Event

Last Year at Marienbad

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 (Lannée 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.

"One of the strangest artifacts of cinema history...no other film has affected fashion as deeply." Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

"Beyond Seyrigs fashionable sarcophagus of haute couture Chanel and the movies self-referential games and rituals, Resnaiss film is a stark, elegant horror film about the dread we spend our whole lives trying to put off contemplating until next year." - Slant

"A GORGEOUS PUZZLE BOX OF A MOVIE!" Mark Harris, The New York Times

"The movie is what it is - a sustained mood, an empty allegory, a choreographed moment outside of time, and a shocking intimation of perfection." J. Hoberman

"Leaving aside the frightening wealth of talent contributed by the Alains [Resnais and Robbe-Grillet], Sacha Viernys photography alone (which even on video tends to elicit gasps of astonishment from the uninitiated) means that every screening of MARIENBAD must be cherished." - Cine-File