Marienbadism

English

Etymology

Marienbad +‎ -ism, from the French New Wave film L'Année dernière à Marienbad (Last year at Marienbad).

Noun

Marienbadism (uncountable)

1. A style of film that has an enigmatic narrative structure coupled with a dreamlike uncertainty over what is real and what is imagined.
   • 1967, Cinema Journal - Volumes 7-11, page 37:

     Nathan A. Scott, Jr., deals more directly with contemporary McLuhanism and Marienbadism.

   • 1968, Britannica Perspectives - Volume 3, page 406:

     Nevertheless, anyone with memories of durable big stars and well-made hokum is likely to be sorry if one evening there is nothing available in or out of the house except TV soap opera, Ben Hur, and Marienbadism.

   • 1970, Andrew Sarris, Confessions of a cultist: on the cinema, 1955-1969, page 104:

     What with Alphonse's lies and Bernard's fantasies, one must assume the relative candor of Hélène and Françoise if Muriel is not to succumb to Marienbadism.

   • 2005, B D Garga, Art Of Cinema, →ISBN:

     The American critic Pauline Kael feels that as a result of what she calls 'creeping Marienbadism', movies are going to pieces and she chides the art-house audience for accepting 'lack of clarity as complexity; clumsiness and confusion as style' .