Last Year at Marienbad is an enduring cinematic mystery and French New Wave classic arrives on the 4K UHD format.
The Production: 4/5
The closer one looks at Last Year in Marienbad, the less one sees — it is as true in 2024 as it was upon the film’s release in 1961. A sumptuously mounted production and a landmark film of the then-burgeoning French New Wave movement, this Alain Resnais-directed film, from a script by acclaimed author and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet, is a case study in pushing the cinematic form as far as it can go.
The narrative, such as it is, concerns The Narrator (Giorgio Albertazzi), whose sonorous intonations help form a spine of sorts through the film, as he traipses through a “huge, luxurious, baroque, dismal hotel” again and again, his words taking on the feel of an incantation. The Narrator is utterly convinced he first crossed paths with The Woman (Delphine Seyrig) one year earlier at the enormous hotel, located in the resort town of Marienbad, although she is skeptical they ever met, let alone had a romantic back-and-forth The Narrator also seems certain they shared. A third man — billed as The Husband and played by Sacha Pitoeff — inserts himself into the proceedings at various intervals, although his exact relation to The Woman isn’t entirely clear.
But then, so much of Marienbad — a fugue state masquerading as a feature film — is predicated on being vague and unclear. Anyone sitting down to Marienbad for the first time and rising, 94 minutes later, frustrated, confused and unsure of what they’ve just seen will be joining the legions of film fans who have likewise been stymied by this beautiful but maddeningly opaque work for the last six decades. (There may even be those who wonder how on Earth this film won, the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1961.)
Rather than probing the luscious images — captured in ravishing black and white by cinematographer Sacha Vierny — for any concrete meaning, it’s easier to give yourself over to the hypnotic rhythms of the piece, edited in elliptical fashion by Jasmine Chasney and Henri Colpi. The “marble, mirrors, pictures, darkness” of the grand old hotel are alluring surfaces, and indeed, the building and its grounds seem to have more personality than the men and women roaming around it.
The main cast — Albertazzi, Pitoeff and Seyrig, the latter of whom who would also feature heavily in another landmark art film, 1975’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, directed by the iconoclastic Chantal Akerman — acquits itself well, but are functionally cyphers. Marienbad is chiefly preoccupied with mood, and sustaining its peculiar reverie is not necessarily tied to the motivations of characters (though there are identifiable traits of a possible love triangle, or perhaps stalking, or maybe the utter boredom of fantastically rich bourgeoisie — the film could be about all of that or none of it).
Last Year at Marienbad is beautiful to behold, but impenetrable by design. Resnais broke out internationally in 1959, just a couple years prior to this film, with Hiroshima Mon Amour. That work and Marienbad would cement his status among auteurs as having crafted two of the medium’s most indelible, enduring and influential works, which still resonate today.
Video: 4/5
3D Rating: NA
Black and white films are often sterling showcases for the 4K medium, and while Last Year at Marienbad doesn’t quite scale the heights of reference quality — which, admittedly, may be due more to source limitations than anything else — it is still a very clean, visually pleasing representation of the classic film. The 4K image is presented in the film’s 2.39:1 theatrical aspect ratio in a SDR (standard dynamic range) container.
With no Dolby Vision or HDR applied, viewers are left with a very solid image to behold. The deep shadows of the estate’s interiors don’t always seem as dark as they should — many of the optical effects for transitions unintentionally lighten the image when scenes change — but the outdoor sequences set in the austere gardens have the crispness and depth of a high-quality monochromatic photograph. It’s unclear exactly what, if any, additional clean-up work went into what the slipcover bills as “a gorgeous 4K restoration from StudioCanal.”
It’s possible this release is simply a 4K update of the Chanel-funded 2018 restoration of the original camera negative (which StudioCanal released on Blu-ray in 2018, and Kino Lorber released in 2019.
Audio: 4/5
In keeping with prior home video releases of Last Year at Marienbad, the sound is what it is — Kino Lorber gives no indication any sort of restorative work has been done on the soundtrack. The slipcover and case both advertise 2.0 mono (which seems like a paradox), even as the disc itself, in playback, clearly displays a DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo track.
Regardless, the dialogue — whether whispered or spoken — is heard clearly, free from any noticeable distortion, and Francis Seyrig’s (brother of co-star Delphine) funereal, organ-heavy score boasts some surprising depth at various points, while sounding a bit thin at others. Optional English subtitles are included.
Special Features: 4/5
Kino Lorber’s release of Last Year at Marienbad spreads across one 4K disc and one Blu-ray disc. The bulk of the bonus features are found on the Blu-ray, which appears to be a direct port of the label’s prior 2019 release. The one extra appearing on both discs is a commentary track from film historian Tim Lucas. The Blu-ray also features “My Year at Marienbad,” a newly recorded interview with Volker Schlondorff (32:51; 1.78:1), who served as second assistant director on the film; “Last Year at Marienbad A to Z,” an absorbing, richly informative visual essay by film historian James Quandt (51:11; 1.78:1 anamorphic); the behind-the-scenes featurette “Memories of Last Year at Marienbad” (48:19; 1.33:1), comprised of narrated, Super 8mm footage filmed on location; the Resnais-directed 1956 short film Toute la memoire du monde (All the Memory in the World) (21:58; 1.37:1), created prior to his breakout 1959 feature Hiroshima Mon Amour, along with theatrical trailers for Marienbad (3:34; 2.35:1 anamorphic), Jacques Rivette’s The Nun (1:32; 1.78:1) and Henri-George Clouzot’s La Prisonniere (4:02; 1.66:1). Aggravatingly, the prior 2019 Kino Lorber release included a booklet essay from critic K. Austin Collins, which is absent here.
Overall: 4/5
The closer one looks at Last Year in Marienbad, the less one sees — it is as true in 2024 as it was upon the film’s release in 1961. A sumptuously mounted production and a landmark film of the then-burgeoning French New Wave movement, this Alain Resnais-directed film, from a script by acclaimed author and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet, is a case study in pushing the cinematic form as far as it can go. This 4K UHD release updates Kino Lorber’s prior 2019 Blu-ray, providing a bit more texture to the restored image. Recommended for fans of the film.
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