Product Review

Not just a defining work of the French New Wave but one of the great, lasting mysteries of modern art, Alain Resnais€ epochal visual poem has been puzzling appreciative viewers for decades. A surreal fever dream, or perhaps a nightmare, Last Year at Marienbad (L€ann©e derni¨re   Marienbad), written by the radical master of the New Novel, Alain Robbe-Grillet, gorgeously fuses the past with the present in telling its ambiguous tale of a man and a woman (Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig) who may or may not have met a year ago, perhaps at the very same cathedral-like, mirror-bedecked chteau they now find themselves wandering. Unforgettable in both its confounding details (gilded ceilings, diabolical parlor games, a loaded gun) and haunting scope, Resnais€ investigation into the nature of memory is disturbing, romantic, and maybe even a ghost story.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: € New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Alain Resnais, with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack € New audio interview with Resnais € New documentary on the making of Last Year at Marienbad, featuring interviews with many of Resnais€ collaborators € New video interview with film scholar Ginette Vincendeau on the history of the film and its many mysteries € Two short documentaries by Resnais: Toute la m©moire du monde (1956) and Le chant du styr¨ne (1958) € Theatrical trailer € Optional original, unrestored French soundtrack € New and improved subtitle translation € PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Mark Polizzotti and film scholar Fran§ois Thomas, and Alain Robbe-Grillet€s introduction to the published screenplay and comments on the film

Stills from Last Year at Marienbad (Click for larger image)