Discontinuous aesthetics as a result of collaborative screenwriting: A genetic approach to John Berger and Alain Tanner’s screenplays1

Abstract

This article examines, through the study of screenplay-related archive documents, the various manifestations of narrative, visual and sound discontinuity in three iconic New Swiss cinema movies directed by Alain Tanner: La Salamandre, Le Milieu du monde, and Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l’an 2000. According to its central hypothesis, the aesthetics of these movies are heavily influenced by the participation of art critic and novelist John Berger as a co-screenwriter, and in particular by the specific modes of writing in tandem developed by Tanner and Berger. The aim is twofold: first, to consider the ways Tanner’s production of a public discourse celebrating ‘auteur cinema’ and the importance of the mise en scène stage has downplayed Berger’s role in the conception of these films; second, to comment on the genesis of the screenplays for those three films by paying attention to the specific ways Berger’s contribution materialized, especially since the art critic’s preoccupations (notably those related to the representation of gender relations) are reflected in these texts. The genetic study of the screenplays, conducted thanks to the director’s personal archives deposited at the Swiss National Film Archive, allowed us also to measure the degree to which Tanner’s first fiction films, although seemingly improvised, were defined in a very precise manner already at the writing stage.