DVD Review: Last Year at Marienbad

By Cyril Pearl -- Video Business, 6/8/2009

CRITERION/IMAGE
Street: June 23
Prebook: now
> Alain Resnais’ enigmatic New Wave masterwork receives a Criterion makeover.

French New Waver Alain Resnais’ exquisite 1961 masterpiece remains as beautiful and enigmatic as ever in this newly restored and digitalized Criterion edition, which was supervised and approved by the 87-year-old director himself. The ambiguous tale follows a man and woman (the very chic Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig) who meet at a party in a chateau and puzzle over the idea that they may have met a year earlier and had an affair. It’s a dreamy and chronologically splintered visual poem of sorts—the kind of movie that will frustrate those who are not versed or interested in French New Wave cinema (“What’s going on?,” they’ll wonder). But Last Year at Marienbad will enrapture those who are willing to hop on for the baffling ride. An outstanding supplemental package includes a new audio interview with Resnais, a new documentary on the production and two earlier shorts by the filmmaker.

Shelf Talk: Long a staple in university foreign-film classes, Marienbad has long been in need of a makeover, and Criterion has done a fine job in taking on the challenge. Still an active filmmaker, Resnais’ most recent movie, this year’s Wild Grass, played to much acclaim at Cannes, where Resnais was awarded a Special Jury Prize acknowledging his entire body of work.

Foreign-language drama, B&W, NR (mature themes), 94 min., DVD $39.95, BD $39.95, French with English subtitles
Extras: new interviews, documentary, shorts
Director: Alain Resnais
First Run: L, March 1962, NA