Cet Amour-La

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Duras

Marguerite Duras From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search Marguerite Duras




Born 4 April 1914(1914-04-04)

Saigon, French Indochina (now Vietnam)

Died 3 March 1996(1996-03-03)

Paris

Occupation Writer

Nationality French

Period 20th century

Genres Novel, drama



Marguerite Donnadieu, known as Marguerite Duras (pronounced: [maʁ.ɡə.ʁit dy.ʁas]) (4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996) was a French writer and film director.



Contents [hide]

1 Biography

1.1 Background

1.2 Authorship

2 Bibliography

3 Filmography as director

4 Further reading

5 References

6 External links





[edit] Biography[edit] BackgroundShe was born in Gia-Dinh (a former name for Saigon), French Indochina (now Vietnam), after her parents responded to a campaign by the French government encouraging people to work in the colony.



Marguerite's father fell ill soon after their arrival, and returned to France, where he died. After his death, her mother, a teacher, remained in Indochina with her three children. The family lived in relative poverty after her mother made a bad investment in an isolated property and area of farmland in Cambodia. The difficult life that the family experienced during this period was highly influential on Marguerite's later work. An affair between the teenaged Marguerite and a Chinese man was to be treated several times (described in quite contrasting ways) in her subsequent memoirs and fiction. She also reported being beaten by both her mother and her older brother during this period.



At 17, Marguerite went to France, her parents' native country, where she began studying for a degree in mathematics. This she soon abandoned to concentrate on political sciences, and then law. After completing her studies, she became an active member of the PCF (the French Communist Party). In the late 1930s she worked for the French government office representing the colony of Indochina. During the war, from 1942 to 1944, she worked for the Vichy government in an office that allocated paper to publishers (in the process operating a de facto book censorship system), but she was also a member of the French Resistance. Her husband, Robert Antelme, was deported to Buchenwald for his involvement in the Resistance, and barely survived the experience (weighing on his release, according to Marguerite, just 84 lbs).



In 1943, for her first novel published Les Impudents, she decided to use as pen name the surname of Duras, a village in the Lot-et-Garonne département, where her father's house was located.
AuthorshipShe was the author of many novels, plays, films, interviews, essays and short fiction, including her best-selling, apparently autobiographical work L'Amant (1984), translated into English as The Lover, which describes her youthful affair with a Chinese man. This text won the Goncourt prize in 1984. The story of her adolescence also appears in three other forms: The Sea Wall, Eden Cinema and The North China Lover. A film version of The Lover, produced by Claude Berri, was released to great success in 1992. A film version of The Sea Wall was first released in 1958, and remade in 2008 by Cambodian director Rithy Panh.




Other major works include Moderato Cantabile, also made into a film of the same name, Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein, and her play India Song, which Duras herself later directed as a film (1975). She was also the screenwriter of the 1959 French film Hiroshima mon amour, which was directed by Alain Resnais.



Duras's early novels were fairly conventional in form (their 'romanticism' was criticised by fellow writer Raymond Queneau); however, with Moderato Cantabile she became more experimental, paring down her texts to give ever-increasing importance to what was not said. She was associated with the Nouveau roman French literary movement, although she did not belong definitively to any group. Many of her works, such as Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein (1964) and L'Homme assis dans le couloir (1980) deal with human sexuality.[1] Her films are also experimental in form; most eschew synchronized sound, using voice over to allude to, rather than tell, a story; spoken text is juxtaposed with images whose relation to what is said may be more-or-less indirect.



Despite her success as a writer, Duras's adult life was also marked by personal challenges, including a recurring struggle with alcoholism. Duras died of throat cancer in Paris, aged 81. She is buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse.



She is noted for her command of dialogue.[2]



L’Amant, her 1984 novel(See The Lover (film), 1992) won the Prix Goncourt.[2]

Bibliography

Les Impudents, Plon, 1943


La Vie tranquille, Gallimard, 1944.

