Last Year at Marienbad/L'Année Dernière à Marienbad/Last Year in Marienbad (1961) - Resnais' iconic castle-set love mystery

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An avant-garde/artistic poster for Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad

A man in a castle named Marienbad Hotel attempts to recall what happened between him and a beautiful woman there one year ago. - She remembers nothing.

 

Last Year at Marienbad is written by Alain Robbe-Grillet (La Jalousie (1972, TV movie)) and directed by Alain Resnais (Ouvert pour Cause d'Inventaire (1946)). The title is a literal translation of the original French title.

It is one of the foremost films ever to have given French cinema a reputation for being elitist, incomprehensible and dull, - and not without reason in this case. Last Year at Marienbad is funny in an absurd way.

The widescreen images of the castle (cinematography by Sascha Vierny (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989))) are masterly, and the film works best as a visual and technical exercise of a rare breed.

Francis Seyrig's (Marie Soleil (1964)) organ music score is fatiguing, and the entire narrative side of the 'drama' is, of course, pretentious and deeply, deeply mystical. 

 

Related post:

 

Alain Resnais: Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) - Beauty and passion in the midst of devastation in Resnais' striking images

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[Last Year at Marienbad premiered in July (Franse Film Week, Utrecht, Netherlands) and runs 94 minutes. 10 companies cooperated in the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place from September - November 1960 in France and Germany. Details concerning the film's budget and original release box office performances are regrettably not made public online. The film was chosen as France's nomination for the Oscars Best Foreign Film category but went without a nomination. It was instead nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category, lost to Ennio de Concini, Alfredi Giannetti and Pietro Germi for Divorce Italian Style. It was also nominated for a BAFTA and won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. Resnais returned with Muriel (1963). Delphine Seyrig (Freak Orlando (1981)) returned in Muriel; Giorgio Albertazzi (La Rivale (1999, TV movie)) in Morte di un Bandito (1961). Last Year at Marienbad is certified fresh at 93 % with an 8.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Last Year at Marienbad? 

8½/Otto e Mezzo (1963) or, Vive la Cinema!

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An appropriately eclectic poster for Federico Fellini's highly eclectic 8½

8½ is Italian master filmmaker Federico Fellini's (La Dolce Vita (1960)) highly subjective film about filmmaking, and possibly also the best film about filmmaking ever made. 

Marcello Mastroianni (The Night/La Notte (1961)) plays film director Guido, who has forgotten what his next film will be about, and who has the habit of losing himself in reveries and dreams in the time leading up to the film's production.

8½'s structure and narrative remains as refreshing, modern, and fragmented today as it ever was. The film still stuns with its extraordinary language, sound and music. It is a colorful (figuratively meant, because it is in black and white), funny, chilling at one point and erotic at another, vivacious film above all.
The only thing I can say against 8½ is that I think it runs a bit long.
Fellini co-wrote the screenplay with Ennio Flaiano (La Dolce Vita), Tullio Pinelli (La Strada (1954)) and Brunello Rondi (Fellini Satyricon (1969)).

Related post:

Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  

Watch BFI's excellent, restored trailer for the film with English subtitles here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 3.5 mil. $ (rentals)
= Uncertain (but likely a big hit)
[8½ premiered 13 February (Rome, Italy) and runs 138 minutes. It was shot in Italy, including Rome, from May - October 1962. It was screened out of competition in Cannes (because its premiere was set at the Moscow International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prize and was met with applause from its 8,000 audiences in the Kremlin's conference hall, worrying the Soviet authorities, who reportedly interpreted the hoopla as "a cry for freedom".) The film won 2 Oscars, for Best Foreign Film and Best Costume Design B/W, and lost Best Set/Art Direction B/W to America America, Best Director to Tony Richardson for Tom Jones and Best Original Screenplay to James R. Webb for How the West Was Won. It was also nominated for a BAFTA and won 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this one. Was the film made for an at the time in Italy lavish 1 mil. $, it would count as a big hit. Fellini returned with Juliet of the Spirits/Giulietta degli Spiriti (1965). Mastroianni returned in The Organizer/I Compagni (1963), Claudia Cardinale (Brigands/Li Chiamarono... Briganti! (1999)) in masterpiece The Leopard/Il Gattopardo (1963), Anouk Aimée (Les Marmottes (1993)) in The Shortest Day/Il Giorno Più Corto (1963). 8½ is certified fresh at 98 % with an 8.5 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 8½?