L'immortelle (1963)

Director:

Alain Robbe-Grillet

Writer:

Alain Robbe-Grillet (writer)

Release Date:

27 March 1963 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A sad man meets a beautiful, secretive woman who may or may not be involved in some conspiracy ring dealing in kidnapped women used as prostitutes...

Plot Keywords:

Mystery Woman | Driving | Istanbul | Obsession | Avant Garde

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Françoise Brion	...	L, the Woman
Jacques Doniol-Valcroze	...	N, The Man
Guido Celano	...	M, the Stranger
Sezer Sezin	...	Turkish Woman
Ulvi Uraz	...	Antique Dealer
Belkis Mutlu	...	Servant
Catherine Blisson
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Catherine Robbe-Grillet		(as Catherine Carayon)

Also Known As:

L'immortale (Italy)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

Turkey | Italy | France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | USA:M

Filming Locations:

Istanbul, Turkey

Company:

Cocinor

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Fejezetek a film történetéböl: A francia új hullám (#1.14)" (1990)

THE IMMORTAL ONE (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1963) **

While the print of this one was more pleasing than the other Robbe-Grillet titles I watched to commemorate his recent passing, the viewing itself was marred by a couple of instances of temporary freezing. The film, then, was perhaps the most pretentious and, well, tedious of the lot – given that there’s hardly any discernible plot!

Again, we’re thrown into a remote Arabian locale (complete with relentless – and, consequently, extremely irritating – religious chanting) with, at its centre, a glamorous yet vapid femme fatale in Francoise Brion – to whom the title is presumably referring. Frankly, I’m at pains to recall just what went on in the film – even if only a little over 36 hours have elapsed since then…which is never a good thing but, usually, this is a predicament I find myself in after having watched some mindless/low-brow action flick and not a respected art-house one! What’s certain is that, as a film about the search for a missing enigmatic girl, it’s far less compelling and satisfying than Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’AVVENTURA (1960)! Incidentally, the bewildered hero of THE IMMORTAL ONE is played by Jacques Doniol-Valcroze – who happens to be a film-maker in his own right, actually one of the lesser (and, therefore, least-known) exponents of the “Nouvelle Vague”.

Though I have to admit that – in the long run – I was disappointed by the mini-marathon dedicated to this influential novelist and highbrow film-maker, I’d still be interested in checking out the other efforts he directed (not to mention hope to catch these three again in better representations and, perhaps, a more amenable frame-of-mind). In any case, I still have Alain Resnais’ demanding but highly-acclaimed LAST YEAR IN MARIENBAD (1961) – which Robbe-Grillet wrote, and for which he even garnered an Oscar nomination – to re-acquaint myself with, and that is sure to be an infinitely more rewarding experience...