Un barrage contre le Pacifique, Gallimard, 1950 (tr. The Sea Wall, 1967)

Le Marin de Gibraltar, Gallimard, 1952 (tr. The Sailor from Gibraltar, 1966)

Les petits chevaux de Tarquinia, Gallimard, 1953 (tr. The Little Horses of Tarquinia, 1960)

Des journées entières dans les arbres, "Le Boa", "Madame Dodin", "Les Chantiers", Gallimard, 1954 (tr. Whole Days in the Trees, 1984)

Le Square, Gallimard, 1955 (tr. The Square, 1959)

Moderato Cantabile, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1958 (tr. Moderato Cantabile, 1977)

Les Viaducs de la Seine et Oise, Gallimard, 1959.

Dix heures et demie du soir en été, Paris, 1960 (tr. Ten-Thirty on a Summer Night, London, 1961)

Hiroshima mon amour, Gallimard, 1960 (tr. Hiroshima mon amour, 1961)

"Les deux ghettos," in: France-Observateur, November 9, 1961, p. 8-10

L'après-midi de M. Andesmas, Gallimard, 1960 (tr. The Afternoon of Mr. Andesmas, 1964)

Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein, Gallimard, 1964, (tr. The Ravishing of Lol Stein, 1964)

Théâtre I: les Eaux et Forêts-le Square-La Musica, Gallimard, 1965 (tr. The Rivers and the Forests, 1964; The Square; La Musica, 1975)

Le Vice-Consul, Gallimard, 1965 (tr. The Vice-Consul, 1968)

L'Amante Anglaise, Gallimard, 1967 (tr. L'Amante Anglaise, 1968)

Théâtre II: Suzanna Andler-Des journées entières dans les arbres-Yes, peut-être-Le Shaga-Un homme est venu me voir, Gallimard, 1968.

Détruire, dit-elle, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1969 (tr. Destroy, She Said)

Abahn Sabana David, Gallimard, 1970.

L'Amour (Love), Gallimard, 1971.

Ah! Ernesto, Hatlin Quist, 1971.

India Song, Gallimard, 1973 (tr. India Song, 1976)

Nathalie Granger, suivi de "La Femme du Gange", Gallimard, 1973.

Le Camion, suivi de "Entretien avec Michelle Porte", Les Éditions de Minuit, 1977.

L'Eden Cinéma, Mercure de France, 1977 (tr. Eden Cinema, 1992)

Le Navire Night, suivi de Cesarée, les Mains négatives, Aurélia Steiner, Mercure de France, 1979.

Vera Baxter ou les Plages de l'Atlantique, Albatros, 1980.

L'Homme assis dans le couloir, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1980 (tr. The Man Sitting in the Corridor)

L'Été 80, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1980.

Les Yeux verts, Cahiers du cinéma, n.312-313, June 1980 and a new edition, 1987 (tr. Green Eyes)

Agatha, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1981 (tr. Agatha)

Outside, Albin Michel, 1981 (tr. Outside)

L'Homme atlantique, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1982.

Savannah Bay, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1982, 2ème edition augmentée, 1983 (tr. Savannah Bay, 1992)

La Maladie de la mort, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1982 (tr. The Malady of Death)

Théâtre III: -La Bête dans la jungle, d'après H. James, adaptation de J. Lord et M. Duras, -Les Papiers d'Aspern, d'après H. James, adaptation de M. Duras et R. Antelme, -La Danse de mort, d'après A. Strindberg, adaptation de M. Duras, Gallimard, 1984.

L'Amant, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1984. Awarded the 1984 Prix Goncourt (tr. The Lover)

La Douleur, POL, 1985 (tr. The War)

La Musica deuxième, Gallimard, 1985.

Les Yeux bleus Cheveux noirs, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1986 (tr. Blue Eyes, Black Hair)

La Pute de la côte normande, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1986.

