Last Year At Marienbad

The COG and I watched Last Year At Marienbad last night.  I remember when this film came out - it won the Lion D'Or at Venice. Every one said it was brilliant. I even had a LYAM haircut. (Still do, as a matter of fact.) But I was too young to have seen it when it was new, and it just passed me by.

So, finally,  we watched it.  That is, I watched it. The COG watched it, too,  but periodically he fell asleep. Then he would wake up and ask me what had happened to which I would reply, 'nothing,'   Once he left the room for 10 minutes to feed the dog and make tea and he didn't miss anything.  Pretty much nothing happens. Even when, for one moment, you think something has happened, it turns out that it didn't happen after all. At least, I think so.  Maybe. I'm not sure.

It was clearly influential. Those old Calvin Klein Obsession ads, although they had much meatier plots and were in color, owed something to the film.

And here's the thing - the French is wonderful. Very clear, not too fast, not idiomatic, but still spoken rather than formal French.  Interestingly everybody uses vous, even the lovers. If they are lovers.

I'm still not sure. Maybe he was mistaken. Or a stalker. Maybe she was lying or really had forgotten.

And then, there was the game of pick up sticks people keep playing.  What was that about?

Here's a bit from the beginning of the film. Not that it matters where it's from - this is pretty much the entire film in a nutshell. Please click twice on the link so you see the whole screen at YouTube. For some reason it only shows part of it here.