Catherine Robbe-Grillet

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Catherine Robbe-Grillet (born Catherine Rstakian in Paris on September 24, 1930 ) is a French writer , film actress and photographer . Robbe-Grillet published sadomasochistic literature under the pseudonyms Jean de Berg and Jeanne de Berg .

life and work

Robbe-Grillet attended elementary and secondary school in Paris. She first met the writer, screenwriter and later member of the Académie Française Alain Robbe-Grillet in 1951 , with whom she was married from 1957 until his death in 2008.

1956 appeared in the Éditions de Minuit under the pseudonym Jean de Berg Catherine Robbe-Grillets sadomasochistic novel L'Image about a submissive woman named Anne, who submits to a woman and a man who become a couple. The novel was in 1976 by Radley Metzger , entitled The Image very original factory filmed . The film is also entitled The Punishment of Anne. known. The novel contains a short foreword signed PR . The initials were interpreted as a reference to Pauline Reage , the pseudonym of Anne Cécile Desclos , the author of the story of O , which had not yet been released . Robbe-Grillet's husband Alain Robbe-Grillet mentioned in his fictionalized autobiography "Angélique ou l'enchantement" from 1988 that he wrote the foreword to a novel by his wife and originally wanted to see it published under the name Pauline Reage. After "L'Image" was supposed to appear at Minuit and whose publisher Jerome Lindon was friends with Jean Paulhan , the latter found out about the planned publication of an erotic novel that would be dedicated to Pauline Reage and a foreword from her. Paulhan was Desclos' employer and lover, so that he wondered about the project, which was unknown to him. He asked to be allowed to read the foreword before printing and judged it to be of literary inferior quality, so that the publisher decided to print the foreword only under the initials PR . The English translator was unaware of this decision and printed the preface under “Pauline Reage”. The connections and thus the identity of Jean de Berg were not recognized at least then.

In the 1960s and 1970s she played small and medium-sized roles, mostly but not exclusively in her husband's films, but also in the theater. She was involved in his films as a photographer several times. In the 1970s she first came into contact with male bottoms in the New York gay scene and from then on found her own dominance , which she has lived out since around 1973.

In an interview for Tel Quel , she first told of her BDSM scenes in 1981, whereupon a publisher contacted her. Her work Cérémonies de femmes was published in 1985 under the pseudonym Jeanne de Berg . This describes elaborate, theatrical femdom productions in which she acts as the “master of ceremonies”. The book became a literary sensation in France and received extensive reviews in the public media. In an interview with Marie Claire , she said about her productions:

Let's say it is a theatricalization ... wait, I have to find the exact words ... It is sexuality that is celebrated and staged like a liturgy, like a mass. In Mass there are prayers, gestures, a ritual. Let's say that my rituals are a little less rigid than those of mass.

Michèle Bernstein wrote that the ceremonies were characterized by “their elegant simplicity, their common sense. The well-behaved side of Hell. "

The fame of her pseudonym published book brought her appearances in film and television documentaries as well as a television interview in Apostrophes , the literary program of Antenne 2 . She always appeared as Jeanne de Berg , veiled and did not reveal her identity. This was despite the fact that at the end of 1985 there were French and international media reports about the publication of “Ceremonies de Femmes” that identified Jeanne de Berg as Catherine Robbe-Grillet. At the end of 1986 she appeared in individual interviews as the author of the books, but could not yet be identified as the author through book trade catalogs. Since 1988 and 1992, both she and her husband openly established their authorship.

In Germany in 1995 under the title Der Voyeur , Michael Farins Verlag Belleville published an anthology with interviews and short texts about Jeanne de Berg and Catherine Robbe-Grillet, which were written between 1985 and 1992, i.e. the period of prominence under a pseudonym until its release covered. A similar volume with an updated compilation was published in France in 2002 under the title Entretien avec Jeanne de Berg .

Since then, Catherine Robbe-Grillet, as an intellectual and author, has occasionally spoken out in public or has been asked for interviews. In the course of the discussion about the Loi Sarkozy , which would impose strict conditions and punishments on prostitution in France , she and Catherine Millet and Marcela Iacub wrote a manifesto in Le Monde on the role of women at the beginning of 2003, in which she spoke expressly against a victim myth and for a liberalization of prostitution as a profession.

In 2004 Fayard Jeune mariée: Journal, 1957–1962 , published a description of the early years of their marriage under her own name , in which she also portrayed the sadomasochistic character of the relationship with her husband and Dom . In 2011 she published an illustrated book of erotic photography at Epitheme . In 2012 she published a biography of her husband under the title Alain . She also wrote a variety of essays and other short texts.

