French filmmakers face off Jul 25, 2008
In one of the last interviews he gave before his death in February, French writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet gently dismissed his former collaborator, Alain Resnais, by saying, "He is a great technician. But no auteur, no matter what you may think." Whether or not you agree with this statement, the two Alains will be forever linked by one exasperating, radical and ambitious film, 1961's Last Year at Marienbad, which the first Alain wrote and the second directed ... Last Year at Marienbad... (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
A sublime memory from a forgotten master Feb 29, 2008
Above all, there was "Last Year at Marienbad" (1961), that movie monument to enigmatic stylization - or should it be stylized enigma ... Last Year at Marienbad. (Boston Globe)
French writer Robbe-Grillet dies Feb 19, 2008
The author was also associated with the new wave of French cinema, writing the screenplay for Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad and making several films under his own name. Among his movies are 1963's L'Immortelle (The Immortal), 1966's Trans-Europ-Express, and 1968's L'Homme Qui Ment (The Man Who Lies). (BBC News -- Europe)
News: Robbe-Grillet dies at 85 Feb 19, 2008
Robbe-Grillet wrote screenplays for such films as Last Year at Marienbad (1961) with Alain Resnais, and directed L'Immortelle (The Immortal) (1963), Trans-Europ-Express (1967) and Eden and After (1970). He was the most prominent of France's "new novelists," a group that emerged in the mid-1950s and whose experimental works tossed aside traditional literary conventions like plot and character development, narrative and chronology, chapters and punctuation. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Alain Robbe-Grillet Feb 19, 2008
In 1962, as he entered his 40s, he wrote the script and the dialogue for Alain Resnais's film, L'Ann;e Derni;re ; Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad), an international success at the time. Robbe-Grillet became part of cinema's nouvelle vague, new wave, as well as the nouveau roman. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Obituary: French author Alain Robbe-Grillet dies at 85 Feb 19, 2008
Robbe-Grillet also wrote screenplays for films like Alain Resnais' "Last Year at Marienbad" (1961). Among a dozen films that Robbe-Grillet directed, two in the mid-1970s plumbed sado-erotic fantasies: "Glissements progressifs du plaisir" (Successive Slidings of Pleasure) and "Jeu avec le feu" (Playing with Fire). (International Herald Tribune)
Alain Robbe-Grillet, 85 Feb 19, 2008
Robbe-Grillet wrote the screenplays for such films as Last Year at Marienbad (1961) with Alain Resnais, and directed L'Immortelle (The Immortal) (1963), Trans-Europ-Express (1967) and Eden and After (1970). He was the most prominent of France's new novelists, a group that emerged in the mid-1950s and whose experimental works tossed aside traditional literary conventions such as plot and character development, narrative and chronology, chapters and punctuation. (Globe and Mail)
Alain Robbe-Grillet, master of the 'new novel', dies at 85 Feb 19, 2008
Alain Robbe-Grillet, master of the 'new novel', dies at 85 - International Herald Tribune. Alain Robbe-Grillet, a "new novelist" and filmmaker who rejected conventional storytelling and was one of France's most important avant-garde writers, died Monday, hospital officials said. (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
The revelations of dream logic Feb 8, 2008
Less famous than the canonical Hiroshima Mon Amour or Last Year at Marienbad, Alain Resnais's Muriel remains nonetheless an elusive, enigmatic masterpiece. The 1963 film has had its detractors (Susan Sontag, most notoriously, complained about a lack of "vigour") but also many champions: The Village Voice's Andrew Sarris raved in an extended review and Jean-Luc Godard featured a poster of the film in his Two or Three Things I Know About Her. (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
In search of Janet Frame Jan 19, 2008
She talked about Last Year at Marienbad and said she favoured films with strong atmosphere. The light was intensifying ahead of a thunderstorm and from somewhere we heard a rifle shot. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
What are the worst films of all time? Aug 1, 2007
The Sydney Morning Herald Blogs: News Blog. Welcome to Sydney Morning Herald Online. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
In Seine with emotion Jul 22, 2007
In the mid-1960s Alain Resnais was in his forties and at the height of his fame as a fashionable art house auteur and archetypal Gallic intellectual, having made a string of films concerning the nature of time and memory, most famously Night and Fog (his documentary on Auschwitz), Hiroshima Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad, Muriel and La Guerre est finie. At that same time Alan Ayckbourn was in his late twenties, a director of a repertory theatre in Scarborough on the Yorkshire coast, and was... (The Observer)
