Poster for Trans-Europe-Express, a film by Grillet

Via De Papieren Man and Esotika comes the sad news that Alain Robbe-Grillet has died age 85 of a heart failure.

Alain Robbe-Grillet (August 18 1922 – February 18 2008), was a French writer and filmmaker; main exponent of the nouveau roman, best-known for his screenplay for the film Last Year at Marienbad, an extended meditation on the unreliable narrator. He was married to Catherine Robbe-Grillet. His frequent use of sadomasochist imagery caused him to be compared to that other French rebel, Marquis de Sade. His last novel is Un roman sentimental. A frequent translator of Grillet’s novels was Christine Brooke-Rose. Plenty of biographical details can be found in his widow’s 2004 private journals, published by Fayard in 2004 as Jeune mariée: Journal, 1957-1962.

Le temple aux miroirs (1977), with Irina Ionesco

One of the more obscure works of Grillet, Le temple aux miroirs, photography by Irina Ionesco of her daughter, augmented with philosophical texts by Grillet published by Seghers, very rare and expensive.