Um Amor de Swann

'Swann in Love' did have plenty of things going for it. Really like Marcel Proust's writing, and 'Un Amour de Swann' of the massive 'Remembrance of Things Past' is a masterpiece. Sven Nykvist was, and is still near-universally considered as, one of the all-time greats when it came to cinematography, particularly notable in the films of Ingmar Bergman. Love period dramas and always have. And am a fan of Jeremy Irons, and have liked to loved most of his work even in projects that are beneath him.

After finding and watching it, 'Swann in Love' as has been said already is a brave endeavour in adapting source material that is very difficult to do so, close to unadaptable actually. Proust in general has a sophisticated and subtle style of writing too that is not easy to translate to film or any visual media. 'Swann in Love' doesn't completely succeed and is not the masterpiece level that the book is (that was inevitable though), but there are a lot of good things here, really do applaud it for its noble effort and can really see that a lot of work was put into it.

Will start with what 'Swann in Love' does well. It is a thing of beauty visually. The costumes and settings are as sumptuous as one can get, never looking too fussy, and a lot of homework was clearly done in making the recreation of the period as evocative as possible. Nykvist's cinematography is a wonder, then again with such an amazing and influential cinematographer like Nykvist one doesn't expect any less. To me, the music fitted very well, especially with Swann's travels that are far from settled, and was used in a way that wasn't constant or over-powering. It is also a pleasant score to listen to like the use of strings, even the more atonal (not a fan of this in general but appreciate its musical importance) parts don't jar that much but can understand if anybody doesn't find it to their taste.

There is sophistication and subtlety here (not in Proust's way but in a general one), if not any reminicent parts which wouldn't have worked because they would make the film screech to a halt, and the story absorbs on the whole. The unflinching and claustrophobic portrayal of society and artistocrats is particularly striking, while the aforementioned Swann on the rampage scene, while too long, is a masterly visual and dramatic achievement. The obsessive moments have the right amount of intensity. Irons doesn't give one of his best performances here in a very early film role, but there is authority and conflicted pathos in his Swann which reminds one of the type of characters Irons was best and one of the best at doing it at, upper class characters with a dark or conflicted side. Ornella Muti is quite ravishing and portrays the seductiveness and at times smuttiness of her character expertly. Alain Delon has a lot of fun as the flamboyant artistocrat.

Not without its caveats however, 'Swann in Love' that is. There could have been more depth, it tends to be quite surface-level here, and more passion. A tighter pace, the deliberate nature is taken to extremes here and it can drag, and less scenes that go on for too long would have helped.

It also has some quite distracting and unnecessary over-dubbing, Irons has an amazing and easily recognisable voice that is wasted here.

Overall, not entirely successful but with quite a lot of virtues and a valiant effort. 7/10

Let's face it, Proust's monumental "A la Recherche du Temps Perdu" is probably unfilmable. The Chilean director Raoul Ruiz had a commendable shot at adapting the final volume "Time Regained" in 1999 that achieved a certain measure of critical acclaim in spite of being rather diffuse with not all the characters clearly presented. ( I think you have to know the novel well to fully appreciate it). A rather more satisfying attempt appeared fifteen years before with Volker Schlondorff's "Swann in Love". By concentrating more modestly on what is really a vignette, a novella tucked within the vast structure, Schlondorf achieved a work with a real sense of cinematic concentration. There is no Marcel, whose endless reminiscences are something of a kiss of death to film narrative and no confusingly vast set of characters to get to grips with. There is simply Swann, the man about town, his obsessive pursuit of the whore, Odette, and the characters he bumps into during the course of a short space of time and a brief epilogue some years later. It is a very free adaptation. I cannot remember the Baron de Charlus appearing much at this early stage of the novel, but, as he is one of Proust's most fascinating creations, his presence is welcome, even if John Malkovich in the later version is better cast than Alain Delon. What strikes most forcibly is Schlondorff's unflinching look at a thoroughly decadent and degenerate society. In studying only the rich he paints a portrait of the lengths they are prepared to go to satisfy hedonistic pleasure and, in the case of Swann, lust. In an amazingly frank scene he sodomises a prostitute but is obviously more interested in obtaining information about Odette from her than in what he is doing. Sven Nykvist's camera glides through salons stuffed with rich objects and people: this is a world where the poor simply do not exist. All around however are flunkies whose sole purpose in life is to serve their masters uncomplainingly. Just occasionally a look, such as the coachman Remi's, when he is ordered by Swann to drive him half the night in his pursuit of Odette, says it all.

I should start by mentioning that I've never read any of Marcel Proust's works, least of all "Swann's Way" (and even if I did, something would probably be lost in translation). So, having watched Volker Schlöndorff's adaptation "Un amour de Swann" ("Swann in Love" in English), I can say that they knew exactly which kind of movie they were making. This critical look at Parisian high society of the late 1800s really wraps you in with the costumes, sets, and general ambience. The romance between an Englishman (Jeremy Irons) and a French woman (Ornella Muti) is but a window into this world.

Obviously I'd have a better sense of it had I read Proust's works. I doubt that I'll ever get around to reading Proust, given how long it takes me to get through a book. Even so, I recommend the movie if you want a look at fin-de-siècle France. It's not what I'd call a masterpiece - especially since 1984 also saw the release of "Amadeus" and "The Killing Fields" - but you should still check it out.

Who would've ever guessed that Schlöndorff, as one of the doyens of New German Cinema, would direct movies as different as this, "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" and "Palmetto"?

I really admire the work of Volker Schlondorff, I think he is one of the best German director nowadays with Wenders (although in a very different style). His adaptation of Proust is quite good but several things really annoyed me.

_first, the soundtrack: why using an atonal composition of Henze when Proust, who loved Wagner, filled his novel with specific musical references? It simply does not fit the atmosphere! Any chamber music of the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries would have been better!

_second, the acting: I am french and I really think Alain Delon is way overrated, he's simply mediocre. However, I really like Jeremy Irons, and Ornella Muti is usually quite good, but their dubbing is absolutely awful and ruins totally their acting! So I understand that Irons would have had a very strong English accent if he had been asked to act in french but if Schlondorff decided to shoot the movie in Paris with 90 percent of the cast being french, why in the hell didn't he choose two other french actors for the leading roles? I have nothing against English actors, on the contrary, but then, he should have shot the movie in English rather than dubbing miserably these good artists.

_Third, the movie is sometimes a little slow. Usually, Schlondorff does a much better job with the editing. If you want to discover the terrific job of this great director, you should rather see "The Tin Drum", "The Ogre", "The Handmaid's Tale" or "Death of a Salesman" before this one.

According to IMDB this seems to have been the first time anyone ever tried to adapt Proust to the movies. And though flawed, it's not a bad try--kind of languid, but that was probably deliberate. Jeremy Irons is one of the best at portraying repressed longing, and Ornella Muti is exquisite enough to explain Swann's amour fou.