March 7, 1962
LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, one of the most enigmatic films in cinema history, opens in New York. The art-house hit, directed by Alain Resnais from a screenplay by avant grade novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet, would baffle critics and audiences alike worldwide. The story involves a male hotel guest at a European resort who confronts a female guest with a beguiling claim they had an affair the previous year, “perhaps at Marienbad.” She does not recall the man or the affair, and the puzzle ensues.
Director Resnais (Hiroshima, Mon Amour) and Robbe-Grillet (Oscar-nominated for best original screenplay in 1962), had both indulged in elliptical storytelling in previous works, but could not agree on whether the lead characters
had indeed met before, which opens the film to intense discourse in the coffeehouse and cocktail party circuits.
Coincidentally, the non-linear storytelling style, which seemed extravagantly experimental in 1962, would be widely adopted by both the television and film industries in the 21st century.
