ALBERT CAMUS: THE MADNESS OF SINCERITY {ALBERT CAMUS: UN COMBAT CONTRE L'ABSURDE} {IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES} (TV)
Summary
A French-language documentary produced by ARTE, the French-German cultural channel which provides innovative programming for the European community. This documentary examines the life of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Albert Camus and includes interviews with Camus's family members, friends, and colleagues, as well as home movie footage. Also featured are readings from some of his most celebrated novels, including "The Outsider" (1942), "The Plague" (1947), "The Rebel" (1951), and "The Fall" (1957). Topics discussed include the following, among others: the way he charmed and befriended women immediately; the mysterious and intriguing aura that surrounded him; the reason he was not ashamed of his womanizing; the way he treated his various lovers; his daily editorials for "Combat," the newsletter which grew out of the French Resistance in 1944; the way he met and felt love for young Maria Casares while he was happily married; the reason the entire community knew of his relationship with Casares, despite efforts to keep it a secret; the way people in the U.S. responded to him and his literary work; why reviews of "The Rebel" were extremely harsh, considering the subject matter and the escalation of the Cold War; the reasons he became involved in the theater as a respite from writing novels; how he was persuaded to appear on television to promote the play, "The Possessed," which he was directing; the way his wife's mental health began to deteriorate as they spent more and more time apart; his difficulty in comprehending the fact that his wife was having trouble dealing with their unfaithful marriage, even though from the start they had agreed to permit extramarital liasons; what receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature for "The Fall" was like; his ostracization for several years, after receiving the Nobel Prize, due to his strong views against communism; the reason he decided to live almost in exile during the late 1950s; the sort of relationship he had with his children; why a reader can understand Camus from his posthumously published novel, "The First Man"; and his portentous decision to write sentimental letters to his many lovers just days before the car accident that killed him in 1960. (This program is in French with English subtitles.)
Cataloging of this program was made possible by ARTE, The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and the Goethe-Institut New York/German Cultural Center, 1997.
Details
- NETWORK: ARTE (France)/(Germany)
- DATE: November 30, 1995
- RUNNING TIME: 1:26:14
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:48997
- GENRE: Arts documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Authors; Biography; International Collection - France; International Collection - Germany
- SERIES RUN: ARTE (France)/(Germany) - TV, 1996
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Jean Labib … Executive Producer
- T. Celal … Executive Producer
- Christophe Jorg … Executive Producer
- Pascale Lamche … Producer
- James Kent … Director
- Serge Garcin … Researcher
- David Ferguson … Music by, Composer
- Brian Cox … Narrator, Letters read by
- Le Du, Frederic … Cast
- Rose Yolande Fernandez … Cast
- Nacera Marchese … Cast
- Farid Bendoumi … Cast
- Ahmed Bouallagui … Cast
- Dominique Marcas … Voice
- Blanche Balain
- Carl-Gustav Bjurgstrom
- Patricia Blake
- Albert Camus
- Catherine Camus
- Maria Casares
- Christiane Faure
- Robert Gallimard
- Francis Jeanson
- Roger Quilliot
- Catherine Sellers
- Pierre Tabard
- Olivier Todd