The last year in Marienbad

The Last Year in Marienbad

L'Année dernière à Marienbad (released in the UK asLast Year in Marienbad) is a 1961 French film directed by Alain Resnaia. 

The film is famous for its enigmatic narrative structure, in which truth and fiction are difficult to distinguish, and the temporal and spatial relationship of the events is open to question. The dream-like nature of the film has fascinated and baffled audiences and critics, some hailing it as a masterpiece, others finding it to be incomprehensible.

The film continually creates an ambiguity in the spatial and temporal aspects of what it shows, and creates uncertainty in the mind of the spectator about the causal relationships between events. This may be achieved through the editing, giving apparently incompatible information in consecutive shots, or within a shot which seems to show impossible juxtapositions, or by means of repetitions of events in different settings and décor.

The spectator is totally involved within the plot's development becoming in a way the main character himself. 

"You, the viewer, must answer these questions. For the first time, you will be the coauthor of a film. From these images you will shape the story based on your sensibilities, your personalities, your mood, your own past. You will decide if this image or this one is lying or telling the truth..if this scene shows the present or the past.You must draw your own conclusion."

This film, strongly influenced by the S. movement and its main features, is mostly focused on the human mind and its ability of drawing a peculiar pattern throughout a story, completely disconnected from the images and the plot which was supposed to be. 

Here we are again, talking about imagination and its power. The matters under investigation are the themes of time and mind and the interaction of past and present to be explored in an original way.

The innovation and originality of this film has deeply influenced many artists, film directors and musicians. 

The film has been a focal inspiration for the british music band Blur, which entirely based its music video "To the end" on this movie.

Even more Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and David Lynch's Inland Empire are two films which are cited with particular frequency as showing the influence ofMarienbad. 

  

In conclusion, this surreal film was the main inspiration for Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel Spring-Summer 2011 collection. Lagerfeld's show was complete with a fountain and a modern replica of the film's famous garden. Since costumes for this film were done by Coco Chanel , Lagerfeld drew his inspiration from the film and combined the film's gardens with those at Versailles.

personalities and dreams

(S. is for Surrealism)

I was reading a book (Surreal things - S. and design) while I was making research and this picture captured my attention immediately. It's a collage of the most important artists of the movement like Mirò, De Chirico, Magritte, Breton, Dalì, Ernst and so on. 

The thing which impressed me the most is their expression, although the size of all the pictures is almost the same and they are all in the foreground. 

People have obviously different personalities and attitudes which make us different and unique. All of the people in the picture have their own life, characteristics, thoughts and needs. Their expression reflects a lot about how they might be personally and deeply, but everything is still hidden by social prejudices and esthetic concerns. Like everything around us, actually. There is nothing in reality which is split from morality and schemes, which are generally thought to be right and fair.  

Luckily we are all still  human beings, able to dream. This ability depends on, at least, one hundred different causes such as personal background (including CHILDHOOD), imagination, experiences in life, life and mood. Our dreams range from normal and ordinary to overly surreal and bizarre and they occur involuntarily to our mind at certain stages of sleep.  

However, our ability of dreaming is absolutely equal for everyone. We are all able to dream and inquire in a way our unconsciousness, leaving our mind free to investigate the most deep levels of our brain within a lack of control and rationality. Our brain is a fascinating machine which allow us to be very aware of what we do, think and want, but it is also responsible for what is generally called the unconscious.  

Somehow, while we are totally defenceless, we are all on the same level. There is no way to lead your dreams, to draw the pattern and the place in which they take place, we are not allowed to change something as regards as our right, secure and well know reality. During this lack of control every characters is actually you, even if it doesn't make any sense, as far as we are sleeping.
The dream level is, in a way, a level where our unconsciousness is the shared key. The spatial and time conventions are totally overturned, demonstrating how our brain is made of irrationality and unconventional patterns as well. Everything is TRANSGRESSIVE, NONFUNCTIONAL, ILLOGICAL and UNCANNY, during a dream is basically allowed and real.

surrealism

• repurposing 

• subversion 

• nontraditional

• uncanny

• non sequitir

• illogical

Starting from what my project proposal was, I came up with these words which are the ones that thrilled me the most.

As far as I want to distance my project from whatever is traditional, rational and logical I ended up finding out an art movement which is mainly focused on this kind of principles.

SURREALISM

It is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings.
Surrealism developed out from Dada activities during the World War I and its the main centre was Paris. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual art, literature, film and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy and social theory.
Leader André Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement based on the theory of Sigmud Freud and Karl Marx.

The parallelism between REALISM and SURREALISM is very helpful to understand the main feature of this movement.
REALISM is intended by the surrealists as the fetishism of logical procedures, which are in fact incapable of solving the authentic problems of existence. It is something that could be rightfully or wrongfully which accuse of being a superstition, a chimera any means of searching for truth that does not confirm with standard usage.
With SURREALISM instead "imagination might would be about regain its rights".

André Breton and
his own definition of SURREALISM

Importance of DREAMS is focal within this movement as a much wider scope than the dominant tradition to investigate uncosciousness and imagination.
Imagination is intended as the only way to dominate and enchante reality.
Reason, esthetic and moral concerns can only stifle authentic thoughts and confine them to too narrow framework.
Dreams create a kind of PHANTOM REALITY which is another main topic of surrealism, widely investigated by one of the most important surrealist painters, Salvador Dalì.

Dream caused by the flight of a bumble bee, Salvador Dalì, 1944, Oil on canvas

The dream, Salvador Dalì, 1937, Oil on canvas

Woman with a head of roses, Salvador Dalì, 1935, Oil on canvas

Another topic really important is the use of ORDINARY OBJECTS in an UNUSUAL CONTEXT (which is a typical attitude of a mind free from any rational control and traditional pattern.), as well as the parallelism between REALITY and ILLUSION

The apple, René Magritte, 1964, Oil on canvas

Philosophy In The Boudoir, Renè Magritte, 1947

The castle in the Pyrenees, Renè Magritte, 1959

Euclidean promenades, Renè Magritte, 1955

Mae West face, Salvador Dalì, 1935

"Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present."

Renè Magritte 

about me

As a student on a course such as Interior Design (IED, Milan) I already have a general idea of all the subjects related to this field. Technically speaking the course I attended was structured on a precise schedule made of clear steps and a wide use of digital softwares. I really appreciated the BA I did because it taught me a peculiar method which made me able to achieve solid pieces of work. 

At the moment, however, I would relocate my carrer path in a more practical range and I want to focuse my attention on research and experimentation of new ideas and hypothesis rather then commitment or “this-has-to-be-done-like-this”.

As far as my idea about interior design is not just about permanent spaces and stable relationships between people and space I am really interested in movement, temporary design, visual merchandising for fairs and exhibitions, repurporposing of objects no longer in use, handcrafted materials, subversion of the common ideas and rules about how we intend a space to live in and so on.

"Uncommon reassemblies, close to research and experimentation, in order to achieve style and functionality". Vincenzo De Cotiis- architect.

I like to think of design as a feather which freely flows from art to design and from design to art, breaking somehow the boundries in between, even though it must be always related to innovation and commercial thinking.

In the end projects and things still have to be alive and I personally think that experimentg objects at first hand is one of the best way to eclict emotion. Design to me is an extended workbench which includes everyone, from the designer, to the craftman, ending with the customers and the objects themselves. It is a process within everything and ,more important, everyone is essential in order to create the proper relationship whish always should exist

Basically, it is a story based on true events,

really. 

lets get it started

it's time to start. it's time to do research.it is time of good music tracks for doing so.