“Duras-- Oui, mais en principe, un livre n'a ni commencement ni fin. Je ne vois pas de livre qui n'ai commencé bien avant son écriture. Qui a été porté par l'air que tu respires, par d'autres auteurs, et qui tout à coup démarre accidentellement sur la page que toi tu écris. Enfin, c'est une vision....” *
This small book contains three dialogues between Marguerite Duras and Jean-Luc Godard from 1979, 1980, and 1987. Two artists with intersecting passions and a tremendous amount of respect for each other. The two discuss a range of topics including filmmaking, writing, politics, and even the literary merits of Sartre. While we gain insight into both of these artists, I personally found that Duras was constantly stealing the show with her wit and profound view on things (although reading her collection of essays in Me & Other Writing earlier this year helped me understand some of the references and projects she had going on around the two earlier interviews). Nothing particularly groundbreaking or revealing, just a delightful encounter of two great minds.
M.D.-- J'ai commencé à faire des romans à dix sous et des films en huit. Mais mes films sont des livres. Tout.
J.L.G-- C'est ce que je pense.
….
J.L.G.-- Tes films, c'est ce qu'ils on de beau. Ce sont de vrais livres qui n'ont pas à être faits en films.
M.D.-- Mes films sont des vrais livres, tu dis?
J.L.G.-- Non, c'est un livre qui parle, ou c'est un livre qui voit, c'est un livre qui regarde et que parle sous cette forme-là: Il est vrai, il ne se cache pas.
* M.D.-- Yes, but in principle, a book has neither beginning nor end. I haven’t see a book that didn’t start long before it was written. That was carried by the air you breathe, by other writers, and which all of a sudden accidentally starts on the page you’re writing. I mean, it’s a vision....
**M.D.-- I started making dime novels and eight movies. But my movies are books. Everything.
J.L.G-- That’s what I think.
…..
J.L.G.-- Your films are beautiful. They’re real books that don’t have to be made into films.
M.D.-- My films are real books, you say?
J.L.G.-- No, it is a book that speaks, or it is a book that sees, it is a book that looks and speaks in that form: It is true, it is not hidden.