Last Year in Marienbad

Defining the words ‘art film’ for a generation, Marienbad is every bit as extraordinary today as when it was premiered in Venice, 50 years ago this August. The plot is banal and, as in Hiroshima, the characters have no names. X (Albertazzi) pursues A (Seyrig) through the endless corridors of a luxury hotel, trying to persuade her that they met last year, while M (Pitoëff), who may be A’s husband, looks on. But, in the eternal present of Robbe-Grillet’s screenplay, drenched in the organ score by Francis Seyrig (brother of Delphine), there can be no ‘last year’ (and probably no future either). Don’t miss the chance to see thistimeless masterpiece on the big screen, for which the inky blacks and flaring whites of Sacha Vierny’s cinematography were made. There is, quite simply, no other movie like it. – Nick Roddick