SAVE $7.96 - Last Year at Marienbad (Criterion Collection) $31.99
Price: $39.95 $31.99 You save: $7.96
One of the most ferociously iconoclastic and experimental films of the French New Wave, Alain Resnais's 1961 feature, winner of the grand prize at that year's Venice Film Festival, is based on a script by Alain Robbe-Grillet. At its center is what seems to be a simple but unanswerable puzzle: Did its protagonist (Giorgio Albertazzi) have an affair the year before with a woman (Delphine Seyrig) he just met (or possibly re-met) at his hotel? The inquiry becomes an unsettling experiment in flattening the dimensions of past, present, and future so that any difference between them becomes meaningless, while Resnais's coldly formal but oddly dreamlike geometric compositions make space itself seem a function of subjective memory. Add to that Resnais's trademark tracking shots--long, smooth, a visual correlative of a wordless feeling--and this is a film that truly gets under the skin in almost inexplicable ways. One of the most influential works of its time. --Tom Keogh
Shop Now »»
Permalink: dealnay.com/21436
Last updated: August 15, 2009, 12:10 am
Last Year at Marienbad (Criterion Collection) Customer reviews:
Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 99
(Kay's Gazebo, 2009-09-18) Ok, I have a LOT of material on MJ (to compare this to) THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!!! As other have mentioned here, British production, very 'thrown together' took a FEW film clips we've all seen and planted them repeatedly over & over amongst a handful of psychoanalyst giving their analogy of "his" life, peppered w/ a lot of boring fan-on-the-street comments. I COULD NOT BELIEVE HOW MANY TIMES THEY RAN THE SAME CLIPS OVER & OVER & ... (w/ REALLY bad music in the background .. No, not MJ's). Thank God for reviews keeping me from even CONSIDERING purchasing this (I was a glutton for punishment and rented it)! WAAAAY better MJ material out there.
(Margret Fox, 2009-09-16) I read all of the above reviews and they told me all I need to know. This is just another false premise look at someone they know nothing about. I include myself in the leagues of Michael's loyal and loving fans. To me and millions of others, he does not need to be explained by so-called experts. Just so much hogwash.
(cinnamon, 2009-09-10) I understand the intention of this video to "protect MJ" from further attacks by saying that "he was a child" because of the numerous traumatic experiences he had to go through as a child star. Although it could hold certain degree of truth, it is considered quite one-sided because in this video, his strangeness is under microscope while his exceptional talent is totally put aside. When you talk about a human being, you need to handle it as one whole package. History shows us that the strangeness and the genius are often strongly connected in a man. You shouldn't just cut apart just one of them and cook it. All the geniuses in history had the experience of being stigmatized by the mediocres as strange because they acted based on their own observation of the world and their own decisions, rather than just following the manual called "social norm". Geniuses are the people who have the spiritual strength to see the facts without biases and think by themselves, while the mediocre does not have the mental and intellectual toughness to do so, and therefore they totally depend on the "answered questions" or "social norm". However, a social norm is nothing absolute. As a manual, "social norm" can ease you to act, saving your time to think what to do, but it is useful only in a certain place in a certain time, and its validity is limited only to "normal" situation. For example, you would not be in the same bedroom with your friend's son if he is doing fine, but what if this boy is terminally ill and confesses you that he cries every night out of fear of death? A person who thinks by themselves might then think that holding him through the night is the right thing to do. He might think that leaving the devastated boy alone to play safe is a hypocritical deed. "Social norm" does not work in those emergency cases. So analyzing everything in the light of social norm is a dangerous mistake we tend to make. Remember what happened to Galileo? Remember how Michelangelo was condemned to paint God and saints showing their whole bodies? Remember how Mozart's Figaro and Bizet's Carmen were criticized for being vulgar? Those geniuses just saw the reality with non-jaded eyes, and just expressed the truth just like the child who said "But the King has nothing on!"" Calling him as a child is okay, I agree that MJ had amazing childlike quality in him, but then, you also need to analyze how important it was, is, will be to have a child eye to be a great scientist, artist, or a philosopher.
(Deborah Keeton, 2009-09-09) i should've read the reviews before wasting my money on this piece of garbage. The author of this video obviously NEVER met Michael. Why didn't they talk about all the charities and people he helped all over the world instead of his plastic surgeries and the FALSE allegations that were brought against him? This is nothing more than all the tabloid fodder compiled into a dvd. Trust me.....save your money !!
