Among the many fantastic extras on Criterion's terrific new edition of Last Year At Marienbad is director Alain Resnais' thoroughly lovely 1959 documentary short, Le chant du Styrene, a gripping account of plastic manufacture with a very clever (but of course) verse narration from the great Raymond Queneau. A colorful homage to the surreality of the industrial world that, like Marienbad, marries magnificent formal command to a quirky sense of play, it brims with eye-popping imagery, so much so that my customary single image for a day just wouldn't do.
Man, Oulipo were down with Resnais? And vice versa? MAIS BIEN SUR! Wow, that's exciting. Reordering the Q now.
Posted by: Ryland Walker Knight | July 02, 2009 at 02:15 PM
My favorite part was the couplet for the little grains of dyed plastic: "On the vibrating sieve the granules swarm/Proud of their colors, lovely and warm."
Posted by: Ellen Kirby | July 05, 2009 at 11:20 PM