Last Year at Marienbad (L’Année dernière à Marienbad) is Alain Resnais’s sophomore film. It premiered at the 1961 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion. The script was written by Alain Robbe-Grillet, who was associated with the concept of the Nouveau roman, not merely as an author but also in the capacity of a theorist. As always in these cases, the boundaries are fluid. While the term initially referred to five authors (among them Claude Simon and Nathalie Sarraute), it would later encompass other writers, such as Resnais collaborators Marguerite Duras and Jean Cayrol. In 1963, Robbe-Grillet published For a New Novel (Pour un Nouveau Roman), a collection of previously published theoretical writings concerning the novel form.

The film is set in an opulent, baroque hotel. A man (Giorgi Albertazzi) attempts to convince a woman (Delphine Seyrig) that they met the previous year at Marienbad and had a romantic connection, possibly planning to leave together. She denies remembering him, creating ambiguity about whether the encounter happened. A third character (Sacha Pitoëff), seemingly connected to the woman somehow, looms as a quiet, authoritative presence. Occasionally, he will explain points the other two are discussing, but above all, he introduces the game of Nim to the other man—a game he claims that he always wins. As far as the “story” goes, that’s about it. There are strong similarities to Robbe-Grillet’s novels, not least La Jalousie (1957).

The script is very precise, down to framing and camera movements. There have been several comparisons between Marienbad and Robbe-Grillet’s first feature as a director, L’Immortelle (1963), describing the latter as a pale copy of the former. Resnais disagreed and pointed out that not only was that project conceived before the two met, but it was also one of the projects Robbe-Grillet presented to him. When Resnais’s choice fell on the Marienbad project, the author was free to proceed with L’Immortelle independently. That was his preference all along. These facts were divulged in an interview that Resnais aficionado Richard Roud conducted with the director. If anything, this interview showcases Resnais’ humility and his reluctance to criticise another artist.

Last Year at Marienbad – Not explained

Last Year at Marienbad was the first Resnais feature entirely lensed by Sacha Vierny. They collaborated on two of his best shorts, Nuit et brouillard and Le chant du styrène, but Vierny’s contribution here is in a league of its own. Whichever way you interpret the storyline, it is difficult to argue with the fact that the film is a sumptuous cinematic expression. The gliding camera movements through the palatial building, combined with Francis Seyrig’s (Delphine’s brother) score, create a hypnotic effect. In an illuminating and often-quoted interview, Resnais states that he is not interested in providing an explanation for the film, but said that spectators would be able to come up with their own solutions.

Resnais and Robbe-Grillet disagreed on certain points. The latter was adamant about refusing to let the outside world, in the form of politics, intrude on the film. Meanwhile, Resnais wanted to allude to the Algerian War, but ultimately had to admit that it didn’t suit the film. The topic would become prominent in the director’s subsequent work, Muriel ou le temps d’un retour (1963). The difference in approach was most evident in a late, violent scene, which Resnais rendered much more abstract than the script’s blunt description. For anyone who has attempted to navigate Robbe-Grillet’s filmography, it is clear that Marienbad belongs more to the director than the author. The latter confessed he never imagined it would become so beautiful.

The impact of Last Year at Marienbad has been tremendous over the years. Not merely on directors such as Peter Greenaway, who has called it his favourite film of all time or Stanley Kubrick, who mentioned it as an influence on The Shining (1980). ¹Greenaway would go on to hire Sacha Vierny as cinematographer for eight of his films. It was also repeatedly imitated in fashion photography and TV commercials. The Blur’s video for their 1994 single To the End refers rather clumsily to the film.

Someone who has expressed quite a critical view of Resnais’s first two features is James Monaco in his book, Alain Resnais: The Role of the Imagination. He is particularly critical of Hiroshima mon amour and thinks that both films cemented Resnais as a director of artificial seriousness. A reputation he felt made more harm than good. Towards the end of his Marienbad chapter, he quotes Resnais, saying, “Yes, L’année dernière à Marienbad is totally dreamlike. It’s a musical comedy without songs that tries to deepen the forces of reverie.” Monaco then goes on to point out that in the next film, he would add the songs.

One of the implications of that statement is that Monaco shares my view that the first two films were experiments which didn’t pay off until Resnais’s third film.