Matter of fact

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

We just raked out an old video this evening (My Fair Lady - as it happens - not relevant) and after it was Leonard Bernstein's Candide. After he made his opening speech I was inspired to get out my copy of Candide, which I hadn't ready for 25 years when I did it for A level. I read a couple of chapters and was struck by the "matter of fact" style which I now realise must be where the narrative style in many French films comes from - e.g. Amelie and La Gloire de Mon Pere.

Or am I wrong? Was literature written in that style before then? Reading those two chapters this evening, it struck me how modern it sounds. Hasn't French literature at least changed since the mid 18th century?

I'm definitely going to read it all now - feeling quite inspired!

[letrangere]

Jill, what an interesting post, I shall be cogitating on this all day. 

I know what you mean about the chatty, informal style of Pagnol's writing, it's part of the appeal and that's possibly why we're introduced to him early on in our French studies? 

In the films surely there has to be a narrator in order for it to work because the books are written in the first person.  But the use of a narrator in French films, at least at the beginning, is extremely popular.  Look at how effectively Truffaut used this technique, and Louis Malle used one too at the start of Le Souffle au Coeur.  I'm sure others will come up with many more examples.

But I don't believe one can generalise about French literature style.  On the contrary, think of the enormous differences in writing even between two 19th century novelists, Balzac and Zola.

That said, the last two pieces of modern lit I've read, "Le parfait amour" by Nicolas Brehal (don't be fooled by the title), and Robert Bober's, "Quoi de neuf sur la guerre?" both have an easy flowing narrative written in the first person, the latter is interspersed with frequent letters.  So perhaps you do have a point. 

Off to cogitate some more.

M