I’m sorry, but have we met?

Last Year at Marienbad

Not rated, 94 minutes

Coming to DVD on Tuesday.

This challenging yet inexplicable film probably most often provoked the question “what does it mean?” from art-house film audiences during the 1960s and perhaps in the history of cinema. Moviegoers of all generations still find this 1961 French classic enigmatic as well as frustrating.

Now, the Criterion Collection upgrades the original with a high-definition digital transfer, while adding the usual assortment of enticing supplements. Alain Resnais, still working at 87, directed from a script from controversial “new novelist” Alain Robbe-Grillet. In an austere baroque castle (filmed in and around Munich), complete with winding staircases, statues, elaborate moldings and sculpted gardens, a handsome man (Giorgio Albertazzi) insists to a beautiful, glacial woman (Delphine Seyrig) that they met last year.

Perhaps at Marienbad? Frederiksbad maybe?

In the meantime, cinematographer Sacha Vierny’s camera constantly moves to the droning of an organ as mysterious repetitions overlap with flashforwards and flashbacks. Strangely hypnotic, mysterious film becomes gripping while simultaneously conjuring up a subconscious state.

The two-disc DVD set, also on Blu-ray, contains a 44-page booklet with essays by critic Mark Polizzotti and film scholar Francois Thomas, Robbe-Grillet’s introduction to the published screenplay as well as his comments on the film.

Other supplements include a 33-minute taped interview with Resnais, in which, among many morsels, he confesses that when originally approached for the film by producer Pierre Courau, the director had never met Robbe-Grillet and had never read any of his novels. The 33-minute “making of” featurette offers interviews with four crew members, including assistant director and future Oscar winner Volker Schlondorff (The Tin Drum). A 23-minute interview with film critic and scholar Ginette Vincendeau helps, as much as possible, explain the film. And: two short documentaries by Resnais: Toute la mémoire du monde (1956) and Le chant du styrène (1958).

Inkheart (***) This enjoyable, wildly imaginative film originates from Cornelia Funke’s children’s novel.

Iain Softley directs and turns Funke’s colorful settings and flamboyant villains into visual treats.

Rapidly changing locales lend flavor to the unwieldy plot that sees Brendan Fraser as Mo Folchart, a protective father whose wife who has mysteriously disappeared.

When he reads aloud from a book, he becomes Silvertongue, possessing the enviable talent of bringing novels to life. On a European trip with his daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennett), Mo encounters the dissolute Dustfinger (Paul Bettany), brought to life years ago when Mo read Inkheart to the younger Meggie.

Now, however, Dustfinger yearns for home and his wife (played by Bettany’s wife, Jennifer Connelly). Mo and his daughter join forces with bawdy Aunt Elinor (Helen Mirren) to track down Inkheart author Fenoglio (Jim Broadbent), while fending off the villain Capricorn (Andy Serkis).

Fictional characters from Ulysses to Lolita have yearned for home and family but few with the same fervor as the dislocated creatures that have sprung to life from the pages of the novel Inkheart, thereby creating a constant madhouse that makes no sense but offers loads of whimsical fun.

Rated PG, 106 minutes.

The double-sided DVD, also on Blu-ray, offers widescreen and full-screen options, plus a brief featurette with Eliza Bennett reading her favorite passage from the novel. Accompanied by illustrations from Funke. The Blu-ray disc contains additional supplements.

Waltz With Bashir (***) In this Oscar-nominated animated film, writer/director Ari Folman, who fought with the Israelis in the First Lebanon War, runs into an old friend who suffers obvious post-traumatic stress about the war. So, Folman reunites with other old friends, interviewing them and former military buddies, as he tries to fill in what he cannot remember and why. Haunting, often chilling exploration of the subconscious.

Rated R, 87 minutes.

The DVD, also on Blu-ray, offers commentary from Folman, along with an English language version of the film, a nine-minute interview with the director, a compelling 20-minute or so featurette on building the film’s animatics, and a 12-minute “making of” featurette.

Phoebe in Wonderland (***) This thoughtful drama examines what makes the difference between a troubled child and one who is simply highly energetic and imaginative.

Elle Fanning plays Phoebe, who lands the part of Wonderland’s Alice in her school play, while at home her mother (Felicia Huffman) struggles to finish her dissertation on Alice in Wonderland.

The drama teacher (Patricia Clarkson) finds Phoebe a jewel among her dullard classmates, even when other teachers and the principal (Campbell Scott) find her behavior psychotic. Writer-director Daniel Barnz creatively conveys scenes delineating Alice’s struggle between reality and fantasy.

Rated PG-13, 100 minutes.

Confessions of a Shopoholic (**) Isla Fisher stars in and P.J. Hogan directs this romantic comedy based on two of Sophie Kinsella’s novels about an attractive yet flighty red-haired ball of fire (Fisher, doing her best Lucille Ball).

She suffers from runaway debt because of her uncontrollable shopping habits. When she lands a job working at a financial magazine, a romance with her boss (Hugh Dancy) ensues, along with several opportunities for slapstick. Innocuous comedy benefits from the energetic Fisher and Patricia Field’s gorgeous costumes. Rated PG, 104 minutes. 

A digital copy is included on the second of the two discs, which also features a few minutes of bloopers, four deleted scenes and a music video by Shontelle.

Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection These 34 cartoons from legendary animator Chuck Jones come from his tenure at MGM after his celebrated 30-year reign at Warner Bros.

The cartoons emphasize Jones’ whimsical humor rather than the duo’s usual slapstick and chase sequences.

Not rated, 216 minutes.

The two-disc set also contains two new featurettes — one on Jones’ time working with Tom and Jerry, and the other on Jones and his formative childhood.

Also coming to DVD: Ghost Hunters: Favorite Investigations, Pink Panther 2

DR. BOO ALLEN is an award-winning film critic for the Denton Record-Chronicle.