| Notes | Criterion Collection Blu-ray edition
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.
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 a new 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
New cover by Rodrigo Corral and Ben Wiseman |
