L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961)

Director:

Alain Resnais

Writer:

Alain Robbe-Grillet (scenario and dialogue)

Release Date:

7 March 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

The point of this film is that the leading character and the audience are experiencing the feeling of deja vu throughout. The plot itself is not really important.

Plot Keywords:

Hotel | Card Game | Monologue | Surrealism | Cult Director

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Delphine Seyrig	...	A / Woman
Giorgio Albertazzi	...	X / Stranger
Sacha Pitoëff	...	M / Escort / Husband
Françoise Bertin	...	Un personnage de l'hôtel
Luce Garcia-Ville
Héléna Kornel
Françoise Spira
Karin Toche-Mittler
Pierre Barbaud
Wilhelm von Deek
Jean Lanier
Gérard Lorin
Davide Montemuri
Gilles Quéant
Gabriel Werner
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alan Edwards	...	English Introduction (uncredited)

Directed by
Alain Resnais

Writing credits
Alain Robbe-Grillet		(scenario and dialogue)

Produced by
Pierre Courau	....	producer
Raymond Froment	....	producer

Original Music by
Francis Seyrig

Cinematography by
Sacha Vierny

Film Editing by
Jasmine Chasney
Henri Colpi

Production Design by
Jacques Saulnier

Set Decoration by
Jean-Jacques Fabre
Georges Glon
André Piltant

Costume Design by
Bernard Evein

Makeup Department
Alexandre Marcus	....	key makeup artist
Elaine Marcus	....	makeup artist (as Elyane Marcus)

Production Management
Michel Choquet	....	post-production supervisor
Jean-Jacques Lécot	....	assistant production manager
Léon Sanz	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jean Léon	....	first assistant director
Florence Malraux	....	second assistant director
Volker Schlöndorff	....	second assistant director (as Volker Schloendorff)

Art Department
Jean-Jacques Fabre	....	assistant art director
Georges Glon	....	assistant art director
Charles Merangel	....	set dresser
André Piltant	....	assistant art director

Sound Department
Robert Cambourakis	....	sound
Jean-Claude Marchetti	....	sound
Jean Nény	....	sound
René Renault	....	sound
Guy Villette	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Louis Balthazard	....	key grip
Philippe Brun	....	camera operator
Elie Fontanille	....	chief electrician
Georges Pierre	....	still photographer
René Stocki	....	key grip

Music Department
André Girard	....	conductor
Marie-Louise Girod	....	musician: Orgue

Other crew
Sylvette Baudrot	....	script girl
Jean Fouchet	....	title designer
Janine Thaon	....	production secretary

Production Companies

• Cocinor (present)
• Terra Film (co-production) (as Terra-Film)
• Cormoran Films (co-production) (as Société Nouvelle des Films Cormoran)
• Precitel (co-production)
• Como Film Production (co-production) (as Como-Film)
• Argos Films (co-production) (as Argos-Films)
• Les Films Tamara (co-production)
• Cinétel (co-production)
• Silver Films (co-production)
• Cineriz (co-production) (Rome)

Distributors

• Cocinor (1961) (France) (theatrical)
• Studio Canal (1999) (France) (DVD)
• Astor Pictures Corporation (1962) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Rialto Pictures (2007) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Criterion Collection, The (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2009) (USA) (DVD) (blu-ray) (new HD master)
• Fox Lorber (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Kinokuniya (2009) (Japan) (DVD) (new HD master)
• Optimum Releasing (2005) (UK) (DVD) (PAL speed-up)
• Reel Media International (2004-2007) (USA) (video)
• Reel Media International (2007) (USA) (all media)

Other Companies

• Les Films Impéria  music edition
• Mondia Music S.r.l.  music edition (as Mondiamusic)
• Chanel  select wardrobe: for Mademoiselle Seyrig
• Photosonor  studio
• S.I.M.O.  studio (as SIMO)

Also Known As:

L'anno scorso a Marienbad (Italy)
Last Year at Marienbad (USA)
Last Year in Marienbad (UK)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Hong Kong:I | Italy:T | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Amalienburg Hunting Lodge, Nymphenburg Palace, Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Cocinor

Trivia:

"Marienbad" is the German name of the spa town Mariánské Lázne, Czech Republic.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Exterior night scenes were shot day-for-night, but the sky and reflections of it were allowed in the frame, and they appear as bright white instead of black. This may have been intentional to emphasize the surreality of the film.

Quotes:

X: I must have you alive. Alive, as you have already been every evening, for weeks, for months.
A: I have never stayed so long anywhere.
X: Yes, I know. I don't care. For days and days. Why don't you still want to remember anything?
A: You're raving! I'm tired, leave me alone!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dans le labyrinthe de Marienbad (2005) (V)

dream-memories

First,'Marienbad' is not an easy film to watch; and if I thought it worthwhile adding another comment to the list it was largely because so many of the preceding ones (even the most positive) start from the assumption that it's a story about a rich man and woman who can't remember whether they had an affair last year or not. That's sort of true, of course, and the film might work for you on that assumption, but I think it easily leads to quibbles as someone quite reasonably stated them - who forgets whether they had an affair or not? ... these people are too rich and privileged not to be annoying ... cinematography is unjustified by plot, and so on.

It strikes me that first of all it's not a question of simply not remembering whether it happened or not, but of not being certain whether a very clear memory refers to something that really happened or to a dream. Anyone who has ever had a very vivid dream, or even a very strong sense of 'déjà vu', will have some idea of the possibility of that. Taking it further, the strangeness of that labyrinthine building and gardens, with their carefully set out objects which all seem to 'mean' something and the eerily static people around, seems much closer to the environment of a dream than to any kind of reality. Resnais does manage to capture something of the diffuse significance of dream landscapes, at once mysteriously and terribly important and without any logical locatable reason for that importance. The significance and the mystery is increased by the sense of an unseizable past, just as a dream-landscape gains in vividness if the dream includes a sense of having been there before (or if it's a recurring dream).

This is really to say that, apart from and intertwined with the theme of memory, there's a sense of uncertain reality; is what we recall 'real', how do we tell the difference between reality and dream, in respect of a memory and even in respect of present perception, and why is it that the world around us in dreams, while less logical, is so much more intimately enthralling than the real world usually is? These people could be anyone, they may only be 'dreaming' that they're here, but if that's the case then what they're experiencing must be important to them. The success of the film depends on how able we are to enter this dream world and share in its importance, and that probably varies from person to person and from mood to mood in anyone. In the right mood, fascinating and disturbing. In the wrong mood, one might as well be walled out.