The film career of Alain Robbe-Grillet

Published in 1977 by Redgrave Publishing Company, this scholarly monograph by William F. Van Wert examines the cinematic output of French writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet. During the 1960s and 1970s, Robbe-Grillet became a central figure of the French Nouveau Roman and a provocative director known for his non-linear, experimental narratives. Van Wert’s work sought to provide a systematic critical framework for interpreting these challenging films, bridging the gap between literary structuralism and cinema studies.

The book is a product of the late twentieth-century academic interest in auteur theory and the rigorous analysis of avant-garde European cinema. Van Wert focuses on how Robbe-Grillet subverted traditional storytelling tropes, particularly in works like L'Immortelle and Trans-Europ-Express. While scholarly in tone and intended primarily for university libraries and film enthusiasts, the volume stands as an early, essential attempt to catalog the formal innovations of a director whose work frequently polarized critics and audiences alike.