Product description

Last Year At Marienbad [1961]

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Average customer rating: 3.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5060034571636
Label : Optimum Home Entertainment
Manufacturer : Optimum Home Entertainment
Publisher : Optimum Home Entertainment
Release date : 2005-05-23
Title : Last Year At Marienbad [1961]
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Universal, suitable for all
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Original release date : 1961-01-01
Region code : 2
Running time : 94
Studio : Optimum Home Entertainment
Theatrical releaseDate : 1960

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-05-30 rating:

Subtitles in image area disrupt viewing.
A excellent film except for the English subtitles in the image area which disrupt the viewing experience. These cannot be defeated. I note that there is a French version without sub titles available on the Amazon web site in France and perhaps this should be listed on the UK site as long as it is made clear that there is no translation of the French dialogue. I am more interested in the photography for instance.
There used to be a version with subtitles under the image area, and many years ago I did tape this on SVHS from a TV showing, but unfotunately have since recorded over the tape.

review by: whitespeck date: 2008-04-11 rating:

A jewel of a masterpiece
This symbollic film can be tough to watch and difficult to like, but over the decades it has become one of my favourites. You have to like cinema art and expressive cleverness to appreciate it. It looks terrific and most of the difficulty is in the music, which is for church organ, but this music is important to the symbolism of the film so we have to accept it. Stiff and "formal" is the style and haunting and magical is the overall effect. The character (and acting) of the husband in this film is a favourite of mine.

review by: Hammer date: 2008-02-08 rating:

Trapped
This film can be hard work and dare i say, even boring but you have to hold your hands up and admit that it does at least make you think. It can be interpreted in many ways......so heres my own interpretation

All of these characters are trapped in a film and are unaware of this and so continue to live out the same part, repeating the same lines and expressing the same character traits that the film requires. Somehow the character X becomes aware that this is the case and tries to find a way to escape the never ending cycle of fictional existence. It becomes clear to him that escape is virtually impossible and so he decides to convince the woman A to go with him (after all, the film might continue to exist without him but can't possible continue without both of them)

He knows that he can't tell her the truth and so tries to persuade her that they already know each other from last year. He is aware that she will be familiar with him as there characters clearly interact in the fictional film that we never get to see and so uses this to his advantage.

While all the other charcters play out there parts he works to find a way out of the continual loop of repitition. Eventually realising the futility of his desired escape he belatedly accepts his fate as one of many characters that are destined to remain trapped in this film forever.

He finds some form of peace.

review by: date: 2008-02-02 rating:

A pity that the sub-titles ruin the film.
Wont comment on the film itself, which has inspired learned articles ans theses in its day and up to now.

But this editon of the film is appalling, because of the subtitles, which detract from the action for three reasons:

-They are too big, and at times actually hide the action as when they completely obscure the table on which a game is being played.

-They are sometimes inaccurate or incomplete.

-But last and worse, unlike the subtitles on most civilized DVDs, THEY CANNOT BE TURNED OFF !

Had this been made clear in the description of the DVD I would certainly have refrained from buying this item, and avoided the film-long frustration caused by the ******* subtitles.

review by: date: 2007-10-30 rating:

This fooled the critics in the 60's
I rented this film because, at 63yrs of age, I thought I'd try to catch up on the "cultural education" I'd missed out on as a young person.
This is the most pretentious crap I have ever seen. It's to the cinema what the Incredible String Band was to music.
When I told my husband (someone who thought the I. String Band was wonderful when he was a student)that I had ordered this film, he groaned. He said it was the kind of film they could only show in private film clubs in the 50's and 60's because sensible cinema chains wouldn't give it the time of day. He said the local Odeon would have spent the following fortnight scraping off the stuff thrown at the screen in the town where he grew up.
However, he says, it did "fool all the critics at the time".
Well, I did watch it and with, I hoped, an open mind, but life's too short people for watching this kind of stuff, believe me, I know!!

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