For thirty years, the bookstore La Boîte à Livres in Tours has organized meetings once a week around a writer or a work. On the occasion of an evening dedicated to the novel Emily L.by Marguerite Duras, the bookseller Joël Hafkin has “felt the desire to dive back into the work of the author of The Lover, Moderato Cantabile, A barrier against the Pacific, The English Lover, Savannah Bay and so many others…”
He then realized that Marguerite Duras (1914-1996) had links with Touraine. In 1951, upon returning from Indochina, his mother bought a castle in Onzain (Loir-et-Cher) which she made into a guesthouse; his brother Pierre lived in Nazelles-Négron, on the banks of the Loire, in “Amourettes”. A small property “near Amboise” that Marguerite Duras evokes in The Lover.
Academics, authors, actors, film library managers, literary critics are associated with these first “Meetings with Marguerite Duras”.
© (Photo NR, Pascal Landré)
Links with Touraine
In 1959, the municipal library of Tours welcomed Marguerite Duras as a juror of the short film festival… She returned to Tours in 1977, to the Studio cinemas, to present the film The Truck which she had written, directed and performed with Gérard Depardieu. The idea of organizing “Meetings with Marguerite Duras” in Tours was born.
Four films screened at the Studios
An association called “Écrits & Dialogues” coordinates the operation, with the concern “to explore and question the artistic heritage of Marguerite Duras through general public events”. With which the town hall, the library, Le Petit Faucheux, Ciclic, the Cinémathèque or the Studio cinemas have joined forces. The literary critic Joëlle Pagès-Lindon, the literature professor Hélène Maurel, the photographer Catherine Faux as well as other academics, psychoanalysts and authors are collaborating on the event.
A woman criticized for her positions
Readings, conferences, theater, photo exhibitions and cinema screenings will take place until February 8, 2025, with an ambition for Joël Hafkin: “May these Meetings allow us to rediscover this woman who was at the center of criticism at a certain time, but who was an author of incredible creativity. Marguerite Duras never stopped writing throughout her life, whether novels, film scripts, theater… When we reread Duras, we rediscover writing of incredible singularity and musicality. »
Alongside the public meetings, these Meetings continue with readings at the Montaigne and Jean-Philippe-Rameau colleges as well as at the Descartes high school in Tours. “If an hour of reading can make young people want to read Marguerite Duras, then it will be won”pleads Joël Hafkin.
-The meeting agenda
> Photo exhibitions by Catherine Faux “Chez Marguerite Duras”, at the municipal library (until February 8) and at the Boîte à Livres (until February 28).
> Saturday January 25, at 8:30 p.m., at the municipal library, reading of “A barrier against the Pacific”, by the actress Karin Romer.
> From February 2 to 8: at the Studio cinemas, screening of four films written by Marguerite Duras: “India Song”, “Hiroshima mon amour”, “Une aussi longue absence” and “Les Enfants.
> Sunday February 2, at 6 p.m., at Petit Faucheux: theater with the reading of “Savannah Bay” by Francine Bergé and Hélène Alexandridis.
> Round table “Marguerite Duras, writing and literature” in the auditorium of the municipal library, Thursday February 6, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Free entry for the readings and the round table on February 6. Usual prices for Studio cinemas and the Cinémathèque.
Complete program on www.ecritsetdialogues.fr
