New Wave

The Complete Conference Talk given by Alain Robbe-Grillet at the 1996 Oxford University Alain Robbe-Grillet Conference (September). Alain Robbe-Grillet's talk has been translated from French into English by Edouard d'Araille. Robbe-Grillet discusses the relationship between his novel-writing and film-making pursuits, which embraced the New Novel and the New Wave. He looks at the different nature of telling a story through words, and telling a story with images and sound. And of course he discusses his writing/film collaboration with Alain Resnais that resulted in their iconic work 'Last Year at Marienbad'. Robbe-Grillet's talk ranges through the fiction styles of Balzac and Flaubert, the dream analysis of Freud, the films of Michelangelo Antonioni and his own novels and feature films, among other topics. Personal anecdotes mix with theoretical reflections on art theory and the difference between the task and means of the writer and filmmaker are elucidated better perhaps than anyone before. Robbe-Grillet's brief Q&A after giving this talk is included as a separate download on this academia.edu page, in which he responds to some challenging questions from professors Roch C. Smith, Anthony Fragola and Ben Stoltzfus.. This paper is extracted from the complete conference proceedings published as 'In the Temple of Dreams' (1999/2006/2016).

This short extract from 'In the Temple of Dreams' represents a session of questions that Alain Robbe-Grillet answered after giving his talk at the 1996 Oxford University Alain Robbe-Grillet Conference. He was visiting the United Kingdom on the occasion of a complete Retrospective of his films (from 'L'Immortelle' to 'Un Bruit Qui Rend Fou') at the 'French Institute' in London. The Retrospective and Conference were organised by Edouard d'Araille, who made a film about the relationship between the novel-writing and film-work of Alain Robbe-Grillet, called 'Last Year at Marianske Lazne' (1998). This supplement to Alain Robbe-Grillet's talk has been translated from French into English by Edouard d'Araille and the chapter provided here represents the entire question and answer session that Robbe-Grillet participated in. Questions are asked of him by Professors Anthony Fragola, Roch C. Smith and Ben Stoltzfus - three leading world scholars of Robbe-Grillet's work. Alain Robbe-Grillet's answers are at all times illuminating and provided further understanding of his own perspectives on his writing and film. It is best read in conjunction with the talk that it follows (also available on this academia.edu page). It is also well followed with by reading the 'Open Discussion' between all participants at the conference (equally available on academia.edu page).