Thinking Cinema with Proust

218 Pages·2018·1.319 MB·English

by  Patrick Ffrench

Thinking Cinema with Proust
legenda
legenda is the Modern Humanities Research association’s book imprint for new
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MOVIng IMage
Editorial Committee
Professor emma Wilson, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (general editor)
Professor erica Carter (King’s College london)
Professor Robert gordon (gonville and Caius College, Cambridge)
Professor Jo labanyi (new York University)
Professor nikolaj lübecker (St John’s College, Oxford)
legenda/Moving Image publishes cutting-edge work on any aspect of film or
screen media from europe and latin america. Studies of european-language
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Research monographs and collected volumes will be considered, but not studies of a
single film. as innovation is a priority for the series, volumes should predominantly
consist of previously unpublished material.
Proposals should be sent with one or two sample chapters to the editor, Professor
emma Wilson, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge cb2 1rh, UK.
appearing in this series
1. Spanish Practices: Literature, Cinema, Television, by Paul Julian Smith
2. Cinema and Contact: The Withdrawal of Touch in Nancy, Bresson, Duras and Denis,
by laura McMahon
3. Cinema’s Inter-Sensory Encounters: Krzysztof Kieślowski and Claire Denis, by
georgina evans
4. Holocaust Intersections: Genocide and Visual Culture at the New Millennium, edited by
axel Bangert, Robert S. C. gordon and libby Saxton
5. Africa’s Lost Classics: New Histories of African Cinema, edited by lizelle Bisschoff
and david Murphy
6. Agnès Varda Unlimited: Image, Music, Media, edited by Marie-Claire Barnet
7. Thinking Cinema with Proust, by Patrick ffrench
8. Blanchot and the Moving Image: Fascination and Spectatorship, by Calum Watt
9. Chantal Akerman: Afterlives, edited by Marion Schmid and emma Wilson
10. Screening Work: The Films of Christian Petzold, by Stephan Hilpert and
andrew J. Webber
Managing Editor
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Published by Legenda
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ISBN 978-1-78188-635-9
First published 2018
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Contents
❖
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
1 Reverie in a dark Room 8
2 Camera Obscura 50
3 Proust’s Projections 66
4 The Cinema of Montjouvain 102
5 Theory of gesture 119
6 Screen Memories/Screen Histories 157
Conclusion 189
Bibliography 193
Index 202
For Sarah
ACKnoWLeDGeMents
❖
This book has been woven out of many conversations with colleagues and friends.
The list of all those whose words may find traces here would be long, and too
long, but I want to thank, in particular, the following: alan Read, alexandra
Tzirkoti, anne Mulhall, Barnaby dicker, Ben dalton, Bruno Sibona, Calum
Watt, Catherine Wheatley, Corinna guthrie, emma Wilson, erica Carter, Hector
Kollias, Ian James, Ian Maclachlan, Igor Reyner, Jacob Bittner, Jerôme Cornette,
Jo Malt, Joel White, Josh Cohen, Kate Brook, Katrin Yacavone, Martin Brady,
Martin Crowley, Max Silverman, Michael Sheringham, nick Harrison, nigel
Saint, nikolaj lubecker, Richard Mason, Roger lippin, Roland-François lack,
Ros Murray, Russell goulbourne, Sarah Cooper, Sarah date, Simon gaunt,
Simone Ventura, Sophie eager, Suzanne guerlac, Tim Mathews, Tom Baldwin,
Tom gould, and Ziad elmasarfy. I am also very grateful to the staff and students
of the department of French and the Faculty of arts and Humanities of King’s
College london for their intellectual adventurousness and friendship, and for their
socially and culturally exceptional support of the opportunity for intellectual and
creative freedom.
The front cover images are taken from the ‘geneviève de Brabant’ series of magic
lantern slides by auguste lapierre, held in the collection of the Cinémathèque
française in Paris, photographed by Stéphane dabrowski. Thank you to laurent
Mannoni for permission to reproduce these slides.
p.ff., london, June 2018
AbbreviAtions
❖
References to A la recherche du temps perdu, in parenthesis in the text, will be to
the current Pléaide edition in four volumes (Paris: gallimard, 1987), with volumes
indicated by Roman numerals. References to the translation into english will be
to In Search of Lost Time under the general editorship of Christopher Prendergast
published in six volumes by Penguin (london: Penguin, 2002): Volume 1: The Way
by Swann’s, trans. by lydia davis; Volume 2: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower,
trans. by James grieve; Volume 3: The Guermantes Way, trans. by Mark Treharne;
Volume 4: Sodom and Gomorrah, trans. by John Sturrock; Volume 5: The Prisoner and
The Fugitive, trans. by Carol Clark and Peter Collier; Volume 6: Finding Time Again,
trans. by Ian Patterson. The volumes of the translation will be indicated by arabic
numerals. References to other texts will be given in footnotes. Where published
translations of French works exist, reference will be to them. all other translations
are my own.