Last Year at Marienbad

Released Jun 25, 1961

1h 33m

Drama

List

93%

57 Reviews

Tomatometer

85%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In this unconventional French drama, a group of unnamed aristocrats interact at a palatial château, resulting in an enigmatic tale told partially in flashback. X (Giorgio Albertazzi) is convinced that he has met the beautiful A (Delphine Seyrig) before in the Czech resort town of Marienbad, and implies they had a romantic relationship. M (Sacha Pitoeff), who may be A's husband or boyfriend, confronts her mysterious suitor, leading to conflict and questions about the truth behind his story.

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Critics Consensus

Elegantly enigmatic and dreamlike, this work of essential cinema features exquisite cinematography and an exploration of narrative still revisited by filmmakers today.

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Brendan Gill

New Yorker

It flows past one’s eyes with the suavity and never-to-be-questioned illogic of a dream, and indeed it may be that we are intended to perceive that its story is a sort of dream within a dream.

Aug 15, 2022

Full Review

Richard Brody

New Yorker

The story's obscurity turns out to result from its protagonists' own efforts to deny or blur their painful past.

May 13, 2019

Full Review

Adam Mars-Jones

Independent (UK)

The visual moments that remain in the mind are without exception locked into place by the intensity of the score.

Nov 15, 2017

Full Review

Pauline Kael

Massachusetts Review

Enthusiasts for the film start arguing about whether something happened last year at Marienbad, and this becomes rather more important than what happens on the screen in front of them -- which isn't much.

Sep 11, 2023

Full Review

Tim Brayton

Alternate Ending

It's extraordinary how nothing feels out of place, how well it seems to extract a form of artistic meaning from its meaninglessness.

Rated: 5/5

Feb 6, 2023

Full Review

Cory Woodroof

615 Film

So basically the Eagles watched this, said ‘wait a second,’ and wrote “Hotel California.” It’s also got the world’s most amped-up organ player going HAM on every stanza.

Jun 9, 2022

Full Review

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Dave S

How best to describe Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad? Maybe something along the lines of ‘as James Joyce's Ulysses is to literature, Last Year at Marienbad is to cinema' – incomprehensible and impossibly frustrating with countless moments of unimaginable brilliance. The plot, if that is in fact what it is, concerns a man trying to convince a woman that they had an affair one year earlier. However, don't knock yourself out trying to piece things together because it can't be done – anyone who tells you that they understand it is a liar. What makes it so special are the striking visuals – spectacular cinematography give that gives the film a dream-like quality. It's the lighting and tracking shots and blocking that make the movie so memorable. Don't try to analyze it, just let it wash over you and you might find it to be a rewarding experience. Or maybe not.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

04/03/24

Full Review

Alec B

As hypnotic as it is enigmatic. Once you stop trying to figure out what is happening and simply allow yourself to fall under the movie's spell it's infinitely rewarding.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/03/24

Full Review

bhaxby

Jean Cocteau ran so that this film could walk. What is the purpose of fiction and make-believe in film? I would say its function is two fold: either its to intersperse reality with dreams and flashbacks to add perspective on said reality - or its to envelop you entirely in the spellbinding fiction of the director as in a fantasy/art film. And then I saw this film, and realised that there was perhaps a third category. Where in fact characters A and X seem to start in the dream world, with people freezing mid-conversation other reality suspending moments, and are trying to work their way back to reality. So I will give it credit for being a unique take on fiction in film. A film with a primary basis in fantasy often bewitches, but it also befuddles. The viewer has to be invested enough to stay with the filmmaker as he or she takes them through dizzying temporal and poetic leaps of faith and narrative distortions. This film does not do that. It litters potentially meaningful artistic leitmotifs like 'the Double' (A in a black feather shawl and white leather shawl), mise en abysme (paintings of the chateau courtyard inside the chateau), mythic statues that are supposed to theatricalise the lives of the characters and so on, in a way that is utterly random and haphazard. It's a shame because these artistic devices can be SO powerful in the hands of a filmmaker who knows what they're doing, like Hitchcock in Vertigo or Cocteau in Blood of a Poet, but it just feels like the Resnais wants the viewer to do all the work while bringing little to the artistic table himself. The film is a bloated attempt at a meditation on memory and love made by a filmmaker with an outsized location budget and miniature imagination to match. The narrative about the decor of the chateau and the recanting of the affair is utterly prosaic and repetitive, no poetic flair at all - its honestly like elementary-school writing 'the walls had statues of angels' 'it was cold outside' 'you looked scared'. I honestly believe that all the positive reviews are nothing more than nostalgia boners as the film flaunts all the aesthetic markers of a 'classic' "oh my god its in black and white, oh my god all the men look so smart in their tuxedos, oh my god vintage card games, oh my god the chateau - iT mUsT bE a ClAsSiC". You will notice that a lot of the positive reviews also focus on praising the location. Resnais did not build the location. He deserves no credit for artistic discernment on that. That's just called being a director with a big budget. It takes little artistic discernment to make a film shot in a beautiful chateau look...well...beautiful. Again I refer you to Cocteau with his superior resourcefulness: beautiful homespun art films that have far more soul and uniqueness, as every poeticism provokes and tantalises and is densely packed with meaning, every artistic plot mechanism actually feels thoughtful and invites intrigue. The artistic merit of Cocteau's films entirely hinge on the imaginative flair of the director as he directed, screenwrote, designed costumes, acted and pioneered the overall artistic vision in a way that was very hands on. Compared to Resnais who was far more hands-off, a jumped-up 'Après Garde' filmmaker who was by comparison spoilt by a huge budget and utterly unresourceful in his imagination and creativity.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

