Coming back to film stills, one of my favorites comes from mysterious film Alan Resnais made in 1961.

“Last year in Marienbad” is a great poetic tale where story escapes reality just like ordinary objects have no shadows in the still above. Only people have shadows, because the shadow is not simply itself. It is a drag of our hopes, fears and most secret thoughts.

Dreamy, melancholic and to be watched in a cinema because it’s poetic magic escapes digital means.

I heard and read a lot about it, probably because films like it naturally rises discussion. None were more insightful than a lengthy review by Srikanth Srinivasan:

“Rather than raising the obvious question “why is this film like this?”, Last Year at Marienbad proposes another: “Why were films not like this?”. This is one film that one can safely call meaningless, because Marienbad is not a document bound by the rules of the physical world, but a sensory experience that transcends temporal and spatial barriers. And experiences needn’t always have a meaning.”