Capital Punishment and Sexual Politics in Lecomte's La Veuve de Saint Pierre

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgments Stamos Metzidakis has published three books: Repetition and Semiotics: Interpreting Prose Poems (1986), Difference Unbound: The Rise of Pluralism in Literature and Criticism (1995), and Understanding French Poetry: Essays for a New Millennium (1994, 2nd edition 2002). He is currently finishing two new books, one on French America, another on pre-Mallarmeen literary visuality. Notes Notes 1. It should also be noted that over a hundred and fifty years ago Victor Hugo wrote to the president of the United States to protest the execution of the abolitionist John Brown. 2. To appreciate how important this otherwise obscure tale has been for the inhabitants of Saint Pierre itself, see Eugène Nicole's L’Oeuvre des mers (Paris: François Burin, 1988), a novel about his own early education and life on this remote island. 3. In a letter addressed to me Jan. 24, 2002, Lecomte writes: “Je ne travaille jamais avec des références picturales directes, mais il est vrai que, sans en avoir vraiment conscience, je suis nourri de tout ce que mon oeil a pu enregistrer, et en effet la peinture française du 19ième siècle a pu, d’une manière souterraine, m’inspirer.” 4. Lecomte writes that “la dimension ‘légendaire’ ou ‘surhumaine’ de cette histoire et de ses personnages, est consciente et délibérée.” 5. Of course, this is ironic since in the film the Governor takes a stance on both capital punishment and sexual politics precisely opposite to the one taken by Lecomte. One might therefore interpret this irony as a sign of Lecomte's implication and eventual hope that the mindset of even the most hardened government official in favor of such traditionally conservative political stances can still one day be transformed given the right circumstances. What better French figure could one imagine of someone for whom antithesis functions so profoundly in human understanding and history than Hugo? See the essay by Stamos Metzidakis and Regina Young for the most recent study of the transformative role antithesis plays in Hugo's literary and political projects. 6. See note 5. 7. In this respect, the story's plot and setting on an island seems to have inspired the director to rewrite, indirectly and probably unconsciously, certain parts of François Truffaut's famous film, “Adèle H,” which deals with similar (Hugolian) themes and characters. Lecomte writes: “Ce qui, indirectement, crée un lien entre le film et Hugo, c’est sans doute cette parenté qui existe avec “Adèle H”. Et si l’on peut penser au beau film de Truffaut, c’est sans doute parce que les personnages vivent un destin très ancré dans cette période romantique, et puis aussi parce que le cadre visuel (une île) est très proche.” 8. Such recurrent images of knives and cutting also occur in another of Lecomte's films, “La Fille sur le pont.” In his letter to me, however, the director writes: “Je n’ai jamais eu aucun goût pour les lames, au contraire! Tout ce qui peut couper m’effraie. Mais il n’en reste pas moins que votre analyse à ce sujet est juste et pertinente.” 9. This same characterization of the foreigner also forms the basis of Kristeva's main arguments in her Etrangers à nous-mêmes. 10. This, in essence, is the thesis advanced by Cixous in her now classic essay “Castration or Decapitation?”