One novel, five adaptations: proust on film

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Notes

Pascal Ifri is Associate Professor of French at Washington University. He is the author of four books: Proust et son narrataire (Droz, 1983), Céline et Proust: Correspondances proustiennes dans l'œuvre de L.-F. Céline (Summa Publications, 1996), Les Deux étendards de Lucien Rebatet: Dossier d'un chef-d'oeuvre maudit (L'âge d'Homme, 2001), Rebatet (Pardès, coll. Qui suis-je?, 2004). In addition, he has published numerous articles, mainly on Proust, Céline, and Rebatet, but also on Stendhal, Musset, Zola, and Gide. Since 1995 he has also been the editor of the Bulletin Marcel Proust.

 See Chatman for a good analysis of the two notions.

 See Bazin (“L’Évolution du langage cinématographique” and “Montage interdit”) and Metz.

 Deleuze has in mind the following passage of Le Temps retrouvé: “[…] le Temps qui d’habitude n’est pas visible, pour le devenir cherche des corps et, partout où il les rencontre, s’en empare pour montrer sur eux sa lanterne magique” (503).

 See Bacon: “According to Visconti himself, he wanted to adapt Proust as if he were Balzac, to treat the changes in French society before the First World War and leave the questions of time and memory in the background” (209).

 Deleuze remarks that Visconti and Proust have many themes in common (“le monde cristallin des aristocrates; sa décomposition interne; l’Histoire vue de biais [l’affaire Dreyfus, la guerre de 14]; le trop-tard du temps perdu, mais qui donne aussi bien l’unité de l’art ou le temps retrouvé; les classes définies comme familles d’esprit plutôt que comme groupes sociaux…) (128, note 35).

 In fact, according to Stanley Kauffmann in New Republic (12/24–31/1977, p. 22), “It's incomparably the best screen adaptation ever made of great work … I would insist that this screenplay far surpasses anything conveyed by the term ‘adaptation’ and becomes a re-composition in another art” (quoted in Klein 105).

 Among the most enthusiastic reviews were those in Le Monde (J.M.F.) and L’Express (Thierry Gandillot).

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Notes on contributors

Pascal A. Ifri

Pascal Ifri is Associate Professor of French at Washington University. He is the author of four books: Proust et son narrataire (Droz, 1983), Céline et Proust: Correspondances proustiennes dans l'œuvre de L.-F. Céline (Summa Publications, 1996), Les Deux étendards de Lucien Rebatet: Dossier d'un chef-d'oeuvre maudit (L'âge d'Homme, 2001), Rebatet (Pardès, coll. Qui suis-je?, 2004). In addition, he has published numerous articles, mainly on Proust, Céline, and Rebatet, but also on Stendhal, Musset, Zola, and Gide. Since 1995 he has also been the editor of the Bulletin Marcel Proust.