It was truly strange to see Last Year At Marienbad right after we saw Carnival of Souls, because I swear Carnival steals some of the visual ideas and the organ music from the Resnais movie. I guess that's pretty unlikely, but that was my impression.

Last Year at Marienbad is like Peter Greenaway doing a Calvin Klein's Obsession commercial. We have an enormous old European hotel, with long eerie corridors, gleaming opulence everywhere, expansive formal gardens. People in tuxedos and evening gowns speak French to each other as other well-dressed people stare at them. A scary-looking man fools one guest after another with his one excellent card trick. There's a lot of voiceover narration. Some of the movie is real, some is imagined. Themes include the creativity of memory, passions trapped within the prison of a structured society, and how to hide the camera when there are a lot of big mirrors around. The long slow tracking shots are Kubrickian, the black and white photography is sumptuous and precise. I have no idea what this movie means. It could very easily be taking place in some kind of hell or otherworld (the drawer full of identical photographs suggests this). I am completely confused. But I love it!

I kept expecting all these french doors to be flung open at once by beautiful women screaming "Egoiste!".