(Natce, 2009-09-01) I had expected something interesting from Moonwalking - when in fact this video is quite crappy. DO NOT waste your money. Seems as if this video was made to show all how different he was and did not emphasize the person he truly was- a humanitarian who loved all and cared about the human condition. In addition, there is minimal footage of Michael Jackson. I'd have to say in total there's probably less than 4 minutes of footage of him on the "entire" DVD. This also comes with a small book of which I haven't read - but after seeing the video, I do not have the desire to do so. I repeat: DO NOT PURCHASE DO NOT PURCHASE DO NOT PURCHASE!!
(Ted M., 2009-09-19) This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. "Last Year at Marienbad", directed by Alain Resnais, released in France as "L'Année dernière à Marienbad" is a film about a man who attemps to convince a woman he just met that they had a love affair a year earlier. The film takes place at a Chateau and includes some very interesting scenes. There is a famous surreal scene with some people casting shadows while the surrounding trees do not. The film itself is very impressive and won many awards. The Criteiron Collection version has some great special features and the packaging is very minimalist in style. The picture of the cover shown here does not do justice to its appearance. The release is a two disc set and includes a booklet with more material. Disc one contains the film and the original theatrical tralier with a re-release trailer. Disc two contains an exclusive interview with Alain Resnais, a new documentary on the film's production, an interview with film scholar, Ginette Vincendeau, and two documentaries by Resnais. "Toute la mémoire du monde" is a documentary about the National Library of France and has an in-depth tour of the stacks and how books are catalogued and shelved. The second documentary is "Le chant du Styrène" is about the molding of plastics. I found the documentary about the French National Library to be very interesting, in part, because I work in a college library. This DVD set is the best version of the film available and a must for cinephiles.
(Joshua N. Carnes, 2009-09-12) (This review refers to the Blu-Ray edition) Criterion has done it again! The beautiful black and white imagery of this haunting film is presented in a flawless transfer. Incredibly sharp and detailed image for a nearly fifty year old film. The booklet has three or four interesting essays, plus there are the usual informative extras. There has been plenty written about the film, i.e. what it means, etc. so I won't go into that except to say that if you want to watch something totally different, then this film is for you. Fans of non-linear plots step to the front of the line! I also reccommend going to Roger Eberts site after you watch and read his essay under 'great movies'.
(Bartok Kinski, 2009-08-31) "Last Year at Marienbad". This is a Boring, basic "French" movie, although I wouldn't put it in the same sentence with "The Seventh Seal". It's a movie with questionable Claude Levi-Strauss language in spots, some meaningless New Wave scenes, no character development in others, and a somewhat predictable ending that altogether serves to pass the time away and/or play in the background while you do something else. Not exactly a landmark of French film making. Technically speaking, this movie is well made, which somehow makes it even worse.
(Doreen Appleton, 2009-08-29) Marienbad falls into the category of the movie that had to be made, like Repulsion, like Deliverance, a few others, the movies that opened a door through which other filmmakers (not to mention poets, artists, writers) were grateful to walk. A movie that says something about consciousness, about human experience, that hadn't been said before. These films are not pleasant to watch, and they lend themselves to pastiche (especially Marienbad) but they serve a purpose. You have to give Resnais credit for having the idea and getting it financed. To me the movie feels like a depiction of a dream. Situations are seen, seen in reverse, everything is repeated, everything is contradicted, always with the same verbal refrain: "Try to remember. You love me." Many dreams feel like this. Delphine Seyrig falls onto a bed in five different ways in one scene. Resnais is making a point about repetition and variation. The Russian guy with the game that no one can win -- in my opinion he was put in so that someone would come into the theater and see the movie, rather than no one. Something for people to talk about.
(Glenn Gallagher, 2009-08-25) After the first 30 minutes of the film Last Year at Marienbad I thought it was the most pretentious film I had ever seen. For some reason, I stuck with it, and by the end of the film, I had decided it was one of the most brilliant films I had ever seen. Don't look for a linear, simple story with a discernible plot. Let the film wash over you like waves on the beach, and just accept that what is happening on the screen is not necessarily supposed to make logical sense. My feeling on the film is that the characters are not even alive, they are probably in limbo between life and death, and that is why they appear to be trapped in a world they cannot leave, and why the woman cannot remember what happened to her just a year ago. The beautiful thing about this film is that it allows you to form your own opinion on what is happening to the three main characters - the director himself said the film had no meaning, although I think he was being disingenuous. The film has plenty of meaning, but it's a little like holding up a mirror to the viewer, you see what you bring with you. The film is all about mood, atmosphere, and setting. This film made me think more than the average ten films put together. Highly recommended if you like experimental cinema and want something different than the usual Hollywood movie of the week.