Preceded by short: La Jetée

(L'Année dernière à Marienbad). "Once again I walk, once again, along these corridors, across these salons, these galleries, in this edifice from another century, this huge, luxurious, baroque hotel..." The incantatory narration could be the voice of Sacha Vierny's camera as it travels through time, past the statues and statuesque beings–in–time: the characters. Some critics interpreted Marienbad's labyrinthine gardens as a dreamscape, others as a landscape of the mind that rejects cause and effect. Still, why not take it at face value? A man attempts to convince a woman (Delphine Seyrig) that, a year ago, they met and fell in love at a European spa, perhaps Marienbad where they are now. Truth becomes a mazelike trap, persuasion a key to freedom. As the author-screenwriter Alain Robbe-Grillet said, "The image is always in the present tense."Written by Alain Robbe–Grillet, based on his novel. Photographed by Sacha Vierny. With Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha Pitoeff. (94 mins, In French with English subtitles, B&W, 'Scope, 35mm, Courtesy Harvard Film Archive, permission Studio Canal Image)

La Jetée (Chris Marker, France 1962). Constructed from still photographs and frozen shots (belied by one luminous, life–affirming movement), La Jetée's science–fiction narrative explores memory, time–travel, and emotions in a post-scientific age. Marker's hero is an unwitting astronaut emanating from post–World War III Paris in search of a radioactivity–free future. Through sheer will he turns back in time instead of forward for a moment of perfectly ordinary love.

Written by Marker. Photographed by Jean Chiabaud. With Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich, Jacques Ledoux. (29 mins, In French with English subtitles, B&W, 35mm, From Kino International, courtesy Argos)