Comments on The House Next Door: It Hasn't Even Passed: Last Year At Marienbad

The comparison with The Shining is absolutely rele...

2008-01-19T14:53:02.564-05:00

The comparison with The Shining is absolutely relevant, and in a longer piece I would've written something more about the "brain" of the space. I saw someone give a good presentation on this at a Grad Cinema Studies conference at NYU a few years back - the space as the "brain" in Marienbad and The Shining. In both films, of course, the space the characters inhabit dominates and presides over them, and in a sense is what truly drives the film forward.

I originally saw LYaM in order to parody it. I wa...

2008-01-19T14:37:00.000-05:00

I originally saw LYaM in order to parody it. I was directing a play that was a parody of French art films, and asked a film buff friend what I should see as source material; he recommended the ur-pretentious French art film, LYaM. So I sat down on the couch with a notebook and a bong, ready to giggle. And then, much to my surprise, I found myself absolutely loving it---the reveal of the play at the beginning had me on board, and I never came back.

Among Pauline Kael's many unforgivable sins is her snide dismissal of this one, as well as encouraging other supposedly-thoughtful people to gleefully participate in that dismissal. It's certainly no slower or less accessible than many other acknowledged classics, and if you're willing to get on its wavelength, it's startlingly moving.

These days, I mostly get people to give it a try by telling them it was a big influence on The Shining (all those dolly shots of empty hallways)! Hopefully the Film Forum run will reignite some interest in it---and maybe even get us more Resnais on DVD (I want Providence!).

I love every frame of this movie, and to be honest...

2008-01-18T14:00:00.000-05:00

I love every frame of this movie, and to be honest, I never worry too much about defending its place in cinema, seeing as how it so mercilessly mocks both places and cinema, not to mention "I."

Also, I've always found this movie to be really funny, what with all its solemn cinematic-language puns. I don't think I'm laughing AT it either.

I would enjoy seeing it remade 100 times on 100 different college campuses, and if the filmmakers claim they hate the source material, so much the better. Didn't Resnais famously say he didn't like making movies as an explanation for why he made this one?

This is a great review.Marienbad is a fine film; t...

2008-01-18T09:55:00.000-05:00

This is a great review.

Marienbad is a fine film; there is no doubting that. It might be ponderous, and it might look like it takes itself too seriously, but, then again, so do dreams and fantasies. Which is why, I think, the film should be enjoyed without any postmodern metatextual commentary which, while fun, strips the film off of its central essence.