Last Year At Marienbad

Last Year at Marienbad is a very peculiar film that vividly displays all of the qualities of classic new wave cinema. The film is filled with extremely long tracking shots that follow the characters walk through different rooms and interrupt and pick up on conversations being held with the background characters. It also uses a very overpowering organ to score the film. During these long shots that have the narrator describing the shot, the organ music gives the scene a very eerie and ominous tone. 

The film is also very reminiscent to Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour which preceded this film. Similar to its precedent, Last Year contains a very similar plot formula: guy-chases-girl-entire-film-girl-doesn't-want-guy-but-guy-keeps-chasing-her-anyway. The film also ends with a very ambiguous ending just like the other film. However, this film is much more experimental. The plot is not linear at all. The audience is forced with having to decipher what is reality and what is a dream throughout the film. The story cross-cuts between the present time and the action that took place a year prior. However, with the continuous cross-cutting and story switches, the film is extremely hard to follow; especially up to its extremely abrupt and ambiguous ending.