08/14/23

Full Review

isla s

This is a somewhat hypnotic, part dream-like film. Its in black and white and that gives it a somewhat timeless feel to it I suppose. I felt that the setting of the hotel gave quite a looming sense to the viewer, when we see it from outside via external shots. The dialogue is mostly provided via voiceover type narration - the voice in question being somewhat laidback and casual in tone, as if recalling some distant ocassion, while in the background an organ can be heard playing. Its certainly an atmospheric watch. I believe its claimed that the film the Shining was partly inspired by this film, in terms of picturing the setting for the iconic hotel in that film. I can understand why. The camerawork is very wispery - wispery and slow. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, it does add to the dreamlike sense it has, although perhaps it may not appeal to every film fan. I thought it did feel a little spooky/sinister, with the dialogue, the people trying to figure out what's what. It definitely has an unsettling sense to it, although I certainly wouldn't say its an outright scary film, its no slasher film or anything like that but there's a definite undertone thats hard to put your finger on exactly but it leaves you (as the viewer) wondering what the real truth may be, whats lurking underneath, so to speak. As I say, it has a hypnotic quality to it - its subtly intriguing, I'd say. This is, for the most part, a somewhat arty film and as an example of French world cinema, I would certainly recommend it, although I would like to add that at times the organ music was a bit too loud for my taste, a bit too 'in your face' so to speak - not all the time, just at times. It isn't necessarily the easiest of films to 'get into' but its undoubtedly a good film in general otherwise.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Christopher B

Dreamlike in every sense of the word the film is more style and wonderful cinematography than cohesive plot. This isn't to say that there isn't a plot or it's a shallow one, but a film that can't be easily deconstructed. The techniques used in filming are inspiring and continue to be an example to filmmakers today. This really is a visual and atmospheric film that keeps your eyes glued to the screen. The visuals are strikingly haunting and gorgeously rendered on screen and over 50 years later it still remains essential viewing for anyone who appreciates film and the wonder of it. This is a film that should simply be experienced freely and with an open mind, don't try to figure out a narrative or story per se, simply live in the film and experience it. Highly Recommended!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/22/22

Full Review

Audience Member

Nice, but very boring and intrusive.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

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Alain Resnais

Director

Delphine Seyrig

A

Giorgio Albertazzi

X

Sacha Pitoeff

M

Françoise Bertin

Un personnage de l'hôtel

Luce Garcia-Ville

Actor

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Synopsis

In this unconventional French drama, a group of unnamed aristocrats interact at a palatial château, resulting in an enigmatic tale told partially in flashback. X (Giorgio Albertazzi) is convinced that he has met the beautiful A (Delphine Seyrig) before in the Czech resort town of Marienbad, and implies they had a romantic relationship. M (Sacha Pitoeff), who may be A's husband or boyfriend, confronts her mysterious suitor, leading to conflict and questions about the truth behind his story.

Director: Alain Resnais
Screenwriter: Alain Resnais, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Alain Robbe-Grillet
Distributor: Astor Pictures Corporation, Fox Lorber
Production Co: Argos Films, Terra Film Produktion, Cocinor
Genre: Drama
Original Language: French (Canada)
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 25, 1961, Wide
Rerelease Date (Theaters): May 17, 2019
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 8, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $60.1K
Runtime: 1h 33m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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