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238 "Ne surtout pas lire le roman": La Reine Margot on the Silver Screen Mary Jane Cowles Kenyon College In an interview with Serge Toubiana published in Les Cahiers du cinéma, director Patrice Chéreau and his co-screenwriter Daniele Thompson speak of the inspiration for Chéreau's 1994 film, based on Alexandre Dumas's novel La Reine Margot. Thompson states: "Enfant, j'ai lu énormément de romans de Dumas et j'ai aussi vu [le film] La Reine Margot de Dréville ... [J]'ai dit à Patrice: lis le livre, c'est un rôle pour Isabelle [Adjani], à condition de le travailler pour qu'elle existe vraiment. Et nous en avons parlé à Isabelle, en lui disant de ne surtout pas lire le roman!" (12). By asking Adjani to avoid the contaminating influence of Dumas's portrayal of "his" heroine, the screenwriters hoped to give themselves the freedom to create a fresh and modern vision of the historical figure, Marguerite de Valois, the first wife of Henri de Navarre. Thus, from its inception, Chéreau's adaptation of Dumas's novel did not aim to capture and transmit something essential about the "original" text, as is often the case with film adaptations, but rather to transform it. In the interview, Chéreau adds, "Daniele m'avait dit: il faut faire le portrait d'une femme de la Renaissance, libre et moderne. Cette femme est devenue le centre du film et nous lui avons fait vivre une histoire différente de celle de Dumas. Celle dont nous avions envie" (12).2 Infidelities: Theories of Adaptation By articulating their intentions in terms of différence rather than fidelity, Chéreau and Thompson have staked out a position both with respect to the expectations of cinematic adaptation and with respect to the expectations of the "heritage film" as genre. The term "heritage film," first coined by Andrew Higson (1993) to designate a group of British films from the 1980s, can be used to describe the following characteristics, also present in a LA REINE MARGOT ON THE SILVER SCREEN239 number of French films from the 1980s and 1990s: attention to period details, which results in an "evocation of pastness" (Higson 113) and the treatment of history as spectacle; a cast featuring national stars, who are themselves cultural icons; a predilection for the filmic adaptation of "classic" literary texts; and most importantly, the projection of a nostalgic gaze on all these simulations of a historic past. But as Chris Darke writes, La Reine Margot "succeeds in satisfyingly short-circuiting" the expectations of the heritage film (55), despite the distinctly "heritage" material (a literary and historical adaptation) and the showcasing of Adjani in the title role. Rather than relying on "set ups that maximise [the heritage film's] qualities of spectacle—high angles, mid-long shots—to the end of privileging illustrative tableaux, while also placing the spectator in an Olympian and curiously touristic position" (Darke 55), Chéreau's film features tight closeups , backgrounded by dark, bare walls, and a somber atmosphere reminiscent of The Godfather—anything but nostalgic (Darke 55, Toubiana 17). Moreover, according to Tara Collington, "Instead of aiming for a generic adventure for which the historical context functions as a mere backdrop, Chéreau adopted a different strategy, tirelessly explaining the historical relevance ofhis film and its allegorical potential" (107).3 Concerning the challenge of adapting a literary text, often closely related to the aims of heritage film production, the conscious "betrayal" of Dumas's heroine by Chéreau and Thompson suggests a different set of problems. In his study of cinematic adaptation, Brian McFarlane distinguishes between those elements which function similarly in films and novels, which "are transferable because they are not tied to one or other semiotic system" (20), and which are primarily narrative in nature, and those elements which are fundamentally different and can not be properly transferred from one medium to the other (19-20). Borrowing Barthes's terminology, McFarlane associates the former with the énoncé and the latter with the enunciation. Thus elements of énonciation in the novel include the narrating voice (i.e. first person, third person) and the use oftense, as well as...

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