Black and White in Color
February 06, 2013
Film Info
- France
- 1961
- 94 minutes
- Black and White
- 2.35:1
- French
- Spine #478
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.
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
Current Posts
Photo Galleries
Photo Galleries
Film Essays
Last Year at Marienbad: Which Year at Where?
By June 23, 2009
So much critical ink has been shed over Last Year at Marienbad that one might wonder if the . . . Read more »
On Five
APRIL IN TATIVILLE
By April 22, 2009
Some of you might have seen the news item on our website regarding the Jacques Tati “ . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Last Year at Marienbad: Which Year at Where?
By June 23, 2009
So much critical ink has been shed over Last Year at Marienbad that one might wonder if the . . . Read more »
Photo Galleries
Photo Galleries
Posters
News
Back to Marienbad
May 24, 2010
Alain Resnais’s 1961 French New Wave masterpiece Last Year at Marienbad has long been one of . . . Read more »
Clippings
Do-ing the Marienbad
November 19, 2009
It’s well known that Alain Resnais’ beautiful New Wave puzzle Last Year at Marienbad was as . . . Read more »
Press Notes
PRESS NOTES: GO TO THE SOURCE
July 03, 2009
It’s often said that there’s never been a movie quite like Alain Resnais’ Last Year at . . . Read more »
Web Exclusives
The Elegance of Sacha Vierny
By June 24, 2009
The following tribute to Sacha Vierny by Alain Resnais (pictured together above, Resnais . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Last Year at Marienbad: Which Year at Where?
By June 23, 2009
So much critical ink has been shed over Last Year at Marienbad that one might wonder if the . . . Read more »
Dispatches
Remembering Marienbad
By June 19, 2009
Forty-six years ago, Last Year at Marienbad opened in London. Resnais and Robbe-Grillet came . . . Read more »
On Five
APRIL IN TATIVILLE
By April 22, 2009
Some of you might have seen the news item on our website regarding the Jacques Tati “ . . . Read more »
