Last Year at Marienbad

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Allan C @RT15713161 02/03/2025 I’d just watched director Alain Resnais’ masterpiece, HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR, and was blown away, so I had to check out one of his other films. In LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, he again explores the faultiness of memories, but with far less success. Telling a surreal story at a posh chateau where a man is convinced he and a woman met once before and had a torrid affair. Is it gaslighting? Is it repressed memories? Is it different perspectives on the same experience? I believe the filmmakers land on the latter, but it’s never made explicitly clear. You’re not always sure if we are in the present or a memory or even who is telling a particular story or memory at that moment. It’s audaciously filmed in a highly stylized manner, where entire rooms of people are frozen in place except for one or two characters or with strange and surreal repeated images. However, the film is emotionally distant and cold compared to HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR. It feels more like an exercise in cinema than trying to tell a human story. Resnais accomplishes what he set out to do, but it’s not as satisfying of a film experience. See more Leaburn O @RT35452347 01/06/2025 Stylish in a French art house way but tediously boring in a Drench art house way. Not for me. Watched on DVD. See more Dave S @RT68722908 01/22/2024 How best to describe Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad? Maybe something along the lines of ‘as James Joyce's Ulysses is to literature, Last Year at Marienbad is to cinema' – incomprehensible and impossibly frustrating with countless moments of unimaginable brilliance. The plot, if that is in fact what it is, concerns a man trying to convince a woman that they had an affair one year earlier. However, don't knock yourself out trying to piece things together because it can't be done – anyone who tells you that they understand it is a liar. What makes it so special are the striking visuals – spectacular cinematography give that gives the film a dream-like quality. It's the lighting and tracking shots and blocking that make the movie so memorable. Don't try to analyze it, just let it wash over you and you might find it to be a rewarding experience. Or maybe not. See more Alec B @Alec97 01/03/2024 As hypnotic as it is enigmatic. Once you stop trying to figure out what is happening and simply allow yourself to fall under the movie's spell it's infinitely rewarding. See more isla s @RT89656869 09/03/2022 This is a somewhat hypnotic, part dream-like film. Its in black and white and that gives it a somewhat timeless feel to it I suppose. I felt that the setting of the hotel gave quite a looming sense to the viewer, when we see it from outside via external shots. The dialogue is mostly provided via voiceover type narration - the voice in question being somewhat laidback and casual in tone, as if recalling some distant ocassion, while in the background an organ can be heard playing. Its certainly an atmospheric watch. I believe its claimed that the film the Shining was partly inspired by this film, in terms of picturing the setting for the iconic hotel in that film. I can understand why. The camerawork is very wispery - wispery and slow. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, it does add to the dreamlike sense it has, although perhaps it may not appeal to every film fan. I thought it did feel a little spooky/sinister, with the dialogue, the people trying to figure out what's what. It definitely has an unsettling sense to it, although I certainly wouldn't say its an outright scary film, its no slasher film or anything like that but there's a definite undertone thats hard to put your finger on exactly but it leaves you (as the viewer) wondering what the real truth may be, whats lurking underneath, so to speak. As I say, it has a hypnotic quality to it - its subtly intriguing, I'd say. This is, for the most part, a somewhat arty film and as an example of French world cinema, I would certainly recommend it, although I would like to add that at times the organ music was a bit too loud for my taste, a bit too 'in your face' so to speak - not all the time, just at times. It isn't necessarily the easiest of films to 'get into' but its undoubtedly a good film in general otherwise. See more Christopher B @Ikari777 08/22/2022 Dreamlike in every sense of the word the film is more style and wonderful cinematography than cohesive plot. This isn't to say that there isn't a plot or it's a shallow one, but a film that can't be easily deconstructed. The techniques used in filming are inspiring and continue to be an example to filmmakers today. This really is a visual and atmospheric film that keeps your eyes glued to the screen. The visuals are strikingly haunting and gorgeously rendered on screen and over 50 years later it still remains essential viewing for anyone who appreciates film and the wonder of it. This is a film that should simply be experienced freely and with an open mind, don't try to figure out a narrative or story per se, simply live in the film and experience it. Highly Recommended! See more Read all reviews

Last Year at Marienbad

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