La Vie matérielle, POL, 1987 (tr. Practicalities)

Emily L., Les Éditions de Minuit, 1987 (tr. Emily L.)

La Pluie d'été, POL, 1990 (tr. Summer Rain)

L'Amant de la Chine du Nord, Gallimard, 1991 (tr. The North China Lover, 1992)

Yann Andréa Steiner, Gallimard, 1992 (tr. Yann Andrea Steiner)

Écrire, Gallimard, 1993

C'est tout, POL, 1995 (tr. No More


__________

Filmography as directorLes Enfants (1984)


Il Dialogo di Roma (1982)

L'Homme atlantique (1981)

Agatha et les lectures illimitées (1981)

Aurelia Steiner (Melbourne) (1979)

Aurélia Steiner (Vancouver) (1979)

Le Navire Night (1979)

Césarée (1978)

Les Mains négatives (1978)

Baxter, Vera Baxter (1977)

Le Camion (1977)

Des journées entières dans les arbres (1976)

Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert (1976)

India Song (1975)

La Femme du Gange (1974)

Nathalie Granger (1972)

Jaune le soleil (1972)

Détruire, dit-elle (1969)

La Musica (1967)__________Further readingCrowley, Martin (2000). Duras, Writing, and the Ethical. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198160135. ISBN 9780198160137.


Glassman, Deborah N. (1991). Marguerite Duras: Fascinating Vision and Narrative Cure. Rutherford London: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Associated University Presses. ISBN 0838633374. http://books.google.com/books?id=JX0-S9Pu4cIC&pg=PP4&lpg=PP4&dq=deborah+n.+glassman+marguerite+duras&source=bl&ots=Jn7HCP_Jbi&sig=IUSp-iM35nXsWK0dd41qbqQchgw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3EJ8T_r_AaLi0QHmuvT6Cw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=deborah%20n.%20glassman%20marguerite%20duras&f=false. ISBN 9780838633373,

Harvey, Robert; Alazet, Bernard; Volat, Hélène (2009). Les Écrits de Marguerite Duras. Bibliographie des oeuvres et de la critique, 1940-2006. Paris: IMEC. pp. 530.

Hill, Leslie (July 10, 1993). Marguerite Duras: Apocalyptic Desires. London, New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415050480. http://books.google.com/books?id=AsBdN04TK9cC&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=Hill,+Leslie+(1993).+Marguerite+Duras:+Apocalyptic+Desires.+Routledge+isbn&source=bl&ots=lv4pyfmfiW&sig=Pcd_0UWqbattQ13ydt_V6FkBejY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6UB8T9uHH8eUtwfb3cXmDA&ved=0CEsQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Hill%2C%20Leslie%20(1993).%20Marguerite%20Duras%3A%20Apocalyptic%20Desires.%20Routledge%20isbn&f=false. ISBN 978-0415050487.

Schuster, Marilyn R. (1993). Marguerite Duras Revisited. New York: Twayne. ISBN 0805782982. ISBN 9780805782981.

Vircondelet, Alain (1994). Duras: A Biography. Normal, Illinois. ISBN 1564780651. ISBN 9781564780652.

[edit] References1.^ Alex Hughes, "Erotic Writing" in Hughes and Keith Reader, Encyclopedia of contemporary French culture, (pp. 187-88). London, Routledge, 1998, ISBN 0415131863

2.^ a b "Marguerite Duras". Encyclopædia Britannica (Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.). 2012. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/174178/Marguerite-Duras. Retrieved April 4, 2012.

[edit] External links Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Marguerite Duras



Biography portal

"In Love with Duras" an essay in The New York Review of Books, by Edmund White, June 26, 2008

"The Timeless Marguerite Duras"[dead link]: an article in the TLS by Emilie Bickerton, 25 July 2007

Marguerite Duras at Find a Grave___________________________________________________________
Cet Amour-La


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4.8 stars.Average of 18,034 ratings:

2.8 stars ..Jeanne Moreau stars in this biographical look at T, the Indochina-born French author whose popular books were adapted into plays and films. Duras is wasting away the last years of her storied life plagued with writer's block and adrift in an alcoholic haze … that is, until she meets Yann Andrea (Aymeric Demarigny), a man considerably younger than Duras, and falls passionately in love with him.

