Professor Thomas Wynn thomas.wynn@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Manon through the lens of Clouzot (1948): ‘images troublantes et précises’
Wynn, Thomas
Authors
Abstract
If cinema may potentially recast what is most fundamental to literature, Henri-Georges Clouzot's version of Prévost's Manon Lescautassumes its duty to show the once hidden heroine by transferring the novel to the early days of post-war France. Following an analysis of Maupassant's critique of the novel, in which he proposes the heroine as a disembodied and mythical seductress, this article examines how eighteenth-century illustrations offer an alternative narrative to the text's monological account of infidelity. Hair emerges as a sign of desire and specularity, a combination that Clouzot's film develops at the level of both narrative and image. Profiting from the demands of the mainstream cinematic apparatus and his modern mise-en-scène,the director uses his heroine's hair to signal her metamorphosis from collaborator to prostitute to victim. Clouzot's adaptation is seen not as a betrayal of Prévost's novel, but as an example of the mythology of its heroine.
Citation
Wynn, T. (2006). Manon through the lens of Clouzot (1948): ‘images troublantes et précises’. French Cultural Studies, 17(1), 73-85. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957155806060796
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Publication Date | Feb 1, 2006 |
Deposit Date | Oct 4, 2010 |
Journal | French Cultural Studies |
Print ISSN | 0957-1558 |
Electronic ISSN | 1740-2352 |
Publisher | SAGE Publications |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 17 |
Issue | 1 |
Pages | 73-85 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1177/0957155806060796 |
Keywords | Adaptation, Body, Cinema, Clouzot, Illustration, Maupassant, Novel, Prévos. |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1548496 |
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