Born in Brest, France. Trained as an agricultural engineer, he turned to writing and became a leading figure in the Nouveau Roman school of French letters. His literary style was a reflection of his thesis (he called it charisme) that the physical world is the only true reality and that the only way to approach concepts, including memory, is through physical objects and not through consciousness. He made his first attempt to translate his literary style to the screen with his script for Alain Resnais' LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, a film replete with Bergsonian and Proustian idioms. Encouraged by the results, he turned to directing his own films. Like his books, Robbe-Grillet's films were structurally unconventional and thematically irreverent. Several contained violently erotic images that some audiences found offensive and disturbing. In 1989 he taught film and literature for a semester at NYU. During that period, a retrospective of his films was shown in Manhattan. Visit the Internet Movie Database for a listing of Robbe-Grillet's writing and directing credits.  Nominated for Writing (Best Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen) 1962: L'ANNÉE DERNIÈRE À MARIENBAD (LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD) 1 nomination