Review of Last Year at Marienbad by Resnais

This film is a traditional one. It is unlike French New Wave films and stands for the tradition of quality French films stood for in the years before the Nouvelle Vague revolutionized French Cinema. I enjoyed the film. It aspires to Cinematic art and literary pretensiousness which I love in films. It is also a non-linear film. The narrative structure is disjointed and goes back and forth between the present and the past. The story follows a man who tries to convince a woman that they had an affair last year. She objects the entire film. Until, finally, photographs reveal that she was had committed adultery with the mysterious man.

The style and tone of the film are very high-class. Everyone is wearing tuxedos and formal dresses. The mise en scene of the film is very structured and symmetrical too. There are numerous scenes where the action is frozen. It is a very creative way to depict the action in the film. The voice over does most of the exposition. Initially I found it hard to hear the narrator, but eventually I caught on and listened to his voice.

The script was written by Alain Robbe-Grillet who is famous for leading the new french literary movement of the 1950s and early 60s. So the script takes on more of a literary quality than a typical film. A typical film this is not. I have scene Hiroshima Mon Amour as well by Resnais. The two films are similar in the way they present images and action with voice over. In both films it works and comes off as avant garde in it's presentation. I'm often telling myself to show don't tell, but Resnais shows and tells. Perhaps it works in his films because narrators in films were more acceptable in the time this film was made. I don't know if a filmmaker would be able to get away with it in today's Cinema. Which is too bad. Resnais' films are excellent.

The setting in Last Year at Marienbad is tres grande. I almost thought it was the palace of Versailles when they showed the hotel at night. The grande jardin also reminded of Versaille. I didn't know any of the actors, but I thought they played their roles well. The woman particularly. Perhaps my favorite scene of the film is when she is dressed in her white feathered outfit and the camera repeatedly does a close up of her. It was hysterical. Similar to a Hitchcock film. I was totally mesmerized.