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Alain Robbe-Grillet

In 1996 Living Time® Films Ltd. organised a Full Retrospective of the films of Alain Robbe-Grillet at the Institut français in London, a Retrospective that took place over two weeks, and that was completed by the UK Première of his latest film 'The Blue Villa' ('Un Bruit Qui Rend Fou'). Alain Robbe-Grillet himself was invited to the event, and spoke to the audience about his career as novelist and filmmaker at a special talk. For those desiring more information about Robbe- Grillet, and also about the films that were screened at the Retrospective, you will find more details below.


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Alain Robbe-Grillet and his Wife Catherine aboard the T.E.E. 


Alain Robbe-Grillet - The 1996 Film Retrospective
(
From the 'Living Time 2000 Prospectus')

For many years revered as the figurehead of the Nouveau Roman (The New Novel) - consider works such as Les Gommes, Le Voyeur and La Jalousie - Alain Robbe-Grillet is perhaps one of the most undeservedly neglected of great film-makers, known by most only for the screenplay of L'Année Dernière à Marienbad [Last Year at Marienbad] (1961) - directed by Alain Resnais - a cornerstone of the Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) and an inter- national success of the time. However, Robbe-Grillet, like Marguerite Duras, afterwards devoted his time equally to novel- writing and film-making. Since 1962 he has directed nine full-length features as well as writing the screenplays for two others. He has published twelve novels over the same period , the most recent of which comprise his semi-autobiographical trilogy, which was concluded in 1994 with Les Derniers Jours de Corinth. Even though Robbe-Grillet's films have long been a source of inspiration and discussion for directors and film theo- rists, as well as inciting much controversy due to the uncompro- mising nature both of the narrative technique and the graphic imagery, they have not been presented to a large public since they were first made.

Every one of his films was screened at the Retrospective, both those that had been banned in England (for example Glissements Progressifs du Plaisir) and those that had already acquired a cult reputation (such as Last Year at Marienbad and Trans-Europ- Express). Towards the end of the retrospective he visited Engl- and and personally presented some of his films, in particular the premiere of his latest film. Below are Details on all of his films.

L'Année Dernière à Marienbad [Last Year at Marienbad] (1961)

94 minutes, B&W, dir. Alain Resnais, scr. Alain Robbe-Grillet
Starring Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha Pitoëff

In a vast, old-fashioned hotel, a man meets a woman at a party who may or may not have had an affair with him the previous year at Marienbad - or was it Frederiksbad? Winner of the First Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1961, of the French Film Critics' Méliès Award as "The Best Picture of the Year" and of the André Bazin Gold Medal from the International Federation of Film Critics, this also earnt Robbe-Grillet an Oscar Nomina- tion for his screenplay at the American Academy Awards in "62.

A few additional words need to be said about this film because although it was not directed by Alain Robbe-Grillet it still abso- lutely deserves a place in his own film catalogue. As the one who penned the screenplay he possesses 50% of the authorial rights of this film. However, as the script that he wrote was a complete shooting script of the film and was followed almost to the letter by Resnais, in a sense the final vision owes more to Robbe- Grillet than it does to Alain Resnais, even though it betrays the inimitable style of this latter. Debate concerning this issue - who of the two owed more to the final film - ensued immediately upon its release and has not even fully abated yet. Perhaps it would be best to take the novelist's/film-maker's own words seriously when they insist they are co-authors of the work, that the work was like a child to them both, neither belonging more to one than to the other.

Before progressing to the remainder of the films it is just worth saying that although Last Year at Marienbad was screened first, l'Immortelle [the Immortal One] must nonetheless be considered as his début feature, not only because it was written earlier than the script for Marienbad, but because it was technically the first instance in which he stood behind the camera and called the shots himself. This was his directorial début even though Marienbad was an earlier film. In fact, to be totally accurate, he was shooting l'Immortelle in Istanbul as Marienbad was being shot in Germany.

L'Immortelle [The Immortal One] (1963)

100 minutes, B&W, scr./dir. Alain Robbe-Grillet
Starring Françoise Brion, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, C. R-G

His first solo directorial feature, scripted before Last Year at Marienbad, though only completed in 1962. Winner one year later of the Prix Louis Delluc, this film-enigma tells the story of N., who falls in love with the elusive stranger Leila in Istanbul. She disappears mysteriously and he is determined he will find her again.

Trans-Europ-Express [Trans-Europe-Express] (1966)

95 minutes, B&W, scr./dir. Alain Robbe-Grillet
Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Marie-France Pisier, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Catherine Robbe-Grillet and Daniel Emilfork

Banned in England on its initial release in 1967, it was ten years before this film was able to receive an 'X' certificate. Jean (played by Robbe-Grillet himself) writes a screenplay for a film while on board a Trans-Europ-Express while Trintignant plays the protagonist of the film-within-the-film - a professional drug-smuggler with sado-masochistic tendencies who gets involved with a prostitute and double agents while commuting between Paris and Antwerp.

L'Homme qui ment [The Man who lies] (1968)

116 minutes, B&W, scr./dir. Alain Robbe-Grillet
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Ivan Mistrik, Silvie Breal, Sylvia Turbova and Zuzana Kocurikova

Winner of Best Actor (Trintignant) and Best Screenplay awards at the 1968 Berlin International Film Festival, in this film the stranger Boris turns up in a remote Czech village, claiming to be someone who left many years ago. Robbe-Grillet says about this character: "Boris is someone in the act of creating himself. Boris does not lie, he speaks. He is the modern hero who has chosen his words as the gurantee of his own reality".

L'Eden et Après [Eden and After] (1971)

121 minutes, Colour, scr./dir. Alain Robbe-Grillet
Starring Catherine Jourdan, Pierre Zimmer, Richard Leduc and Lorraine Rainer

Robbe-Grillet's first excursion into colour, shot in Tunisia and Czechoslovakia. While part of an actor's group Catherine tries some 'fear powder' offerred her by mysterious stranger Duche- min. He vanishes and she sets off for North Africa to find him, living for real the hallucinations she had witnessed earlier. "This is a film about colours. About the blue and white of the land- scape, and about the red that would come to stain it cruelly." A second version of this film called "N. a pris les des" was edited for French Television (Title is an anagram of "Eden et Après").

Glissements Progressifs du Plaisir
[Gradual Slidings toward Pleasure] (1974)

105 minutes, Colour, scr./dir. Alain Robbe-Grillet
Starring Anicee Alvina, Olga Georges-Picot, Michel Lonsdale, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Isabelle Huppert

A young girl is accused of the murder of a woman who is found dead in her apartment by the police. She is interrogated by a detective, a policeman, a judge, nuns and the father superior - all of whom begin to act very strangely in her presence. Inspired by Michelet's La Sorceresse and L. Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

Le Jeu avec le Feu [Playing with Fire] (1975)

95 minutes, Colour, scr./dir. Alain Robbe-Grillet
Starring Anicée Alvina, Phillippe Noiret, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Sylvia Kristel

This tale of incest and perversion was Robbe-Grillet's first colour feature in Cinemascope. It tells the story of the daughter of a rich banker who is kidnapped, but who subsequently realizes that she is on the side of those who have captured her and knowingly extorts a ransom from her father [cf. the story of Patty Hearst]. It was an Official Selection of the 1975 Venice Film Festival.

La Belle Captive [The Beautiful Captive] (1983)

90 minutes, Colour, scr./dir. Alain Robbe-Grillet
Starring Daniel Mesguich, Gabrielle Lazure, Cyrielle Claire, Arielle Dombasle and Daniel Emilfork

An erotic vampire story telling the tale of Goethe's Bride of Corinth. Walter discovers the body of Marie-Ange in the middle of the road and takes her home to nurse her back to recovery. A shock is in store when he eventually tracks down her parents in order to ask for her hand in marriage. A chilling horror movie accompanied by the chamber music of Franz Schubert (String Quartet No. 15).

After "La Belle Captive" there is a gap of over twelve years before Alain Robbe-Grillet directs a further film. The only film project to which he contributed in the interim was a feature- length animated work called "Taxandria" for which he provided the original story and script, though which changed so far be- yond what he had initially conceived and described that he dis- owns his part in this project. "The Blue Villa" is discussed in a separate section devoted to discussion of its UK Release.
 

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