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D07E7DE1139F931A35757C0A9659C8B63
Cet Amour-La (2001)


April 2, 2003

FILM REVIEW; Marguerite Duras, as a Writer Who's Just a Bit Grumpy

By DAVE KEHR

Published: April 2, 2003

Simulated art has a sad tendency to perform better commercially than the real thing, a fact that specialized film distributors have long been aware of. It is easier to release a puffy gloss on an artist's life (there have been many recent examples, a few among this year's Oscar nominations) than it is to draw a wide public into the dark and messy domain of an artist's actual work.



That rule is borne out, once again, by ''Cet Amour-là,'' a French feature by Josée Dayan that chronicles the love affair between the great experimental novelist and filmmaker Marguerite Duras (played by Jeanne Moreau) and Yann Andréa (Aymeric Demarigny), an admirer some 40 years her junior.





Their relationship began in 1975 when Mr. Andréa met Duras (who died at 81 in 1996) at a screening of her film ''India Song'' at his university. They began a correspondence that lasted until 1980, when Duras took Mr. Andréa into her home, as her confidant, caretaker and, apparently, lover, though the film is tactfully vague on that final point.



With Mr. Andréa contributing to the dialogue, Ms. Dayan (who has spent most of her long career creating movies for French television), has made a film that repeatedly insists on Duras's greatness while sparing the audience the often difficult and uncomfortable task of actually enduring her works.

One of the musical cues used throughout the film is the haunting tango composed by Carlos d'Alessio for ''India Song,'' which is generally regarded as Duras's best work as a filmmaker (she made 19 movies as a director and contributed as a writer to 40 others, in addition to her work as a novelist and journalist). But the musical theme that Duras, through ruthless repetition, turned into a symphony of painful, frustrated desire is employed in ''Cet Amour-la'' as a tinkly, sentimental undertone, as trite and toothless as ''Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head.''




In Ms. Dayan's version, the famously difficult Duras comes off as a grumpy but lovable eccentric, a sort of Auntie Mame with bad moods, who encourages the puppyish Yann to find his own voice and follow his dream.



Her chronic alcoholism is swept away by a single visit to a clinic, at which point Duras is able to sit down and create what is perhaps the one bluntly commercial novel of her career, ''The Lover,'' an autobiographical tale of a girl's sexual initiation, which was filmed by Jeanne-Jacques Annaud in 1992 and which Ms. Duras subsequently disowned.



Ms. Moreau, still an imperious presence at age 75, makes no effort to look or sound like Duras -- this is one sacred monster stepping in for another. As Mr. Andréa, Mr. Demarigny is pouty and emotionally vague.

''Cet Amour-là'' opens today at the Lincoln Plaza and Quad Cinemas. ''India Song'' never opened commercially in New York at all.




CET AMOUR-LÀ



Directed by Josée Dayan; written (in French, with English subtitles) by Ms. Dayan in collaboration with Yann Andréa, Maren Sell and Gilles Taurand; director of photography, Caroline Champetier; edited by Anne Boissel; music by Angelo Badalamenti; production designer, Sylvie Fennec; produced by Alain Sarde; released by New Yorker Films. Running time: 98 minutes. This film is not rated.



WITH: Jeanne Moreau (Marguerite Duras) and Aymeric Demarigny (Yann Andréa).



http://www.plume-noire.com/movies/reviews/cetamour-la.html
Cet Amour-Là review


:. Director: Josée Dayan

:. Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Aymeric Demarigny

:. Script: Yann Andréa , Josée Dayan

:. Running Time: 1:40

:. Year: 2001

:. Original Title: Cet Amour-Là

:. Country: France

:. Official Site: Cet Amour-Là

What this film really offers is a chance to study the marvelous Jeanne Moreau: her aged yet beautiful face, her still quite energetic and strong body, her velvet voice, her startling smile. Her persona, period. Without its stunning star, the film goes nowhere. With her, it also goes nowhere, but at least you get to go nowhere with Jeanne Moreau.




