http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/last-year-in-marienbad-d-alain-resnais/ The Oscars, film awards, new releases, Los Angeles screenings, movie classics, gay movies, film festivals, box office, foreign and independent films Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:29:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/last-year-in-marienbad-d-alain-resnais/#comment-516387 victor enyutin Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:57:59 +0000 http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=2785#comment-516387 Alain Resnais’ “Last Year in Marienbad” (1960) is a barely possible comedy about the pompous cult of romantic love we all carry in our hearts. At first the film lures us into a love with romantic love only to overwhelm us by the stylistic embellishments ecstatic love expects from the storyteller, and then it suddenly introduces subversive intonations which leaves you still being in love with love but simultaneously confused and disoriented. Resnais’ directorial power of making visual images whisper, talk, sing and scream is equal to his craft of making audio images a contrapuntal addition to them when both are addressing not only viewer’s soul but his/her mind which answers with positive (creative) puzzlement triggering farther intellectual concentration. The reality status of last year in Marienbad as a place of meeting of two hypothetical lovers (X and A) in the past which the main protagonist X tries to suggest to the woman (A) who personifies his yearning for love, cannot be verified. Strong love is never the first time although it seems like it is – it is always prepared by the forgotten past experiences or dreams and unconscious desires. As a person who has watched this film repeatedly during at least thirty five years I can assure the potential audience that to experience it means to participate in a process which is never stopping to trigger your emotions and returning to you again and again always fresh, impressive and challenging, like the need to love. Actors incarnating the three angles of a love triangle (“lover”, “husband” and the “wife/mistress”) – are simultaneously realistic and capable of stylizing human emotions which are easily recognizable but, on the other hand, enigmatic and open to the mystery. Alain Resnais’ “Last Year in Marienbad” (1960) is a barely possible comedy about the pompous cult of romantic love we all carry in our hearts. At first the film lures us into a love with romantic love only to overwhelm us by the stylistic embellishments ecstatic love expects from the storyteller, and then it suddenly introduces subversive intonations which leaves you still being in love with love but simultaneously confused and disoriented. Resnais’ directorial power of making visual images whisper, talk, sing and scream is equal to his craft of making audio images a contrapuntal addition to them when both are addressing not only viewer’s soul but his/her mind which answers with positive (creative) puzzlement triggering farther intellectual concentration. The reality status of last year in Marienbad as a place of meeting of two hypothetical lovers (X and A) in the past which the main protagonist X tries to suggest to the woman (A) who personifies his yearning for love, cannot be verified. Strong love is never the first time although it seems like it is – it is always prepared by the forgotten past experiences or dreams and unconscious desires. As a person who has watched this film repeatedly during at least thirty five years I can assure the potential audience that to experience it means to participate in a process which is never stopping to trigger your emotions and returning to you again and again always fresh, impressive and challenging, like the need to love. Actors incarnating the three angles of a love triangle (“lover”, “husband” and the “wife/mistress”) – are simultaneously realistic and capable of stylizing human emotions which are easily recognizable but, on the other hand, enigmatic and open to the mystery.

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