Alain Robbe-Grillet's book version of his screenplay for "Last Year at Marienbad" is a most welcome key to understanding the award-winning avant garde French film of 1961. The book's interpretive introduction is as well a guidepost to better understanding Robbe-Grillet's substantial output of novels. Two features of this introduction are most notably helpful. In the first instance, Robbe-Grillet speaks of his preference for ritual images that suggest both statues and operas; a willingness to abandon a linear approach to time and normal bonds of causality; and a concentration on the selective and oft-distorted nature of memory. Building on these features, what does occur within the movie, Robbe-Grillet admits, is shaped by "a perfect labyrinth of false trails, variants, failures and repetitions."


