0800

Here's another ad from the same campaign.

By: ovvl

ovvl — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:51:56 -0800

I was in Marienbad many years ago, and I stared around, existentially, looking for that lost plaza. It later turned out that my Mother-In-Law had invited us on a tour of Nymphenburg the week before, but we declined.

By: nathancaswell

nathancaswell — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:55:08 -0800

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By: nathancaswell

nathancaswell — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:58:04 -0800

One of my favorite movies. Anyone else love In the Labyrinth?

By: Iridic

Iridic — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:20:50 -0800

Fantastic damn post. I'm another who counts Marienbad a favorite. It's one of those films for which I'll drop everything if given a chance to see it on a big screen. (Others: Closely Watched Trains, The Earrings of Madame de..., Holiday, Raiders of the Lost Ark.) Was Morel an influence on the film? Sure, maybe. But I think the Sense of Cinema guy way overstates his case.

By: Rangeboy

Rangeboy — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:23:27 -0800

Metafilter: the no-fun party for non-people.

By: OolooKitty

OolooKitty — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:27:02 -0800

I really need to see this movie again, now that I've been sucked in by this post. I saw it when I was about 17 and it was completely over my head. I'm not sure it still won't be, but I'm going to explore these links and try it again.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:50:18 -0800

One of my greatest moments of pleasure in life was watching this movie the first time and seeing the surreal scene of the people on the terrace and the shadowless scenery. I stopped the movie and wound it back about 8 times, it was such a subtle and intriguing image. Just one, of course, in a movie baroque with intriguing images. Another good one was reading about the film afterwards and seeing that many others shared my feelings about about that particular scene.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:57:28 -0800

Great post. Thanks, Rustic Etruscan.

By: Hobgoblin

Hobgoblin — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:09:48 -0800

Thanks for the post. When it first came out I kept going back to see it, both because I loved it and because I didn't understand it. At around the eighth viewing, something popped or snapped or unzipped in my mind and I decided that I wasn't supposed to understand it, and in that way I was understanding it. Or something like that. Anyway, that satisfied my curiosity and I haven't needed to see it again. Maybe now it is time. After all, over 40 years have passed.

By: mykescipark

mykescipark — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:39:07 -0800

I watched this film with an ex who was not particularly inclined towards art movies, and for the next year and a half he'd stop randomly around our apartment and start muttering in broken, monotonic faux-French while staring into the middle distance. At least he thought it was funny. I DTMFA'd.

By: betweenthebars

betweenthebars — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:39:15 -0800

No-fun party for non-people, story of my life. As much as I love it, I know I wouldn't be doing the movie any favors by watching it on my sluggish netbook.

By: kenko

kenko — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:42:41 -0800

This is, sad to say, one of the few movies I've walked out of. Later I read The Invention of Morel, and enjoyed it a great deal, but I'm not sure I'm up for a return to the flick.

By: marienbad

marienbad — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 04:43:18 -0800

YES! I need say no more... however... "I was in Marienbad many years ago..." posted by ovvl O_o

By: nathancaswell

nathancaswell — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:33:55 -0800

By: ovvl

ovvl — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:41:24 -0800

"I was in Marienbad many years ago..." Technically, it was Mariánské Lázně.

By: codacorolla

codacorolla — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:40:50 -0800

One of my favorites. It creates a sense of place unlike any other movie that I've seen. Even though the mansion is a nonsensical labyrinth, it still feels tangible in a certain sense.

By: anothermug

anothermug — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:04:32 -0800

Don't mean to derail this thread, but Marienbad always reminds me of Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles -- because in a sense they are opposites. In one, things are going on that are hard to understand; in the other, simple, prosaic, domestic things -- very easy to understand -- are happening (till the end of course). It's all taste, I guess, but I think Jeanne Dielman is far superior.

By: ovvl

ovvl — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:19:00 -0800

That endless opening sequence with the hallways and chandeliers and droning organ music is so trippy... Also: funny useless trivia: when a journalist asked Pierre Elliot Trudeau what his favourite movie was...

By: This, of course, alludes to you

This, of course, alludes to you — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 19:10:38 -0800

excellent work. thank you.

By: griphus

griphus — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 19:16:49 -0800

This is the book I have. It was written by Robbe-Grillet, and if you want to know the nitty-gritty of the film, it's a treasure.

By: dancestoblue

dancestoblue — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 01:39:04 -0800

Roger Ebert: It is possible, I realize, to grow impatient with ``Last Year at Marienbad.'' To find it affected and insufferable. It doesn't hurtle through its story like today's hits--it's not a narrative pinball machine. It is a deliberate, artificial artistic construction. I watched it with a pleasure so intense I was surprised. I trust Ebert a lot, this is pretty high praise. To Youtube, To download, To Enjoy !!!