Last Year at Marienbad (1961) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

Not just a defining work of the French New Wave but one of the great, lasting mysteries of modern art, Alain Resnais’ epochal Last Year at Marienbad (L’année dernière à Marienbad) has been puzzling appreciative viewers for decades. Written by radical master of the New Novel Alain Robbe-Grillet, this surreal fever dream, or nightmare, gorgeously fuses the past with the present in telling its ambiguous tale of a man and a woman (Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig) who may or may not have met a year ago, perhaps at the very same cathedral-like, mirror-filled château they now find themselves wandering. Unforgettable in both its confounding details (gilded ceilings, diabolical parlor games, a loaded gun) and haunting scope, Resnais’ investigation into the nature of memory is disturbing, romantic, and maybe even a ghost story.

Cast

A	Delphine Seyrig
X	Giorgio Albertazzi
M	Sacha Pitoëff

Credits

Director	Alain Resnais
Screenplay	Alain Robbe-Grillet
Producer	Pierre Courau and Raymond Froment
Music	Francis Seyrig
Cinematography	Sacha Vierny
Editing	Jasmine Chasney and Henri Colpi
Production Design	Jacques Saulnier
Costumes	Coco Chanel and Bernard Evein
Set decoration	Jean-Jacques Fabre, Georges Glon and André Piltant

Disc Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Alain Resnais (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
New audio interview with Resnais, recorded exclusively for this release
New documentary on the making of Last Year at Marienbad, featuring interviews with many of Resnais’ collaborators
New video interview with film scholar Ginette Vincendeau on the history of the film and its many mysteries
Two short documentaries by Resnais: Toute la mémoire du monde (1956) and Le chant du styrène (1958)
Original theatrical trailer and Rialto’s rerelease trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Mark Polizzotti and a section on Alain Robbe-Grillet’s evolving attitude toward the film, including the author’s introduction to the published screenplay and comments by film scholar François Thomas

From the Current

Do-ing the Marienbad

Nov 19, 2009

It’s well known that Alain Resnais’ beautiful New Wave puzzle Last Year at Marienbad was as fashion-forward as it was artistically progressive. But it surprised us to learn that this high-concept masterpiece was on the cutting edge in another respect. A 1962 Life

PRESS NOTES: GO TO THE SOURCE

Jul 3, 2009

It’s often said that there’s never been a movie quite like Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad. But in paying tribute to this French New Wave landmark on the occasion of its release in Criterion DVD and Blu-ray editions, some critics have noted that its unique style has been so influential . . .

The Elegance of Sacha Vierny

by Alain Resnais Jun 24, 2009

The following tribute to Sacha Vierny by Alain Resnais (pictured together above, Resnais left) was published in the October 2001 issue of

Last Year at Marienbad:
Which Year at Where?

by Mark Polizzotti Jun 23, 2009

So much critical ink has been shed over Last Year at Marienbad that one might wonder if the flood of commentary, once receded, would take the film . . .

Remembering Marienbad

by Peter Cowie Jun 19, 2009

Forty-six years ago, Last Year at Marienbad opened in London. Resnais and Robbe-Grillet came over for the press screening, and I chatted to them in the lobby of the now defunct Cameo-Poly art house on London’s Upper Regent Street. Resnais was already forty years of age, a full decade . . .