the Proust movie

[Paul Mackin]

 Going over p-list message from the past week or so, in answer to Dave's

 question, yes, I for one have seen "Time Regained" and my single
viewing was
 enjoyable even though it served to reinforce the age old idea that good

 books (in this case a masterpiece of a book) are virtually impossible
to
 turn into good films. The problem for me was that instead of trying to
enjoy
 just a movie I kept analyzing it in terms of where in the six or seven
 volume of the book each of the chosen filmic scenes or characters had
 appeared. Also the actors often contradicted my own cherished images.
This
 late in the saga Gilberte should not have been quite so beautiful as
she had
 been to a younger M. He sez himself that he even finds her now
unattractive.
 Albertine was quite wrong too from my perspective. The men were better.

 Saint Loup, Charlus and M. himself fit the bill to a fairtheewell. Even

 though M. looked like Poirot--Proust looked a bit like Poirot. The
person I
 saw the movie with was not a Proustian but appeared to get as much out
of it
 as I did.

 Proust is very apropos to the topic Dave and other are discussing. A
 primarily theme of the book was certainly the illusory if not
ridiculous
 nature of reality--if reality can even be said to have a nature. It is
not
 something that can be captured logically with language. At least not in
less
 that 3000 or so words. And P sez it all in quite simple language
(usually at
 least) compared to LitCrit types. Anyway I will see the movie again at
the
 first opportunity.

                 P.