I recently watched "Last Year At Marienbad" & was struck with how the use of repetition (particularly partial repetition) led to a dreamy feel. This is most obvious in the near-constant meandering voice-over by the... antagonist, I guess... X. Specifically, he would repeat parts of a longer monologue, with some variations, interspersed with parts of other monologues, & eventually you would hear enough to piece together the whole thing.
(It's also a fitting style for a disturbing movie about... probably gaslighting? At the very least, it's about the traversal and manipulation of fallible memories. Never before have I been so terrified by b-roll of corridors paired with VO about corridors.)
This style is highly amenable to generation by grammar.
I used tracery to create a grammar for a Marienbad-style monologue, intended to be dreamy and meandering and disturbing in the same way as the original film.
Corridors. Salons. Corridors. Salons. Corridors. Doors. Salons.
Corridors.
Gardens, arranged with geometrical rigidity. Gardens.
The gardens were guarded by two statues on plinths. Some nameless figures, mythological.
Carpets. Hangings. Stairs, steps. It's not that I cannot lose, but that I have never lost.
Month or last year or last year or Perhaps it was Caguas, or right here.
Gardens arranged in a comforting geometry. Empty Corridors. Doors. Salons...
Thornaby-on-Tees Chairs. Hangings. Frying pan
No, it's nothing.
Deep armchairs.
I have been waiting for weeks.
It was last years or last century or
Perhaps it was Brighouse, or right here... It was last month or It was last year, or perhaps last years...
Empty Salons... or last years, or perhaps last century... It was last month, at Bridport...
, at Casper.
Empty chairs, deep armchairs, thick carpets... It was last year or year, or perhaps last week. Steps, one after the other.Steps, one after another. Hangings. Bottle of syrup Deep armchairs.
Salons. Corridors. Salons. Salons. Corridors. Salons. Salons. Corridors. Doors. Doors. Salons. Salons. Empty Corridors... Steps, one after the other.Steps, one after another. Salons. Empty chairs. Hangings...
Hangings. Stairs, steps. Hangings. Stairs. Hangings. Heavy hangings. It was last month or It was last year or
Perhaps it was Bradley Stoke, or right here... Perhaps it was Carterton, or right here...
Empty Corridors. Doors. Salons. Empty Salons......
. It was last century, at Lillehammer...
. Perhaps it wasn't Corbridge. Perhaps it was Columbia, or Lawrence.
.
Perhaps it was West Allis, or right here... Perhaps it wasn't Southsea. Perhaps it was Waltham Abbey, or Fort Worth...
Empty chairs. Hangings. Hangings. Stairs, steps. Empty deep armchairs... Hangings. Empty chairs. Hangings...... It was last month or last month or last years, at Carolina...
.
Empty Salons....
Empty Corridors. Doors. Doors. Doors. Doors. Salons....
Empty Corridors. Doors. Salons. Corridors. Doors. Doors. Doors. Salons. Salons....
Empty deep armchairs....
It was last century, or perhaps last month or Perhaps it was Preston, or right here. or Perhaps it was Citrus Heights, or right here.... It was last centuries, at Darley Dale.
I recently watched "Last Year At Marienbad" & was struck with how the use of repetition (particularly partial repetition) led to a dreamy feel. This is most obvious in the near-constant meandering voice-over by the... antagonist, I guess... X. Specifically, he would repeat parts of a longer monologue, with some variations, interspersed with parts of other monologues, & eventually you would hear enough to piece together the whole thing.
(It's also a fitting style for a disturbing movie about... probably gaslighting? At the very least, it's about the traversal and manipulation of fallible memories. Never before have I been so terrified by b-roll of corridors paired with VO about corridors.)
This style is highly amenable to generation by grammar.
I used tracery to create a grammar for a Marienbad-style monologue, intended to be dreamy and meandering and disturbing in the same way as the original film.
Code: https://github.com/enkiv2/misc/blob/master/nanogenmo-2019/marienbad.py
Novel-length output: https://github.com/enkiv2/misc/blob/master/nanogenmo-2019/marienbad.md
Preview: