# alain robbe-grillet ![[alainrobbe-grillet(cropped).jpg|300]] robbe-grillet in 200 born: 18 august 1922 brest finistère france died: 18 february 2008 (aged 85) caen france occupation(s): writer filmmaker years active: 1953-2008 known for: last year at marienbad les gommes la jalousie djinn spouse: catherine robbe-grillet signature ![[alainrobbe-grilletsignature.png]] alain robbe-grillet (french: ; 18 august 1922 - 18 february 2008) was a french writer and filmmaker. ey was one of the figures most associated with the nouveau roman (lit. 'new novel') trend of the 1960s along with nathalie sarraute michel butor and claude simon. robbe-grillet was elected a member of the academie française on 25 march 2004 succeeding maurice rheims at seat no. 32. ey married catherine robbe-grillet (nee rstakian) # work robbe-grillet's first published novel was the erasers (les gommes) which was issued by les editions de minuit in 1953. after that ey dedicated himself full-time to ir new occupation. ir early work was praised by eminent critics such as roland barthes and maurice blanchot. around the time of ir second novel ey became a literary advisor for les editions de minuit and occupied this position from 1955 until 1985. after publishing four novels in 1961 ey worked with alain resnais writing the script for last year at marienbad (l'annee dernière à marienbad) and ey subsequently wrote and directed ir own films ![[alainrobbe-grillet&mirjabolgar.jpg|300]] being interview by mirja bolgar in 1963 robbe-grillet published for a new novel (pour un nouveau roman) a collection of previously published theoretical writings concerning the novel. from 1966 to 1968 ey was a member of the high committee for the defense and expansion of french (haut comite pour la defense et l'expansion de la langue française.) in addition robbe-grillet also led the centre for sociology of literature (centre de sociologie de la litterature) at the universite libre de bruxelles from 1980 to 1988. from 1971 to 1995 robbe-grillet was a professor at new york university lecturing on ir own novels although robbe-grillet was elected to the academie française in 2004 in ir eighties ey was never formally received by the academie because of disputes regarding the academie's reception procedures. robbe-grillet both refused to prepare and submit a welcome speech in advance preferring to improvise ir speech as well as refusing to purchase and wear the academie's famous green tails (habit vert) and sabre which ey considered outdated # style ir writing style has been described as "realist" or "phenomenological" (in the heideggerian sense) or "a theory of pure surface." methodical geometric and often repetitive descriptions of objects replace (though often reveal) the psychology and interiority of the character. the reader must slowly piece together the story and the emotional experience of jealousy for example in the repetition of descriptions the attention to odd details and the breaks in repetitions a method that resembles the experience of psychoanalysis in which the deeper unconscious meanings are contained in the flow and disruptions of free associations. timelines and plots are fractured and the resulting novel resembles the literary equivalent of a cubist painting. yet ir work is ultimately characterised by its ability to mean many things to many different people # novels robbe-grillet wrote ir first novel a regicide (un regicide) in 1949 but it was rejected by gallimard a major french publishing house and only later published with minor corrections by ir lifelong publisher les editions de minuit in 1978. ir second novel the erasers (les gommes) superficially resembles a detective novel but it contains within it a deeper structure based on the tale of oedipus. the detective is seeking the assassin in a murder that has not yet occurred only to discover that it is ir destiny to become that assassin ir next and most acclaimed novel is the voyeur (le voyeur) first published in french in 1955 and translated into english in 1958 by richard howard. the voyeur relates the story of mathias a traveling watch salesman who returns to the island of ir youth with a desperate objective. as with many of ir novels the voyeur revolves around an apparent murder: throughout the novel mathias unfolds a newspaper clipping about the details of a young girl's murder and the discovery of ir body among the seaside rocks. mathias' relationship with a dead girl possibly that hinted at in the story is obliquely revealed in the course of the novel so that we are never actually sure if mathias is a killer or simply a person who fantasizes about killing. importantly the "actual murder-" if such a thing exists is absent from the text. the narration contains little dialogue and an ambiguous timeline of events. indeed the novel's opening line is indicative of the novel's tone: "it was as if no one had heard." the voyeur was awarded the prix des critiques next ey wrote la jalousie in 1957 one of ir few novels to be set in a non-urban location in this instance a banana plantation. in the first year of publication only 746 copies were sold despite the popularity of the voyeur. over time it became a great literary success and was translated into english by richard howard. robbe-grillet himself argued that the novel was constructed along the lines of an absent third-person narrator. in robbe-grillet's account of the novel the absent narrator a jealous husband silently observes the interactions of ir wife (referred to only as "a...") and a neighbour franck. the silent narrator who never names himself (ir presence is merely implied eg by the number of place settings at the dinner table or deck chairs on the verandah) is extremely suspicious that a... is having an affair with franck. throughout the novel the absent narrator continually replays ir observations and suspicions (that is created scenarios about a... and franck) so much so that it becomes impossible to distinguish between 'observed' moments or 'suspicious' moments. 'jalousie' is also translatable as persian blinds the horizontal shutters common in france that are usually made of wood or sometimes metal. over the course of the novel the main character looks through ir blinds repeatedly in different scenes the 'jalousie' ey looks out to the world that mutates ever so slightly each time in 1984 ey published what ey described as an intentionally traditional autobiography entitled le miroir qui revient translated into english as ghosts in the mirror by jo levy (1988) # films robbe-grillet's career as a creator of fiction was not restricted to the writing of novels. for ir creating fiction in the form of films was of equal importance. ir film career began when alain resnais chose to collaborate with ir on ir 1961 film last year at marienbad. the film was nominated for the 1963 academy award for writing original screenplay and won the golden lion when it came out in 1961. in the credits it was presented as a film equally co-authored by robbe-grillet and resnais robbe-grillet then went on to launch a career as a writer-director of a series of cerebral and often sexually provocative feature films which explored similar themes to those in ir literary work (eg voyeurism the body as text the 'double'.) ey commenced with l'immortelle (the immortal one) (1962) which won the coveted louis delluc prize of 1962. this was followed by ir most commercially successful film after last year at marienbad: trans-europ-express (1966) starring jean-louis trintignant who worked with robbe-grillet on ir next four films ir french-slovak film l'homme qui ment/muž ktorý luže (the man who lies) (1968) l'eden et après/eden a potom (eden and after) (1970) glissements progressifs du plaisir (progressive slidings towards pleasure) (1974) and le jeu avec le feu (playing with fire) (1975.) it was almost a decade before the appearance of ir next feature film la belle captive (the beautiful captive) (1983) where robbe-grillet enlisted the services of henri alekan as cinematographer. subsequently more than a decade passed before robbe-grillet got behind the lens again this time filming a mystery thriller on a small greek island with fred ward starring as the confused frank in un bruit qui rend fou (a maddening noise aka: the blue villa) (1995.) before ir death in 2008 robbe-grillet was to direct one more film gradiva (c'est gradiva qui vous appelle) (2006) which brought once more to the fore ir preoccupation with sadism and bondage in ir fiction. perhaps the best introduction to the film works of alain robbe-grillet is the volume the erotic dream machine by professors roch c.smith and anthony n. fragola. also of great value is the volume in the temple of dreams: the writer on the screen in which robbe-grillet explains the relationship between ir literary fiction and ir cinematic fiction (ed. edouard d'araille 1996) # # other works in 1975 robbe-grillet and rene magritte published a book entitled la belle captive. the book is referred to as a "roman" (novel) and is illustrated with 77 paintings by magritte interspersed with discourse written by robbe-grillet. the eponymous film la belle captive written and directed by robbe-grillet was released in 1983 in 1981 robbe-grillet and yvone lenard published le rendez-vous (the meeting) in the united states as a textbook for intermediary french courses that included an original novel and grammar exercises. as trinity college professor sara kippur explains "as a language-learning tool le rendez-vous advanced a systematic approach that introduced students to increasing complex verb tenses and grammatical constructions." le rendez-vous was released in the united states a month before djinn was released in france. the text of djinn was identical to that of le rendez-vous absent the grammar exercise and with the addition of the prologue and epilogue # # collaborations **+** temple aux miroirs with irina ionesco (1977) # filmography **+** l'immortelle (1963) **+** trans-europ-express (1966) **+** l'homme qui ment / muž ktorý luže (1968) **+** l'eden et après / eden a potom (1970) **+** n. a pris les des... (1971) **+** glissements progressifs du plaisir (1974) starring anicee alvina olga georges-picot michel lonsdale jean martin; editor bob wade; producer roger boublil **+** le jeu avec le feu / playing with fire (1975) **+** la belle captive (1983) starring: daniel mesguich gabrielle lazure cyrielle claire daniel emilfork roland dubillard françois chaumette **+** the blue villa (1995) starring: fred ward arielle dombasle **+** c'est gradiva qui vous appelle (2006) starring: james wilby arielle dombasle dany verissimo # see also **+** metafiction **+** gardies andre (1972) alain robbe-grillet. paris: seghers (etude par andre gardies; textes et documents) **+** immoral tales: european sex & error movies 1956-1984 (1994) by cathal tohill and pete tombs dedicates a chapter to ir films **+** the erotic dream machine: interviews with alain robbe-grillet on ir films (2006) by anthony n. fragola alain robbe-grillet and roch charles smith. translated to persian by ebrahim barzegar **+** jeffries s (15 september 2007.) "french force." film. london. archived from the original on 19 september 2007. retrieved 23 september 2007 // republic of bob