Enigmas and Eternity: The Films of Alain Robbe-Grillet; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Screening Room December 4, 2008

When:
Thu, Dec 4, 7:30 pm: TRANS-EUROP EXPRESS
Sun, Dec 7, 2 pm: LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD by ALAIN RESNAIS
Thu, Dec 11, 7:30 pm: L’IMMORTELLE
Sun, Dec 14, 2 pm: EDEN AND AFTER
Thu, Dec 18, 7:30 pm: THE MAN WHO LIES

What:

ENIGMAS AND ETERNITY: THE FILMS OF ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET
ALL NEW 35MM PRINTS
Dec 4, 7, 11, 14 & 18
Both famous and obscure, Alain Robbe-Grillet (who died in February) was a profoundly unique French filmmaker and postmodern novelist. Though best known for his screenplay for Last Year at Marienbad, he was also a director. Much of his work deals with memory, eroticism, fantasy and dreams. We present four of his directorial efforts (plus Marienbad), all of them essentially impossible to view in the US until now. Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Thu, Dec 4, 7:30 pm
TRANS-EUROP EXPRESS
An author (played by Grillet himself), considering ideas for a film while riding the Trans-Europ Express, dreams up a sordid melodrama of gangsters, drugs, and bondage. When a gangster (Jean-Louis Trintignant) shows up aboard the same train, the author’s fantasies come to life. (1966, 105 min, 35mm)

Sun, Dec 7, 2 pm
LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD
BY ALAIN RESNAIS
“Haven’t I seen you here before?” This film took the world’s oldest pick-up line and turned it into one of the most famous art films ever. An unnamed man is certain he met an unnamed woman last year, but did he? This dream-like cinematic puzzle, populated by beautiful, vapid pawns, is the very definition of “must-see.” Screenplay by Robbe-Grillet.

“Hopelessly retro, eternally avant-garde, and one of the most influential movies ever made.”—The Village Voice.

Thu, Dec 11, 7:30 pm
L’IMMORTELLE
A man shares an abrupt, passionate affair with a woman who soon disappears. Fearing she’s been kidnapped and forced into prostitution, he searches the labyrinthine streets of Istanbul for her. Grillet’s directorial debut disturbingly evokes the uncertainty of a strange, foreign land. (1963, 100 min, 35mm)

Sun, Dec 14, 2 pm
EDEN AND AFTER
An erotic and labyrinthine tale of murder and vampirism, this film is set somewhere between the fictitious landscapes of the Marquis de Sade and Lewis Carroll. In Café Eden, a group of bored students engaged in a series of baroque parlor games is visited by a mysterious stranger whose presence evokes new menacing fantasies. (1971, 93 min, 35mm)

Thu, Dec 18, 7:30 pm
THE MAN WHO LIES
Possibly Robbe-Grillet’s most innovative, major work, this film is set in an old Czech castle amid the forests. A man (Trintignant again) invents his own character, past, and emotions as he goes along. However, the words which create his reality are eventually turned against him and his identity begins to disintegrate. (1968, 95 min, 35mm)

Film descriptions courtesy BAMcinématek

Who:
Films by Alain Robbe-Grillet

Where:
YBCA Screening Room, 701 Mission St. San Francisco CA 94130

Public Info:
415-978-2787 or ybca.org
$8 Regular; $6 YBCA Member/Student/Senior/Teacher

Official Website: http://www.ybca.org/tickets/production/view.aspx?id=8425