One of a kind

A and X by a statue of Charles III.

Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

Directed by Alain Resnais

Story and screenplay by Alain Robbie-Grillet

Criterion Collection Spine #478

There is no other film like director Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad.  No other film is as completely subjective or demanding of the viewers’ minds.  Penned by the champion of the nouveau roman (“new novel”) Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marienbad eschews traditional narrative and even eliminates any semblance of flashback structure.  Instead, it is a continuously streaming conscious of fragmented memories from two characters whose viewpoints cannot be trusted as reliable. 

The premise is simple. At a ritzy chateau inhabited by affluent jet-setters in the early 20^th century X (Giorgio Albertazzi) approaches A (Delphine Seyrig) trying to convince her they met one year ago at Marienbad and had agreed to re-unite and run off together one year later.  A is staying with M (Sacha Pitoëff) who was at Marienbad last year and may or may not be her husband. This his all we know.

X: I must have you alive. Alive, as you have already been every evening, for weeks, for months.
A: I have never stayed so long anywhere.
X: Yes, I know. I don't care. For days and days. Why don't you still want to remember anything?
A: You're raving! I'm tired, leave me alone!

Marienbad demands the viewer buy in from the start with an open, active mind to piece together the unsolvable enigma.  There may be no solution to puzzle but the beauty is in trying to understand.  Resnais and Robbe-Grillet respected the viewer enough to allow the viewer to create one’s own interpretation and the result is a lasting work of cinematic art.  Just like a trailer for the film says, it is the viewer who is the co-author and one’s experiences and mood are the determining factors.

 The film is as equally hypnotic as it is puzzling.  Resnais’ direction favors long, slow tracking shots through the chateau with its long hallways, high and ornate ceilings and often ghostly exterior and garden with a camera which always seems to be try to reveal something to us and the same time it seems cautious in its approach.  Accompanying this is Sacha Vierny’s unforgettably haunting organ score which plays nicely to the level of the drama. A prime reason why I’m so fond of Marienbad and Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour is the music in each film is different, evocative and especially moody.  It elevates and compliments the mes en scene exceptionally well.

So we have a mind-bending and hypnotic narrative – so why is Marienbad a great film?  Marienbad is undoubtedly impeccably directed, scored, acted and photographed in glorious black and white. However, the reason the film works and is great art is because it has infinite re-watchability and is ripe for a myriad of interpretations.  One thing I often hear and read from those in the art world who write about or comment on paintings is a painting is “all about how it makes you feel”.

(left to right, X, M)
NIM, a logarithmic game, the secret to unraveling Marienbad?

The first two times I saw Marienbad on consecutive nights at the Cleveland Cinematheque I had an entirely different feel for the film then when I saw it three or four times later.  My first two viewings (this film has to be seen at least twice) I saw X as a seducer.  I thought he met A last year at Marienbad but that she had repressed those memories because of an event unknown to the viewer.  With subsequent viewings I considered the picture to concern A’s struggle to cope with being raped by X (or M or someone else?) last year with her trying to repress memories and him trying to dig them up.

The famous over-exposed shot of X and A in the bedroom may support this theory.  In another viewing I saw A as having had an affair with X last year at Marienbad with her denying those memories so as to not be found out by her husband M. A memory, however reliable, of M shooting A in her bedroom may support this notion.

As one can see, Marienbad is open to many, many interpretations beyond the few I’ve listed in this selection.  The effectiveness of the film is allowing the viewer to determine his or her own story.

With Last Year at Marienbad I think Resnais and Robbie-Grillet have created a lasting, future-proof work of art, a high point of the legendary French New Wave, a technical marvel that has influenced Kubrick’s The Shining, David Lynch, high end designer fashion commercials, British rock group Blur’s “To the End” and will be discussed and analyzed for as long as there is cinema.