Eden and After (1970)

A group of French students are drawn into the psychological and sexual games of a mysterious Dutchman. Once they sample his "fear powder" the students experience a series of hallucinations.

Director:

Alain Robbe-Grillet

Writer:

Alain Robbe-Grillet

Stars:

Catherine Jourdan, Pierre Zimmer, Richard Leduc

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Catherine Jourdan	...	Violette
Pierre Zimmer	...	Duchemin
Richard Leduc	...	Marc-Antoine
Lorraine Rainer	...	Marie-Eve
Sylvain Corthay	...	Jean-Pierre
Juraj Kukura	...	Boris
Jarmila Kolenicová	...	Sonia (as Jarmila Kolenicova)
Catherine Robbe-Grillet	...	Foolish woman
Frantisek Gervai	...	(as François Gervai)
Ludovít Króner	...	Franc (as Ludwik Kroner)

Storyline

A group of French students are drawn into the psychological and sexual games of a mysterious Dutchman. Once they sample his "fear powder" the students experience a series of hallucinations.

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Plot Keywords:

female full frontal nudity | female rear nudity | torture | surrealism | allegory | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

France Czechoslovakia Tunisia

Language:

French

Release Date:

20 April 1970 (France)

Also Known As:

Eden and After

Filming Locations:

Bratislava, Slovakia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Como Film,Satpec,Studio Hraných Filmov Bratislava

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min 98 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Dr. Christina of Sweden (1970)

User Reviews

EDEN AND AFTER (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1970) **

I knew of novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet chiefly by virtue of his script for Alain Resnais’ art-house masterpiece LAST YEAR IN MARIENBAD (1961; which I intend to revisit in tribute to the author). Eventually, I became aware of his own films as a director via a thread on “The Latarnia Forums” – which, back then, had intrigued me a great deal and, in fact, was highly pleased to acquire three of them a few months ago. Unfortunately, the prints were incredibly murky – so I kind of lost my enthusiasm and it’s only now, in honor of his passing, that I made a concentrated effort to stick with them!

However, my first encounter with these titles proved a disappointment: as I said, the picture quality left a lot to be desired – but, frankly, so did the film itself! Judging by the celebrated Resnais work, I knew I’d be in for an oblique and possibly multi-layered piece – however, to be honest, I found it made little sense and that it was generally weird for weirdness’ sake! In fact, if I had to compare Robbe-Grillet’s style here with that of contemporaneous film-makers, I’d say this is Godard meets Antonioni meets Jodorowsky!; that, in itself, would sound like a most interesting proposition to some…but, I assure you, the film is a bit of a bore despite plenty of nudity (the writer-director seems to have a thing for sadomasochism, as can also be seen from TRANS-EUROP-EXPRESS [1966]) and a stunning-looking heroine in Catherine Jourdan (sporting cropped blonde hair).

The plot, such as it is, has to do with a group of disaffected students who are shown a way out of their ennui (via a concoction he offers) by a man they meet at a café (the Eden of the title); Jourdan is supposed to have a night-time tryst with him at a factory but, on arriving for the appointment, she is intimidated by some of her fellow students and finds the man dead! Taking a clue from a postcard of an Arabian town found in the stranger’s pocket, Jourdan gets mixed-up in espionage (the MacGuffin in this case being a valuable missing portrait), games of a sexual nature, drug-induced hallucinations and murder; eventually, we come full circle and the story returns to the Eden and the arrival once again of the stranger...