DIRECTOR SHOWS NO SIGNS OF ISOLATION Apr 13, 2007
ENERABLE French filmmaker Alain Resnais (he gave us the classics "Last Year at Marienbad" and "Hiroshima Mon Amour") keeps on keeping on at age 84. Witness his latest. (New York Post -- Entertainment)
Van takes an aisle seat Feb 23, 2007
Euro faves on Morrison's list include Alain Resnais's "Last Year at Marienbad," Jean Cocteau's "Blood of a Poet" and "everythingby Fellini.". "If you see anything with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson or Joe Pesci, you know it's going to be good," he said, and not surprisingly, Nicholson and Pesci were in the audience the last time he played the amphitheater. (Variety)
NEW JERSEY FILM FESTIVAL SPRING 2007 Jan 18, 2007
The New Jersey Film Festival will sponsor a series of screenings as part of the Puzzle Films-Cinema 101 course: Terry Gilliam's Tideland (tonight, 8:30 p.m. and Thursday, Jan. 25, 7 p.m.); Christopher Nolan's Memento (Thursday, Feb. 1, 7 p.m.); Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract (Thursday, Feb. 8, 7 p.m.) and Drowning By Numbers (Thursday, Feb. 22, 7 p.m.); Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo (Thursday, March 1, 7 p.m.); and Alain Resnais' classic French film Last Year at Marienbad... (The Daily Targum, NJ)
Critics' Review of 2006 Dec 24, 2006
Most of the best Western European films came from France, with Michael Haneke's Hidden (Cache), proving the most widely discussed art-house puzzle picture since Last Year at Marienbad. The award of 18 certificates by the BBFC to Shortbus and Destricted has brought close the abolition of censorship, but not of classification, and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain was a real step forward for the representation of homosexuals in mainstream cinema, though Gore Vidal claims that there's a gay subtext to... (Guardian Unlimited)
ARMOND WHITE Dec 7, 2006
Are we smarter because we don t question Lynch s confounding mannerisms the way critics once foolishly scoffed at Alain Resnais magnificent Last Year at Marienbad or Ingmar Bergman s Persona. The real enigma of Inland Empire is how it seduces critics who ignored Juli;n Hern;ndez s very beautiful and artful Broken Sky; they lack the confidence to see what s wrong when Lynch is simply being wacky as in Wild at Heart, Lost Highway and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. (New York Press)
Affleck, Mirren Top Venice Film Fest Sep 12, 2006
It was the second win for the 84-year-old French auteur, whose Last Year at Marienbad took home the Golden Lion in 1962. The special jury prize went to Daratt, the first African film to compete in nearly two decades. (E! Online)
Chinese film 'Still Life' takes top award at Venice festival Sep 11, 2006
The Silver Lion for directing went to Alain Resnais for his film Private Fears in Public Places, who returned to the Venice Film Festival 45 years after his film Last Year at Marienbad won the Golden Lion. NOTICE: You must be and to post to our message boards. (Orlando Sentinel -- Entertainment)
'Still Life' wins Golden Lion in Venice Sep 10, 2006
Resnais returned to the Venice Film Festival 45 years after his film Last year at Marienbad won the Golden Lion. Resnais' new film is an adaptation of British playwright Alan Ayckbourn's play of the same name, and tells the overlapping stories of six people's search for identity, spun around alcohol, sex and religion. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Festivals: Richard Corliss on the New York Asian Film Festival Jun 24, 2006
To be cinematically literate "cinemate," to borrow a term Time proposed in a 1963 cover story heralding the first New York Film Festival one had to be able to discuss the hidden narrative meanings and formal innovations of pictures like The Seventh Seal and Last Year at Marienbad. Foreign films had snob appeal and sex appeal. (Time.com)
Will this year's Oscar contenders become classics? Mar 5, 2006
Michael Haneke's Hidden disturbs us today, but will it retain its ability to puzzle, engage and imaginatively transform us the way Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad did 45 years ago. I think it will. (Guardian Unlimited)
Spirit of Chanel celebrates beauty, friendship of ART Feb 26, 2006
Her film work includes the French masterpieces Rules of the Game and Last Year at Marienbad. Dan Mathieu of MAX Ultimate Food served a lobster and grilled lamb chops to 45 seated guests at four banquet tables set up in the store. (Boston Herald--Lifestyle)
Pretty girls? What was I thinking? Jan 15, 2006
(In high school, he had convinced me to see Last Year at Marienbad, The Seventh Seal and Antonioni's Blow-Up, all in a single weekend. I'm surprised either of us is still alive. (Globe and Mail)
