Edmonton Journal

RENOWNED FRENCH NOVELIST MARCEL PROUST DIED IN 1922, SO WHAT WERE THE CHANCES ANY FILM OF HIM WOULD SHOW UP NOW? A LAVAL UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR KNEW WHERE TO LOOK — A WEDDING FILM MADE IN 1904.

‘Precious’ find thrills fans of French novelist

- TrisTin Hopper

It’s the 1904 version of a wedding video: A grainy, 113-year-old film of guests departing from the highsociet­y marriage of Armand de Guiche and Elaine Greffulhe.

As couples in full Belle Époque finery descend a red-carpeted staircase, a solo figure in a bowler hat and grey coat impatientl­y weaves his way through the crowd.

The appearance only last two seconds but, according to Laval University professor Jean-Pierre Sirois-Trahan, this is the world’s only known footage of French novelist Marcel Proust.

“The spectre is none other than Proust,” wrote SiroisTrah­an, a film professor in the latest edition of Revue d’études proustienn­es (Review of Proustian studies).

Proust, who died in 1922, is considered one of the most influentia­l novelists of the 20th century, largely for his 4,000-page masterwork, À la recherche du temps perdu.

The term “Proustian memory” refers to an involuntar­y memory spurred by a cue such as a familiar taste or smell.

The 34-metre film strip was preserved at the Parisbased Centre National du Cinéma.

Proust had almost certainly never seen the film, which is now being called a “precious” artifact by legions of his fans around the world.

Neverthele­ss, Proustians could have suspected that their hero existed on some forgotten film strip.

Paris was one of the world’s most camera-saturated cities at the time and, as Sirous-Trahan wrote, “there was little chance, in absolute terms, that (Proust’s) figure had never shaded a piece of film.”

Sirois-Trahan had heard of the wedding film while at a seminar with the Centre National Du Cinéma’s director, but archivists had informed him that while Proust was present at the 1904 ceremony, he did not show up in the brief movie.

“After making several stops on the images, I fell on a familiar silhouette,” the professor wrote in an email to the National Post.

After ample research, a few things ultimately confirmed to Sirois-Trahan that the bowler-hatted figure was Proust.

For one, the then-33-yearold novelist was a confirmed guest at the Nov. 14, 1904 wedding, and one of the few to go stag.

In a mysterious letter to a friend, Proust even said he had “capital and secret things” planned for after the ceremony.

Proust’s clothing is also a little out of place. While everyone else showed up in black jackets and top hats, Proust turned up in his usual bowler hat and grey coat — an outfit that friends spotted often on the novelist in those years.

“Did he decide to dress the opposite from the other guests … out of simple bravado?” wrote Sirois-Trahan.

And finally, it’s characteri­stically weird that Proust is hustling through such a dignified ceremony, something that Sirois-Trahan referred to as “an artistic bent to his demeanour.”

An asthmatic, the novelist might also have been trying to escape an environmen­t jammed with flowers, incense and exotic plants.

“It is moving to say that we are the first to see Proust since his contempora­ries … even if we would have preferred that he had descended those steps a bit more slowly,” Luc Fraisse, director of the Revue d’études proustienn­es, told the French magazine Le Point.

AFTER MAKING SEVERAL STOPS ON THE IMAGES, I FELL ON A FAMILIAR SILHOUETTE.

 ?? CENTRE NATIONAL DU CINÉMA ?? Novelist Marcel Proust, at right in a grey jacket, is seen in 1904 as he quickly exits a friend’s wedding.
CENTRE NATIONAL DU CINÉMA Novelist Marcel Proust, at right in a grey jacket, is seen in 1904 as he quickly exits a friend’s wedding.

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