Last Year at Marienbad - Kino Lorber (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: France/Italy, 1961
Director: Alain Resnais
Writer: Alain Robbe-Grillet
Cast: Giorgio Albertazzi, Delphine Seyrig, Sacha Pitoëff

Release Date: August 20th, 2019
Approximate Running Time: 94 Minutes 40 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono French
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $29.95

"In a large international hotel in the European resort town of Marienbad, with a sumptuous but austere décor-a marble universe with gold paneling, statues, and stuff servants-the rich, anonymous, idle clientele circulates. A man (Giorgio Albertazzi) is convinced he met an enigmatic woman (Seyrig, Jeanne Dielman) the previous year at the same location, and perhaps had a flirtation. A second man (Sacha Pitoëff, Inferno), possibly the woman's lover or husband, repeatedly intimidates the first man. Their relations unfold through flashback shards that never quite fit into place, their lives a hall of mirrors that never reveal a true self." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "a gorgeous 4K restoration from StudioCanal."

Last Year at Marienbad comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 45 GB

Feature: 27 GB

The source used for this transfer looks excellent. Image clarity, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image always looks organic.

Audio: 5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in French with removable English subtitles. The audio is in excellent shape. Dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and ambient sounds are well represented.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer for Last Year at Marienbad (3 minutes 34 seconds, DTS-HD mono French with non-removable English subtitles), a short film directed by Alain Resnais titled All the Memory of the World (21 minutes 58 seconds, 1.33:1 aspect ratio, DTS-HD mono French with removable English subtitles), a documentary titled Memories of Last Year at Marienbad (48 minutes 19 seconds, DTS-HD stereo German with removable English subtitles), a video essay titled Last Year at Marienbad A to Z (51 minutes 11 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with second assistant director Volker Schlondorff (32 minutes 51 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English with non-removable English subtitles for French language film clips), and an audio commentary with film critic Tim Lucas.

Other extras are trailers for Woman in Chains and The Nun.

Rounding out the extras is a 12-page booklet with an essay titled In Search of Lost Time: Alain Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad written by Austin Collins and cast & crew credits.

Summary:

Directed by Alain Resnais, whose other notable films include Night and Fog, Hiroshima Mon Amour, and Je t'aime, je t'aime.

Memory is the theme that drives Last Year at Marienbad’s narrative. Last Year at Marienbad takes a mundane event, like a chance encounter, and examines how each person recalls a shared event from their past. And nowhere is this clearer than how Last Year at Marienbad explores how personal feelings influence memory’s. 

Though the narrative is well-constructed, there is no semblance of time as the narrative moves forward. The narrative’s simplicity reinforces what is said or seen.

Content-wise, Last Year at Marienbad has many elements that have since become synonymous with Gothic Romanticism. Most notably its use of mysterious architecture and supernatural undertones.

Performance-wise, the main characters are all very good in their respective roles, especially Delphine Seyrig (Daughters of Darkness,) in the role of A, the brunette woman. Her performance perfectly captures her character's inability to remember the past.

The other main characters are Giorgio Albertazzi (Le Notti Bianche) in the role of X, the man with the Italian accent, the man who tries to get A, the brunette woman, to remember a romantic embrace from their past, and Sacha Pitoëff (Inferno) in the role of M, the other man with the lean face, the husband, the man who is now romantically linked to the brunette woman.

From a production standpoint, Last Year at Marienbad achieves all of its goals. The Gothic-infused visuals are overflowing with dreamlike atmosphere and symbolism. And not to be overlooked is the role that sound plays in Last Year at Marienbad and how these two elements juxtapose, creating a perfect fusion.

Last Year at Marienbad gets an exceptional release from Kino Lorber that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and insightful extras, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer