Proust at the Movies by Martine Beugnet, Marion Schmid

Abstract

244 Reviews Proust et lemoi divise is chronologically structured by developments in experi mental psychology. If occasionally we may feelwe are losing sight of Proust, this is compensated for in theway the psychoanalytic dimension is used to inform the discussion elsewhere. It is a two-part studywhich firstlybrings together case-study observations and certain subjective experiences narrated in theRecherche in order then toconsider the treatmentProust himself followed under doctor Sollier. Called at the time 'un traitementmoral', thiswas in fact a firstinstance of a course of psycho analysis. As Bizub emphasizes, Proustian scholarship has given littleattention to this programme of treatment.He argues thatProust's knowledge of experimental psy chology determines thenature of the privileged moments inhis narrative, moments atwhich another self takes centre stage. The Narrator's search is foranother buried and forgotten selfwithin him which resurges during these privileged moments and which Bizub equates with theother self evidenced in themedical cases and likened to a state of sleepwalking. This other 'moi' which haunts Proust's work, Bizub argues, will in factbe the hidden writer within him, the discovery ofwhich constitutes the central theme of A la recherchedu tempsperdu. Bizub's book will be of interest to Proustian scholars aswell as awider audience with an interest in thehistory of ideas. Itwill appeal alike to thosewith a specialist and a non-specialist knowledge of psy choanalysis, as terminology isgenerally well explained. UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH SARAH JOSEPH Proust at theMovies. By MARTINE BEUGNET and MARION SCHMID. (Studies in Euro pean Cultural Transition, 3 I)Aldershot: Ashgate. 2004. viii + 26 ipp.; I2 plates. ?50. ISBN 978-0-7546-3541-3. This lucid and stimulating book is the resultof a collaboration between twocolleagues from theUniversity ofEdinburgh, specialists inFilm Studies and Proust respectively. Adopting a genuinely multi-disciplinary approach, it represents the firstsystematic exploration of this topic and consists of a series of self-contained but interconnecting chapters dealing, firstly, with the relationship between Proust and the cinema and, secondly,with specific filmadaptations and evocations of his work. The opening chapter examines themany interconnections between Proust's writ ing and what in 1923, the year after his death, was coined the 'seventh art', both ofwhich are placed firmly within the context ofmodernism's rejection of realism. Indeed, as the authors explain, it is a paradox thatProust should accuse the cinema of being slavishlymimetic, as he does, forexample, inLe Temps retrouve, when con temporary film-makerswere in factconstantly exploring new techniques inways that often paralleled his own radical reworkings. Concurrences perceptively examined in this chapter include techniques of subversion, the use of images, and ways of ren dering the subjectivity of time,with a pertinent analogy being made with Deleuze's concept of the 'time-image' (p. 43). The second chapter thenanalyses indetail the two failed and very different 'grands projets' of filmingProust initiated byVisconti and Losey in the I970s and gives a fascinating insight into, firstly,thepersonal and artistic preoccupations which caused these two directors to foreground certain themes and, secondly, thevarious cinematic techniques theywould have used inorder to transfer Proust to the screen. There follows a series of chapters on theway inwhich a number of directors have taken on what one critic has described as the 'pari un peu fou' (quoted on page 28) of filmingProust. The incisive analysis ofVolker Schl6ndorff's Un Amour de Swann of I984 is unusual in largely rehabilitating what it describes as an 'uncertain, but possibly underrated' film (p. I3 3), including, in particular, itsmuch-criticized pre sentation of gender. The discussion of Raoul Ruiz's I999 filmof Le Temps retrouve MLR, I02.I, 2007 245 then considers the suggestive contrast between the heritage-piece marketing of the filmand itscollation of amultiplicity of styles, including the intertextual dimension of surrealism, while inChantal Akerman's 2000 filmLa Captive, a study of pathological jealousy, the freestand yet closest Proustian adaptation todate (p. 172), the intertext is the cinema of obsession, including the thriller and the filmnoir. This last film is convincingly characterized as an example of a cinema of 'differance' in itsquestioning of traditional sets of binary oppositions (p. 204). A furtherchapter looksmore briefly at two filmsby Italian director Fabio Carpi, Quartetto Basileus and Le intermittenze del cuore,which present a...