Alain Robbe-Grillet Six Films 1963-1974

Perhaps best known as the writer of Alain Renais’ ‘Last Year In Marienbad’, Alain Robbe-Grillet was also the leading novelist of the French nouveau roman movement in the 50’s. Furthermore he directed nine films which are an eclectic mix of avant-garde, erotica, controversy, and above all, marked by a notable absence of any linear or traditional structure.

This set contains six films which were impossible to see for decades, spanning from 1963 to 1974. The first two films of this set are easily the most accessible, thus also making them the most engaging.
The Immortal One (L’Immortelle, 1963) is like a lucid dream where reality and illusion seem to mix. Set against the seductive backdrop of Istanbul, the main protagonist (Jacques Doniol-Valcroze) encounters a beautiful but mysterious woman (Francoise Brion), and becomes obsessed with her. Wherever she goes, he follows her around town, and although the two seem to develop an affectionate friendship she never reveals much about her, nor her past. Indeed, even her name might be a fake one. Desperately trying to find out who she is, he asks people who were at the party where he first met her, but while some seem to know of her, other weren’t even sure she was at the party. Not much happens throughout the film except beautifully shot sceneries and actors that behave strongly posed and often unnatural in speech and mannerism. At the end it is revealed that the mysterious beauty is indeed from another world, and may have come back to lure a prospective partner back to her realm or indeed, the protagonist may also have been dead and from another world right from the outset. The story has a dark fairy tale quality to it, where almost everything seems otherworldly.

Trans-Europ-Express (1967) stars the brilliant Jean-Louis Trintignant as Elias, a self-confessed amateur assassin who could be a drug dealer but also dealing in stolen diamonds. The cleverness of the film lies in the fact that there is no plot as such, because the plot changes whenever the idea for the script changes: a film director (Alain Robbe-Grillet), his secretary (Catherine Robbe-Grillet) and an assistant sit in a train carriage in the Trans-Europ-Express, on the way from Paris to Antwerp. The three work on an idea for a heist thriller, when Jean Louis-Trintignant enters the carriage but then leaves for another compartment. His appearance gives the director the idea to cast Trintignant in his planned thriller, and it is from that moment that the story within the story unfolds and changes with every discussion director and secretary have. Although Trintignant’s character Elias is merciless and sinister, there’s plenty of witty humour to be found as well, like when he buys a suitcase and the shop girl asks him what kind of suitcase. “A suitcase in which I can smuggle drugs” he replies with a deadpan smirk, and of course, that’s exactly the piece of luggage he wishes to purchase. Other funny moments arise when at some point throughout the film (make that the journey) the film director’s secretary remarks that gangsters don’t smuggle drugs to and from Antwerp, they smuggle diamonds… and so the plot changes yet again. Even the sado-masochistic affair between Elias and Antwerp prostitute Eva (Marie-France Pisier), whom Elias eventually strangles, is not what it seems: at the end of the film, Elias gets out of the train and meets his girlfriend Eve, who is waiting for him at the Antwerp train station, lovingly embracing her. This suggests that all we saw beforehand was indeed a work of fiction!

The other films of the set are The Man Who Lies (L’Homme qui ment, 1968), Eden And After (L’Eden et après, 1970), N. Took The Dice (N. a pris les dés… 1971), and Successive Slidings Of Pleasure (Glissements progressifs du plaisir, 1974).

Special features of the Blu-ray and Dual-format release are:

• All six films presented in High Definition
• Video introductions by Catherine Robbe-Grillet
• Filmed interviews with Alain Robbe-Grillet by Frederic Taddei
• Exclusive, full-length audio commentaries by Tim Lucas
• Illustrated booklet with extended essay by David Taylor; full film credits