L’année dernière à Marienbad
Currently, I appear to be in a Gorp phase. Earlier this morning I started watching Agora and was quite disenchanted with it. It might be better than your average action battle CG period piece, but despite a few beautiful shots (and a beautiful Movies in Frames post which inspired me to look into the film) I cannot get into the film. The main character, while beautiful, appears absolutely boring, and her suitors are not much more than horny. Ever since Naoki Urasawa’s manga, I have become bored with the perfect, sophisticated and smart woman – who has absolutely no interest in sex. It might be a special thing for Hollywood and lead to more interesting plots, but Agora bored me. It might be a better modern Hollywood film, but it’s a Hollywood film and to me, it is therefore almost as unwatchable as, say, Troy. (I never saw that one, by the way.)
Compare that to “L’année dernière à Marienbad”. I absolutely loved the movie. It is an utterly ‘boring’ film, yet to me it looks like the best piece of ennui I have ever seen in my life. The characters have nothing to do, so they engage in boring conversation, boring games and probably also boring affairs. But while I disliked the mix of reality and imagination in “Providence”, I thought it was perfectly enough to keep my eyes peeled to the screen in “Marienbad”. Maybe it’s because Nymphenburg is just so damn beautiful and the film has so many visual details which I absolutely love. Since I have visited so many of them, I have a tendency to get bored when visiting castles and palaces – period rooms, ugh – but what makes “Marienbad” so great is the way they are shot. The focus on one particular statue, the way the camera glides through the rooms, and the black and white which makes every palace like that appear more elegant because it focuses on form rather than the tacky color these rooms typically come with.
In terms of their lovestory, I don’t have a strong desire the interpret it. Most of the interpretation are utterly useless. “He is her psychiatrist” or “it was all in his/her imagination” are the better ones. When I read theories about “virtual reality” and “parallel universe” or “Marienbad is hell” or just “dude is lying” – it just makes me cringe. There are other interpretations where the interpretation itself is even more vague than the film itself. What in the world. Amongst all of these, my favorite is the “Der Tod und das Mädchen” interpretation. It makes sense to me and ties into the many literary and cultural references of the story itself. At the same time, I would like to see Marienbad as simply a love story in a similar way “Hiroshima moon amour” was – if you accept that X is death then the entire of concept of love is moot here. The film “Marienbad” reminded me of the most is actually “Copie conforme”, also a rather confusing love story with many interpretations, where the first question is “Are they actually lovers?”
Style-wise I am amused that Resnais tried to emulate the Louise Brooks-look. I think that the lack of bangs makes Delphine Seyrig’s haircut more severe looking than Brooks’, and I much prefer Godard’s approach to it in “Vivre sa Vie”, which is much closer to Brooks anyways, both in style and in character.
Oh yeah! I also have completely forgotten the story of Rosmersholm but only remember that I did not particularly like it. I re-read the plot and find it surprisingly fitting for Marienbad.
All in all, I still think that the film is utterly strange, and might well deserve the dislike by most people. But really, it is not as confusing and pointless as it looks like. I originally watched the film because Don watches it in some episode in Mad Men, and do not regret having done so for a single second.
omg i love your phase. <3
Schleißheim! Nymphenburg! They are beautiful, but looking at their facades on certain winter days gave me the shivers before – an effect the film exploits brilliantly throughout, especially in those insanely gorgeous/creepy last couple of minutes before the end.
Like you, i feel that everything about this film has been said, and amidst all the silly "interpretations" are a few simple, poignant motifs (like Der Tod und das Mädchen!!!) that suffice or are even remotely satisfying. The film motivated me to go read "Morel's Invention" (the fact that it "is" SF is utterly irrelevant, of course, and its central image of seduction so towering before and otherwise neglectable plot, that it seemed perfectly adaptable by a master of appropriation such as Resnais).
Of course you must like my phase. :D It took me long enough to get into it! Hahaha. The end of the film is brilliant, yes.
Ohh I found the article on Morel’s Invention but without having read the book I must admit that I don’t see the similarity. Apart from the imagery of Louise Brooks, Marienbad could have been a reference to literally any story with artificial humans/holograms/simulacrons, or am I missing something? Unfortunately I don’t deal so well with the guy’s convoluted writing, so I probably didn’t understand all of it. Is there an actual similarity in the plot? Nonetheless, even a potential connection sounds interesting, and it really makes me want to read the book too! It is going to be added to my reading list. :D
It’s so great that you also perceive the story of the film as one of seduction. That was exactly the word I was missing, and it’s almost my favorite thing about the film. <3
Well it is a story about a guy stranded on an island with some sort of laboratory. And like a community of people who seem sort of high class but cannot seem to perceive the stranded guy. And then he falls madly in love with one of the women and tries to basically get her attention for the rest of the book, even though she is behaving like a machine and seems to not notice his attempts to seduce her. So it is basically about an outsider trying to win over a girl in the “inner circle” of zombie-likes. Totally Marienbad xD