dreadful

I saw this today in NYC too!

I think the "cold, unemotional and grating" aspects of the film are intended; indeed, they might seem boring, but they also serve as being suspenseful. This might sound pretentious, but I also think it is a comment on bourgeois society and its values. The guests of the hotel go there every year, so they are as much "fixtures" of the hotel as the furnishings: cold marble, precisely manicured gardens (without trees, flowers and grass, only hard gravel), over-polished gilt decoration, silent corridors, etc. The setting is so flawless as to be sinister, especially when populated by the particular guests that frequent the place. The setting, the guests, that creepy organ music, the sparse 'nouvelle-roman" style of writing (thank you, Alain Robbe-Grillet) all combine to prevent emotion or warmth. All of these elements, however, are so harmonious with each other, and that -- along with the open-ended plot -- is why the movie is so enigmatic and compelling.

I'd like to see it again.

Truffaut had nothing to do with "The Mother and the Whore." See Jean Eustache.

Admittedly, this film isn't for every taste. For me, however, the experience of seeing it again today was a completely different from yours, OP.

I didn't find it boring at all; rather, I found it intriguing, eerie, elegant and very stylized. Resnais manages to capture Robbe Grillet's words and put them on the screen, all so beautifully photographed by Vierny. And, I didn't think that "nothing happened" in this film. Resnais and Robbe Grillet tell a story about an affair between two people, playing with the narrative and taking it out of the conventional temporal and spatial norms.

Fascinating. 9/10




Broadway doesn't go for boooooze and dope!

mrtranny (smirk),

Obviously, the movie wasn't designed to entertain. You should have picked up on that after about 20 minutes. It is however a fascinating batch of evidence that requires interpretation.

Lucky for you, every other movie ever made agrees with you, that a movie's primary reason for existence is to entertain. Have you considered confining yourself to every other movie ever made, and leaving 'Marienbad' to people who enjoy interpreting film?

"The Mother And The Whore' was NOT directed by Truffaut. It was written and directed by Jean Eustache.

This is the second film I absolutely couldn't take --for the first half. Then something happend and I become infatuated by it. I can't remember what it was, It's been years since I've seen it, but can't wait to see it again.

The first film was The Science of Sleep.

It's the most remarkable movie I've seen in years. It managed to insinuate itself, wraithlike, into my subconscious, while impressing me with its masterful photography, expert control of mood, and incredibly nightmarish (dreamy?) atmosphere. It's fantastic.

Of course, there is a but. I wasn't particularly satisfied with the ending. I guess I wanted something definitively intense to happen. I wanted some sort of a violent act, some brief intrusion of uncompromised reality, to justify and explain the peculiar sense of dread so painstakingly constructed throughout the film. I knew such an expectation was unrealistic, but I was ever so slightly disappointed when they simply walked away at the end.