After dedicating a semester to Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman, and then Kelly Reichardt, we will explore in this course the work of a leading writer and filmmaker for modern cinema: Marguerite Duras.
Born Marguerite Donnadieu on April 4, 1914, in French Indochina, and dying in Paris in 1996, Marguerite Duras had a unique path as a resistance fighter and creator. Initially associated with the Nouveau Roman, she made her distinctive voice known by alternating between novels and theatrical plays. Themes such as waiting, love, sensuality, but also politics, feminism, and colonialism run throughout her work.
After being adapted by others for cinema—Alain Resnais for "Hiroshima, mon amour" in 1959, Peter Brook for "Moderato Cantabile" in 1960, or Henri Colpi for "Une aussi longue absence" in 1960—Marguerite Duras moved into filmmaking, first with Paul Seban for "La musica" in 1967. She then directed alone, including "Nathalie Granger" in 1972, "La femme du Gange" in 1974, "India Song" in 1975, "Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert" in 1976… up to "Les Enfants" in 1985, her final film.
Her break with classical cinema is total. She invented new relationships between text and image, as shown in "Le camion" (1977), and a different relationship to time—one that has inspired many contemporary creator-rice-x-s.
In this course, we will analyze one film per session, focusing particularly on Marguerite Duras's own directorial works, and linking them to her literary texts and writings on cinema.