4/4  Pure perfection
Brilliant movie! Pure poetry, romance and a dreamy sequence of shots, it just doesnt get any better then this, only French cinema can do something like this. Essential viewing for any serious movie buff. The lead actors, the camera, the ci... (read full)

1.5/4  Last Year at Marienbad Quick Review
Unfortunately, I didn't get this Resnais film. I hope to rewatch it and understand it more. I really wanted to like this film.

4/5 Ghostly
  by Yoshi (Madtown, WI)
A great piece of French cinema, this film should not be overlooked. A simple yet elegant story of a man, a woman, and her lover. Almost ghostly in atmosphere in a somewhat gangsta sort of way. This film is as good as it gets technically and Criterion, as usual delivers another gem of a release. It may only be a one time affair for some, but I think most will be surprised by this smart gem and it will give it multiple viewings. Film 8/10 Pic quality 5/5 Audio 4.5/5 Extras 4/5

4/5 a very well known film is a great release
  by Ted M. (Pennsylvania, USA)
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.

5/5 Unique Film with Pristine Transfer
  by Joshua N. Carnes
(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'.

2/5 "Last Pear at Marienbad"
  by Bartok Kinski (Prague)
"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.

5/5 Some films have to be made
  by Doreen Appleton (Scottsdale, Arizona)
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.