Because
of its complex and introspective nature, the
works of the great French novelist Marcel Proust
have been difficult to translate to the screen
in spite of some very fine attempts by Raul Ruiz
and others. Chantal Akerman’s La Captive is no
exception. Inspired by the fifth of seven
volumes of Proust’s epic novel In Search of Lost
Time, the film captures the obsessive quality of
the relationship between Simon (Stanislaus
Merhar) and Ariane (Sylvie Testud) (Marcel and
Albertine in the novel), but is unable to
project onto the screen the novel’s exquisite
prose, psychological subtlety, or depth of
feeling. While Simon is given a thoughtful
treatment, he comes across more as strange and
unpleasant than the deeply sensitive, poetic
young man of the book.
La Captive begins at home with Simon viewing
films of Ariane and some friends during their
summer together in Normandy. Repeatedly viewing
the footage, he carefully utters the words “I
really like you,” but it is unclear if the
sentiment is his, or if he is vocalizing what he
imagines to be the thoughts of his mistress. Set
in Paris, Akerman updates the story from its
turn of the century milieu and transports it to
the modern era with automobiles and well-lit
boulevards filled with traffic replacing the
horse and carriage. Simon is a somber,
well-to-do young man who lives in an ornate
Paris apartment with his grandmother (Francoise
Bertin), housekeeper Francoise (Liliane Rovére),
and girlfriend Ariane (Sylvie Testud).
Though they claim to love each other, each keeps
their distance. Ariane lives in an adjacent room
and only comes to see Simon when he sends for
her in an ongoing ritual. Dialogue is sparse and
mostly consists of Simon asking Ariane questions
that elicit noncommittal responses such as “if
you like,” “I can’t say,” or “you think so?”
Mimicking Bressonian models, the actor’s facial
expressions range from enigmatic to blank, and,
aside from some perfunctory kissing, the only
time that passion shows up is when Simon rubs up
against Ariane’s body while she is asleep (or
pretending to be). When Simon demands to know
what Ariane is thinking, she replies, "If I had
any thoughts, I'd tell you—but I don't."
Some situations would be comical if they were
not sad. As Simon watches Ariane from an
adjoining bathroom while sitting in his tub, he
tells her how much he admires the odors between
her legs and says that if it weren’t for his
illnesses, he would rather that she would never
wash. On another occasion, he probes to find out
the number of lies she has told him, insisting
that two lies are not enough, he wants at least
four. The jealous and insecure Simon has
accumulated evidence in his own mind that Ariane
is physically attracted to women but it is not
made clear (either in the novel or the film)
whether his suspicions are real or imagined.
Nonetheless, Simon is preoccupied by the part of
Ariane’s life that he believes she is
withholding from him, following her in an art
gallery and physically removing her from a
performance of Carmen at the Trocadero out of
his fear of her friendship with the actress Lea
(Aurora Clément). When Simon is unable to leave
the house because of an asthmatic condition, he
assigns their mutual friend Andrée (Olivia
Bonamy) to track her whereabouts and report back
to him. He even goes so far as to question
lovers Sarah (Bérénice Bejo) and Isabelle (Anna
Mouglalis) about what they think about when they
make love.
Although the characterizations in La Captive are
very real and quite haunting, the film covers
only a small portion of Proust’s fifth volume,
omitting the colorful characters that make it so
special: Charlus, Morel, the Verdurin’s,
Brichot, and Mme de Guermantes to name a few,
and there is no hint of the music, society, and
themes of memory, nature, and awareness of time
and place that dominate the narrative. Though
the pacing is deliberately slow to capture the
enigmatic quality of the relationship, the film,
while absorbing, is static and does not draw us
deeply enough into its mysteries to compensate
for its dramatic inertness.
GRADE: B +