L'Immortelle

French novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet's 1963 directorial debut L'Immortelle was made two years after Last Year at Marienbad (for which Robbe-Grillet wrote the screenplay) became an international sensation. Here, he continues to draw on nouvelle roman literary techniques to ostensibly tell the story of a French professor in Istanbul and the mysterious woman he meets—using fragmented storytelling, sudden flash-forwards and flashbacks, repeated images, and a surreal atmosphere that blurs the "real" with fantasy and dream sequences. L'Immortelle is purposefully obscure, constantly returning to shots of the professor (Jacques Doniol-Valcroze) looking morosely out of windows, as if watching out for the mystery woman (Françoise Brion), who may be a femme fatale involved in the underworld of drugs and sex trafficking or who may just be a fantasy (with Robbe-Grillet's characteristic interest in bondage) in the mind of the lonely professor. It's very much a first film by a filmmaker with more ideas than experience with a camera. Robbe-Grillet effectively creates an atmosphere of alienation, as the French characters find themselves unable to communicate with the local population, but his experiments in repetition and fragmentation grow monotonous, and the film suffers from static shots and the blank quality of Doniol-Valcroze as the glum Frenchman. While it's interesting for charting the development of Robbe-Grillet as a filmmaker, the fact is that his second film, Trans-Europ-Express (VL-5/14), is far superior, both more accomplished and more enjoyable. Available in separate Blu-ray and DVD editions, extras include a bonus video interview with the director from 2008. Optional. (S. Axmaker)