The movie is about the last 16 years in the life of French novelist/playwright/scenarist Marguerite Duras (Moreau). Most famous here for her Academy Award nominated screenplay, Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Duras spent these years in the company of Yann Andréa, a man 38 years her junior (also, the author of the book upon which this film was based.) In the film, we really have no idea who this man is and apparently neither did Duras. Nor did she want to know. Yann simply moves in with Duras after he presents himself, adoring, to her. She accepts him and then, for what feels like 16 years to the audience, she repetitively throws him out, drinks herself into a stupor, verbally trashes him, writes her final works (with his secretarial help) and spouts out loud her theories about life, love, death and writing. There are no real conversations, nothing much else happens (he does take her to rehab toward the end of the movie, but by that point, do we care?) and she finally dies. Then he writes the book and the movie apparently gets made.



The film is probably trying to be stylistically a mirror of the writer's style and her philosophy. But it just doesn't work as a movie. What we see are the beginnings of scenes, the initiation of intense conflict, and before anything develops there's a fade to black. Then, fade in to another moment, another day or night, and usually a repeat of some earlier conflict. Or, rather, a repeat of the beginning of another conflict or issue or piece of action. And again, before anything can really develop, the sequence yields to another fade out. The one or two scenes that do have a beginning, middle and end are memorable, as are the ones that are montage-like. For example, we see the couple walking along the beach, holding each other close. As if it were part of a montage. But such a scene is not connected to one before or after in any particular way. Strangely, scenes with food in them are memorable: one in which the couple are ordering at a restaurant (this is following her discharge from the alcohol treatment center) and Duras wants to choose the brand of lemonade, as if she were ordering a bottle of wine. I think we remember and enjoy the food scenes because food is concrete, earthy, touchable, sensual, and so little else in this film is. That is, save Jeanne Moreau.

The character (the only other character in the film!) of Yann Andréa, her lover, seemed "translucent," as a friend so described him. There is a sense of light, yet no real clarity about him. Early in the film Duras says that all she knows about him is his name, which has "Stein" attached at the end of it, and that he's a Jew. Nothing more is given about him, and nothing more is revealed or implied in the movie. This bland, blank, seemingly simple man appeared only to want to be with Duras, either to take care of her, or to lean on her. But we never really know or understand him. Here is real potential for drama, but it's completely wasted. Who and why was this person attaching himself Duras? We, the audience, never find out, and the characters in the movie certainly have no clue. That may be the message, but man, such is dull movie-making. If it weren't for the superior cinematography (Caroline Champetier) which opens up the intensity of the two-person box (really only one person) with the gorgeous Breton countryside, I doubt if even Ms. Moreau would have been enough. The original music by David Lynch's often-used Angelo Badalamenti is barely noticeable. Perhaps the vision for this film (as suggested by the hiring of Badalamenti) was to play into the otherworldliness of love and death. But movies are so damn real, only the most creative of filmmakers can manage much success communicating abstractions. Here, the failure in communication was such that I had trouble staying awake.

Yet, many in the audience (at the San Francisco Film Festival) seemed to appreciate the film. I think filmgoers these days are so thankful for anything demonstrating intelligence on the screen that they go away happy, even if they may be mystified. Or maybe (as I suspect) their appreciation was for the fine actress, who clearly threw herself into the person of Marguerite Duras with great honesty. Or, maybe, ideas that emanate around Jeanne Moreau are perhaps automatically watchable. But for me, I seem to at least need Moreau to have maybe a good meal set before her, something sensual, real and understandable. Then we can talk.




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