Translucent Being: Marguerite Duras

In the year of its premiere, Marguerite Duras published a warning in Le Monde that some viewers should flee as far as they could from this film. Others were not miss it at any cost. Who among us, then, is a suitable viewer for Marguerite Duras? Visually, the film is composed largely of darkness. It was not made for an audience who thinks someone is making films for them. It was made in complete ignorance of the fact that there is such a thing as an audience. The film’s form comes close to Duras’ concept of the ideal film, whereby we follow the artist's partner and hear her text.

“Both films were born from a letter I wrote to someone I didn't know. We only spoke on the phone. I had only seen that person once before, thirteen years ago. I forgot her face and only remembered her voice. I didn't send the letter in the end, but it made me start writing again.”“We shot Melbourne in contre-jour. The faces are blurred; you can only see the outlines. The camera absorbs them and the river carries them away. I think at one point you can see Aurelia on the bridge, just a silhouette of a girl with long blonde hair.” – Marguerite Duras

“Both films were born from a letter I wrote to someone I didn't know. We only spoke on the phone. I had only seen that person once before, thirteen years ago. I forgot her face and only remembered her voice. I didn't send the letter in the end, but it made me start writing again.”“I wrote Vancouver in a month and a half, it was 13 pages on a typewriter. We only had 72 minutes of material, we didn't use one reel. So we only used 68 minutes. The film is exactly 50 minutes. I didn't use 18 minutes.” – Marguerite Duras

The name Caesarea or Kaisareia refers to a now-defunct ancient city, probably named in honour of Gaius Iulius Caesar. It is an exploited metaphor for a forgotten place. It is similarly used by Racine or Louis Aragon.“Both films (Cesarea and The Negative Hands) are made from unused footage for The Ship Night. The statues in Place de la Concorde and Maillol were too ostentatious for the empty shots of the intended film. Also, the shots are too figurative and, in the case of The Negative Hands, unsuccessful. I don't know what the technical problem was, but the red light looks more like a bloodstain.” – Marguerite Duras

Marguerite Duras inscribed a dedication to the author in her book The Lover (1992), “To my friend Dominique Auvray, to remember one of those miracles of the recent past when we made Le Cinéma de Duras together.” It is a pure documentary reflection, and perhaps best reveals the famous writer and director’s relationship with cinematography. Not only do we see interesting footage, but more importantly we follow the flow of ideas leading us to the film's original vision. And perhaps we even understand her famous bon mot: “I make films because I don't have the strength to do nothing. That's the only reason I make films.” Other collaborations with Dominique Auvray include Baxter, Vera Baxter (1976), The Truck (1977), Navire Night (1978) and The Children (1984).The screening will be followed by a discussion with the film's director Dominique Auvray.

A completely unique portrait of the 16-year-old student Romain Goupil by Marguerite Duras. Here, the future famous director is a political activist during a strike and insists on the lack of freedom of speech, talking about the movement of high school students, about politics and the revolution that must be made, and about the repression in various high schools. Duras interestingly alternates authentic footage with interview.

Claire Simon's exploration of the relationship between Yann Andréa and Marguerite Duras. A man involved in a passionate relationship with a celebrated writer of 30 years his senior needs to talk. He is fascinated by her and yet he feels he just cannot go on anymore. He opens up, in an attempt to put into words the intensity of his love and he describes it with great clarity. The interview is an emotional and accurate reconstruction of Yann Andréa, that he presented in the book called Je voudrais parler de Duras. The interview he willingly gave in the hope of making sense of the powerful connection binding him to renowned French author and filmmaker Marguerite Duras.

Marguerite Duras asks seven-year-old François about the future, television, school, the Belphegor, literature, or what is the point of writing, counting... Do you think horses will talk? That children will spend their holidays on the moon? What's the point of television? The admirably conducted conversation does not fall into banal childishness, but interestingly reveals a way of thinking.

Marguerite Duras interviews the only female prison director in France. First, she lets her explain how she became a prison warden. She then talks about her job, the women prisoners, living conditions, authority, punishment and suicide. The seemingly banal conversation escalates and the reporter's attitude gradually borders on aggression.

At the Vincennes zoo in Paris, we meet the lion keeper, whom Duras subtly interrogates about his work. The graphically eloquent shots of desperate lions circling in a cage move us to the question of whether such animals can be happy. Although we watch a zoo employee going about his routine work, you can sense that he is unnerved by the question

Marguerite Duras interviews the prominent screenwriter, producer and journalist Pierre Dumayet on the topic of fame and the way women are treated in this context. The writer evokes Michelet's definition of a witch and finally talks about her own perception of the difference between men and women.

Short sentences avoid description. Marguerite Duras reads aloud and Gérard Depardieu is her truck driver. Shots of the two protagonists sitting at a table alternate with shots of the truck cab, where no one is sitting. Occasionally we see a passing landscape. As time passes and it slowly gets darker, Duras and Depardieu begin casually talking about cigarettes… The Truck is a brilliant piece of cinema on how to work intuitively with time, length, pause, text, voice and music. The Truck is often described as a portrait film, here a metaphor for a road that doesn't stumble.

“Both films are made from unused footage for Le navire Night. The statues in Place de la Concorde and Maillol were too ostentatious for the empty shots of the intended film. Also, the shots are too figurative and, in the case of The Negative Hands, unsuccessful. I don't know what the technical problem was, but the red light looks more like a bloodstain.” Negative hands is the name of a painting technique associated with paintings in prehistoric caves.Marguerite Duras

This is undoubtedly one of the most impressive works. It's a film that failed. It's an evocation of Facebook and Tinder. Duras exclaimed after the filming was over, “It's a failed film… it's the end of the film!” It wasn't until a dream brought her a solution and she filled the screen with footage from the failed shoot. The central theme are the anonymous phone lines from the period of German occupation, used by hundreds of men and women to make long calls, establish relationships and find love. Marguerite Duras as the all-female voice and Benoît Jacquot as the all-male voice gradually draw us into a world of loneliness and despair. The romantic relationships of beings who will never meet… just like today in the virtual world.

Marguerite Duras' films cannot be retold because they have no plot. Woman of the Ganges is a uniquely Durasian work, combining film-image and film-sound in one. They are linked only by material coincidence and become an immediate challenge to the viewer. We are probably somewhere in Normandy in a seaside resort. The man who came here is probably looking for memories. After all, the houses look familiar to him and he met a girl here somewhere. The most powerful thing about the writer's film manuscript is her ability to suppress or completely eliminate narrative and psychological techniques. We find ourselves face to face with a screen on which some characters are moving around and saying something. They are asking questions rather than answering any.