QUENEAU Raymond. - Lot 172

Lot n° 172
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QUENEAU Raymond. - Lot 172
QUENEAU Raymond. MANUSCRIT autograph, Quand le cinéma paie ses dettes, [June 1952]; 6 pages in-4 on school notebook ff . Article published on June 19, 1952 in Arts, a fascinating reflection on the relationship between cinema and literature, developed on the occasion of the publication of Jean MECKERT's novel, Nous sommes tous des assassins. The book was in fact written after the screenplay of the film that André Cayatte and Charles Spaak directed under the same title. The film tells the story of René Le Guen, a former Resistance fighter who, after the Liberation, committed three murders and, having been sentenced to death, awaits execution in prison. He goes back over his past and the chain of events that led him there. Queneau notes that the film had to be linear, otherwise it would be totally confusing, whereas the novelist, "who could be satisfied with simple indications for certain scenes", can constantly go backwards. Similarly, for the executions of Le Guen's cellmates, the filmmaker must follow a dramatic progression, whereas Meckert adopts a reverse order and interrupts himself at different stages. And Queneau concludes: "Thus we do not read a story that the cinema has already 'told' us, we do not attend a show that has already been described to us. There are two weights and two measures: there are two different and parallel arts, and that is what makes this attempt - which is a success - so original. Attached is the corrected typescript with autograph title; plus the typescript of the article Les douze malédictions du cinéma, with L.S. from Maurice Bessy to R. Queneau, April 19, 1960 (on Cinémonde letterhead), and another typescript; and the press clipping of an article by Queneau in Labyrinthe (23/12/1946): "Le mythe du documentaire".
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