Line #17 Film/LastYearAtMarienbad

Context Film / LastYearAtMarienbad

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1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/last_year.jpg]]
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3	->''"For me this film is an attempt, still very crude and very primitive, to approach the complexity of thought, of its processes."''
4	-->--'''Alain Resnais'''
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6	''Last Year at Marienbad'' is a Surrealist 1961 French film written by Alain-Robbe Grillet and directed by Creator/AlainResnais.
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8	At a European chateau resort for the rich, a man runs into a woman (Creator/DelphineSeyrig) whom he claims to have met before, specifically [[TitleDrop last year at the resort town Marienbad]]. She repeatedly denies this, although it is unclear if she is lying or not. Further complicating things is a second man (who may or may not be the woman's husband) who keeps finding ways to demean the first, particularly during repeated games of Nim.
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10	[[MindScrew At least, that seems to be the plot.]]
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12	It is worth noting that the movie is heavily self-referential: if you pay attention, a lot of what seems to come out of nowhere has either been subtly set up earlier, or ties into something later. It's extremely complex, and has a polarizing reputation even among art film fans.
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14	!!Tropes Associated With This Movie
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16	* AlienGeometries: Resnais shot the film in several different European castles, then edited it together in such a way as to create a disorienting, unclear sense of the scale and structure of the castle.
17	* AllThereInTheScript: The characters are unnamed in the film; in the published screenplay, the woman is referred to with the letter "A", the first man is "X", and the man who may be her husband is "M".
18	* TheBeautifulElite: The movie takes place at a castle resort for the extremely wealthy, what else did you expect?
19	* BigFancyHouse
20	* ChekhovsArmoury: Nearly every single thing in the movie refers back to something else.
21	* CostumePorn: And lots of it. Tends to happen when one of your costumers is Coco Chanel.
22	* LeFilmArtistique
23	* FluffyFashionFeathers
24	* GameOfNim: TropeMaker. "M" describes it as "a game I always win", and "X" never figures out the trick.
25	* MindScrew: And ''how''.
26	* NoNameGiven: None of the main characters are given names. In the script, the woman is "A", the first man is "X" and the second is "M".
27	* RapeDiscretionShot: It seems to happen, maybe... it's not very clear. The man even tries to correct himself when he thinks about it.
28	* SharpDressedMan: Every last one of the men.
29	* ShoutOut:
30	** At about the 13 minute mark you can see a stairwell where a cut-out of Creator/AlfredHitchcock is barely visible.
31	** One scene of Delphine Seyrig lounging on the bed is a hommage to ''Film/{{Gilda}}'', using similar lighting and costume.
32	* SceneryPorn: The castle setting is as much a character as the actors, with lots of tracking and wide shots to take it all in.

Context Film / LastYearAtMarienbad