Celebrate Marcel Proust’s 153rd Birthday

Tuesday, July 9th, 2024; 6-7:30 PM
Proust Center at Jefferson Market Library
Documentary Film: “Marcel Proust: A Writer’s Life”
Registration is required, due to limited seating:
https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2024/07/09/celebrate-marcel-prousts-153rd-birthday

Dr. William C. Carter dedicated the Proust Center-JML Research Library on April 16, 2023

Special Q&A Guest Panel: 
William C. Carter, Executive Producer
Sarah Mondale, Director
Marian Hunter, Editor
https://stonelanternfilms.org/about/

Trailer: 
https://stonelanternfilms.org/proust/

“Deftly blending the personal and the historical, this program is an illuminating and accessible introduction to the life and work of Marcel Proust. Interviews with writers Dame Iris Murdoch, Shelby Foote, and writer-critic Roger Shattuck highlight the magnitude of Proust’s accomplishment, while dramatizations of key scenes from Proust’s life combine with rare archival footage to place his personal struggle in a historical context. The film was co-produced by William C. Carter, author of the critically acclaimed Proust biography. Archival interviews include Jean Cocteau, François Mauriac, and Celeste Albaret, Proust’s long-time friend and assistant.” Films Media Group 

5 Stars: “This title belongs in every library collection,
just as Proust belongs in every library.”
Video Rating Guide for Libraries

“I had become friends with a wonderful woman, Odile Gévaudan, the only child of Céleste and Odilon Albaret. At the time we were filming, Odile still had in storage a lot of the furniture from Proust’s bedroom. She loaned these to us when we recreated the Proust bedroom for our film. The comforter on the bed, the screen behind the bed, the little tables and the green and lampshade, the candle used to light his asthma powders, these are all the actual items from Proust’s bedroom. After we finished filming some of the furniture went from our set to the Musée Carnavalet that was preparing to recreate the ‘Proust bedroom.’ I offered the museum the fake notebooks and those notebooks have been on display there ever since.” William C. Carter

William C. Carter’s website, “Proust Ink”:
http://www.proust-ink.com

Proust Online — A Self-Paced Course: 
http://www.proust-ink.com/course/info/

Books by William C. Carter (Yale University Press): 
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300191790/marcel-proust/
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300185430/swanns-way/

Director’s statement on the making of MARCEL PROUST; A Writer’s Life 
As you can imagine, it was extremely difficult to boil down the colorful life and encyclopedic work of a writer like Marcel Proust to a one-hour film, but that was our challenge. With producer Sarah Patton, my sister-in-law and partner at Stone Lantern Films, we headed to France to scout locations and do casting.  We had to find a man who could play Proust. Not easy!  It came down to two choices – an actor who looked EXACTLY like Proust and came to the audition dressed in a top hat and tails. And then there was Joël Pommerat, a tall, gangly actor who didn’t look anything like Proust but had a sickly, intellectual air. We felt that he could play a literary genius, so he got the part. (Now Joël is a well-known director and playwright in France.)
Another challenge was creating the sets, especially Proust’s famous “cork-lined room” where he wrote his masterpiece, A la Recherche du Temps Perdu.  Fortunately for us, Executive Producer Bill Carter knew Odile Gevaudan, the daughter of Céleste Albaret, Proust’s housekeeper.  Astonishingly, Madame Gevaudan had actual objects that had belonged to Proust in her possession which she loaned us for the filming.  So the red flowered bedspread, the green lamp, and other things you see in the film are the real things. We were terrified they would get damaged during the shoot. Right after we finished, they were put on display in the Musée Carnavalet in Paris where you can see them today. You can also see one of the props we created for the film  –  the “paperolles”, Proust’s notebooks with the tiny bits of paper where he made his additions and corrections that Celeste laboriously pasted together – Proust’s editing method before computers.
Making Proust was a team effort where gifted film professionals like editor Marian Hunter, director of photography Jean-Claude Larrieu, writer Terry Monmaney and composer Bruce Adophe lent their talents to produce the final result – a film that we hope will inspire people to try reading a bit of Proust, and get better acquainted with this extraordinary writer.
Sarah Mondale, Director