This is a quite stylish adaptation of parts of Proust's first three "Remembrance Of Things Past" novels. Director Volker Schlondorf captures the stifling social atmosphere of Proust's fin de siecle Paris where snobbery and social cruelty have been elevated to an art form. And Sven Nyqvist's seductive camera and Jacques Saulnier's stunning art direction ensure that many of the scenes resemble Courbet and Caillebotte paintings. And there is not anything close to a poor performance from the entire cast, with Jeremy Irons, Ornella Muti and Fanny Ardant especially skilled at capturing the tragedy and superficiality, often in the same scene, of the French aristocracy and their acolytes.
Still, for all of the above qualities, I cannot help but feel that Schlondorf and his co scenarists, Jean Claude Carriere, Marie Helene Estienne and Peter Brook, have largely chosen to tell the wrong story. At its heart Swann's tragedy with Odette is one of snobbery, not jealousy. He gains her only to lose access to the world of the aristocratic Guermantes which he desires even more than the courtesan whose former profession is the reason for his ostracism. And rather than focus on this cruel irony, too much of the film, in my opinion, is taken up with Swann's neurotic, obsessive pursuit of Odette, and his Othello like behavior vis a vis her many flirtations. Not only does this weaken the power of the social themes so vital to Proust's zeitgeist but it leaves very important characters, like the Baron De Charlus (an excellent Alain Delon) and the Duke De Guermantes, as well as the tropes of homosexuality and anti Semitism related to them that are also key aspects of Proust's world, unexplored in any but the most surface manner.
Bottom line: An ambitious but flawed film that is well worth your time. B minus.
Still, for all of the above qualities, I cannot help but feel that Schlondorf and his co scenarists, Jean Claude Carriere, Marie Helene Estienne and Peter Brook, have largely chosen to tell the wrong story. At its heart Swann's tragedy with Odette is one of snobbery, not jealousy. He gains her only to lose access to the world of the aristocratic Guermantes which he desires even more than the courtesan whose former profession is the reason for his ostracism. And rather than focus on this cruel irony, too much of the film, in my opinion, is taken up with Swann's neurotic, obsessive pursuit of Odette, and his Othello like behavior vis a vis her many flirtations. Not only does this weaken the power of the social themes so vital to Proust's zeitgeist but it leaves very important characters, like the Baron De Charlus (an excellent Alain Delon) and the Duke De Guermantes, as well as the tropes of homosexuality and anti Semitism related to them that are also key aspects of Proust's world, unexplored in any but the most surface manner.
Bottom line: An ambitious but flawed film that is well worth your time. B minus.