Last Year in Marienbad

Much like Béla Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), Alain Resnais' Last Year in Marienbad (1961) is another prime example of cinematic beauty; a joy to behold both visually and aesthetically. Also like Werckmeister Harmonies, Last Year in Marienbad is a complex film; difficult to deconstruct since it is difficult to assert what actually happens - it is impossible to tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined, and by the end of the film nothing has been resolved. Whilst with my review of Werckmeister Harmonies I avoided discussing the symbolism and true meaning of the film in favour for its aesthetic qualities, in this review I intend to do the opposite in an attempt to gain a better understanding of what exactly Last Year in Marienbad is all about.

Having once stated "Make of it what you will... whatever you decide is right", Resnais allows his audience to apply practically any meaning they want to the film - something critic Pauline Kael somewhat scathingly referred to as "making a mess and asking others to clean it up" in her essay 'The Come-Dressed-As-the-Sick-Soul-of-Europe Parties'. Kael continues to talk of how, by doing so, Resnais invited the audience and critics to "make fools of themselves" by fabricating theories such as Marienbad works as a sort of Rorschach test; you are to apply whatever meaning you want to it - a theory Kael disagrees with, since a Rorschach test is a blot onto which you project your own emotions, whereas Marienbad is a work of art.

However, one critic who does not make a 'fool' of himself whilst attempting to decipher Last Year in Marienbad is the influential Roger Ebert. In his review of the film, Ebert suggests that what we are witnessing is the creation of the character X's imagination:

Can it be that X is the artist--the author, the director? That when he speaks in the second person ("You asked me to come to your room...") he is speaking to his characters, creating their story? That first he has M fire a pistol, but that when he doesn't like that and changes his mind, M obediently reflects his desires? Isn't this how writers work? Creating characters out of thin air and then ordering them around?

An idea echoed even within the film, as the play which we see acted out at the start of the film reflects the plot and scenario of the film itself, perhaps reminding us that, like the play, Last Year in Marienbad is nothing more than a work of fiction.