last year in marienbad (1961) - alain renais

Not just a defining work of the French New Wave but one of the great, lasting mysteries of modern art, Alain Resnais’ epochal Last Year at Marienbad (L’année dernière à Marienbad) has been puzzling appreciative viewers for decades. Written by radical master of the New Novel Alain Robbe-Grillet, this surreal fever dream, or nightmare, gorgeously fuses the past with the present in telling its ambiguous tale of a man and a woman (Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig) who may or may not have met a year ago, perhaps at the very same cathedral-like, mirror-filled château they now find themselves wandering. Unforgettable in both its confounding details (gilded ceilings, diabolical parlor games, a loaded gun) and haunting scope, Resnais’ investigation into the nature of memory is disturbing, romantic, and maybe even a ghost story.


Cast:
A     Delphine Seyrig
X     Giorgio Albertazzi
M     Sacha Pitoeff

hiroshima mon amour (1959) - alain resnais

Hiroshima mon amour is an acclaimed 1959 drama film directed by French film director Alain Resnais, with a screenplay by Marguerite Duras. It is the documentation of an intensely personal conversation between a French-Japanese couple about memory and forgetfulness. It was a major catalyst for the Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave), making highly innovative use of miniature flashbacks to create a uniquely nonlinear storyline.
The title literally translates from French to English as 'Hiroshima, My Love', though the film is almost always referred to by its original French title.

Cast:
Emmanuelle Riva as Elle
Eiji Okada as Lui
Bernard Fresson as L'Allemand
Stella Dassas as La Mère
Pierre Barbaud as Le Père