Some or other erudite wag referred to this still unsurpassed inspiration to all serious minded film scholars as "The World's Longest Wallpaper Commercial", Ah, but WHAT a commercial......

Is it a love story? Is it a murder mystery? Just what the Hell is this all about? Like fading memories - when we remember incidents, moments, etc., we tend - depending on visual power - to recollect - to remember specifics about the immediate surroundings, the rest? That's not quite a blurr, the other images are there, but what are THEY doing? Probably an inspiration for the later disappointing Kubrick "Eyes Wide Shut" orgy sequences, THAT chauteau, somewhere outside New York - err London? Anyhow, THIS is where we are - in someone's memory - recalling specific episodes over and over again. Somewhat frustrating, somewhat disturbing, but not disappointing, and this should be viewed again and again, you see - there's ALWAYS something new to be discovered. [A similar approach used in the later "Providence"].

Luminous Delphine Seyrig is the focal Female! [She left us with very few movie - this is one of her best].

Strange piece of work indeed! It has a life of it's own - and seems to recreate itself. ANOTHER MUST SEE? "Hiroshima, Mon Amour" - similar, unforgettable opening sequence!

Alain Resnais' 1961 classic "Last Year at Marienbad" is without peer in the annals of film history. It is a confounding yet brilliant work that defies categorization or explanation. Traditional narrative form is dispensed with in favor of a fragmented filmic rendering of the inconsistent and haunting nature of memory. Bizarre touches galore embroider this work: a repetitive monotone narration; figures freezing and unfreezing their actions in unison like voguing black tie androids; an organ accompaniment reminiscent of a carnival calliope; a game of chance one character never seems to lose.

"Last Year at Marienbad" is also one of the most technically sound motion pictures ever created. Uncanny performances and superb cinematography augment the psychological mystery surrounding the protagonists of this singular achievement. Who are these people? What really did happen last year, and was it even in Marienbad?

For a film obsessed with the deceptiveness of memory, it's fitting that "Last Year at Marienbad" is unforgettable.

There's a game in this film which is played over and over. It's the most obviously fitting motif in this movie, which is a game in itself. A quite tricky one. Romors has it Resnais was playing a joke... This is a must for all movie lovers: The B&W Cinematography is one of the most tastefully Cinemascope filling material I've ever seen. Still, it's not only the camerawork, it's the narrative playfulness, and some clips where persons are transferred to another setting within a body movement... Nice. Of all the greatest films of the French New Wave, this is the most elegantly playful and mindtwisting I've seen. See it, and see it again.