Thursday, March 5, 2015

Last Year at Marienbad (1961)


IMDb plot summary: Takes place in a chateau, an ambiguous story of a man and a woman who may or may not have met last year at Marienbad.
Directed by Alain Resnais. Starring Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, and Sacha Pitoëff.

I recently watched Hiroshima mon amour by the same director and wasn't particularly taken by it, but this one had a few moments that really lured me in. It's very slow and confusing to watch, but there are some really fascinating scenes, and after a little scouting I found a few theories that helped bring the film together cohesively for me into a lovely story.

There are some movies that I've described as "big picture" movies -- in that they're not particularly enjoyable to watch, but the best part of them is in stepping back and looking at it from a distance after it's over, where suddenly things click and it's much more beautiful than it was up close. This is definitely one of those for me. I can't imagine ever wanting to watch it again, but I'm glad I saw it and I think it'll sit better in my mind the further I get from it.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Last Year at Marienbad > Last Action Hero
Last Year at Marienbad < Argo
Last Year at Marienbad < Munich
Last Year at Marienbad > Black Snake Moan
Last Year at Marienbad > Three Colors: Blue
Last Year at Marienbad > 12 Years a Slave
Last Year at Marienbad < Peggy Sue Got Married
Last Year at Marienbad > Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
Last Year at Marienbad > The Thing
Last Year at Marienbad < Laura
Last Year at Marienbad < Suspicion
Final spot: #898 out of 2333.

No comments: