Fifty years on, footage has been unearthed of the filming of Alain Resnais's movie, bringing back vivid memories for Volker Schlörndorff, its assistant director
A group of anxious and shivering film technicians are standing around in the grounds of the Schleissheim castle in Munich. It's September 1960: the days are short and the light is fading. They are waiting for the next take, but the director – the only calm figure in the group – wants to shoot an elaborate tracking shot. The dolly wheels would stick in the gravel of the paths, so he has instructed the crew to board them over – and then to paint the gravel back in. Welcome to Alain Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad.
We know this happened because of some remarkable 8mm footage shot during the making of the film by one of its actors, Françoise Spira. She killed herself in 1965 and her footage vanished.
A group of anxious and shivering film technicians are standing around in the grounds of the Schleissheim castle in Munich. It's September 1960: the days are short and the light is fading. They are waiting for the next take, but the director – the only calm figure in the group – wants to shoot an elaborate tracking shot. The dolly wheels would stick in the gravel of the paths, so he has instructed the crew to board them over – and then to paint the gravel back in. Welcome to Alain Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad.
We know this happened because of some remarkable 8mm footage shot during the making of the film by one of its actors, Françoise Spira. She killed herself in 1965 and her footage vanished.
- 6/30/2011
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- The Guardian - Film News
Everyone is of course familiar with Alain Resnais's cult film, written by Alain Robbe-Grillet and made just fifty years ago, L'Année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad). It happened that a young actress named Françoise Spira was on the set during the shooting of the film. She didn't play the lead role, which was assigned the immense Delphine Seyrig, as everyone knows. She didn't even have one of these real supporting roles that leave you with the memory of a few unforgettable scenes. But in any case, she was there from the beginning of the shoot to the end, with her Super 8 without sound, and she filmed the film, capturing its most magical instants -- Resnais's youthful laughter, Seyrig's delightful caprices, the somber and childlike charm...
- 5/18/2010
- by Bernard-Henri Lévy
- Huffington Post
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