In 2013 she published the erotic novel Le petit carnet perdu: récit for Fayard . As a result, she was referred to as France's most famous domme in several portraits in international media. In the documentary La cérémonie from 2014, the 83-year-old Robbe-Grillet spoke about her social and sexual roles and activities. In addition, partners of their elaborate productions also had their say. Several of the ceremonies she described in Cérémonies de femmes were repeated for the film .

At the beginning of 2018, she was one of more than 100 celebrity women, including Catherine Deneuve , Ingrid Caven , Gloria Friedmann and Catherine Millet, who warned against the MeToo movement in a post for Le Monde because it would go too far. The zeal, intimidation and denunciation would not benefit the women concerned, but the interests of the "enemies of sexual liberation", "the religious extremists and the worst reactionaries". Robbe-Grillet was one of the five authors of the text, along with Catherine Millet, Peggy Sastre , Sarah Chiche and Abnousse Shalmani . The contribution is considered to be the reason why MeToo never became a movement in France.

Since 2018 she has been married to Beverly Charpentier, an actress 33 years her junior, with whom she has lived since 2006. Charpentier is active as a domme in the circle of dominant women around Robbe-Grillet, but submits to her as a sub . The two live in a country mansion near Caen and in two neighboring apartments in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine .

literature

  • Robert de Berg: The Voyeur . Belleville, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-923646-18-6 .
  • Jeanne de Berg: The picture . Story of an obsession. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-499-22984-6 (French: L'image . Translated by Michael von Killisch-Horn, former German title: Der Dorn im Fleisch ).
  • Catherine Robbe-Grillet, Irène Frain: Entretien avec Jeanne de Berg . Impressions nouvelles 2002, ISBN 2-906131-52-0
  • Jeanne de Berg: The woman . Belleville, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-923646-38-0 (French: Cérémonies de femmes . Translated by Michael von Killisch-Horn).
  • Catherine Robbe-Grillet: Jeune mariée. Journal 1957-1962 . Fayard, 2004, ISBN 2-213-62014-8 (French).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Judith Perrignon: échange Livre . Liberation , June 22nd, 2002. (French)
  2. ↑ a b c John Leo: Jean (ne) de Berg: A Journey , 1994
  3. ↑ a b Jürg Altwegg : Why are you afraid of flying, Madame Robbe-Grillet? FAZ-Magazin, 1986, 42nd week (October 17, 1986), p. 114 f.
  4. ^ A b Vanity Fair: The Thin End of the Whip , February 2014
  5. ^ Jean-Luc Hennig: Martyre de Sébastien . Tel Quel 87, 1981, pp. 58-63
  6. ↑ Jeanne de Berg: The woman . Belleville, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-923646-38-0 (French: Cérémonies de femmes. Translated by Michael von Killisch-Horn), p. 40
  7. ^ Hélène Mathieu in conversation with Jeanne de Berg: The double life of a woman from society . In: Marie Claire, December 1995, quoted from Robert de Berg: Der Voyeur . Belleville, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-923646-18-6 . P. 8
  8. ↑ Michèle Bernstein: Affections and Pains . Liberation, December 13, 1985, quoted from Robert de Berg: Der Voyeur . Belleville, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-923646-18-6 . P. 43
  9. ↑ Bertrand Poirot-Delpech : Audacity . Le Monde, December 13, 1985 and Jean-Dominique Bauby : The Mistress from Aposthophes . Paris Match , December 27, 1985, quoted from Robert de Berg: The Voyeur . Belleville, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-923646-18-6 . Pp. 22, 44
  10. ↑ Der Spiegel: Needles and Eggs , December 30, 1985, p. 122 f.
  11. ^ Raylene Ramsay: Robbe-Grillet and Modernity - Science, Sexuality, and Subversion . University Press of Florida, 1992, ISBN 0813011450 , p. 156
  12. ^ Catherine Robbe-Grillet, Irène Frain: Entretien avec Jeanne de Berg . Impressions nouvelles 2002, ISBN 2-906131-52-0
  13. ↑ Le Monde: Ni coupables ni victimes: libres de se prostituer, par Marcela Iacub, Catherine Millet et Catherine Robbe-Grillet , January 8, 2003
  14. ^ Vanity Fair: Read the Legal Contract Between a Famous French Novelist And His Submissive Wife , January 10, 2014
  15. ^ Toni Bentley: The Thin End of the Whip . Vanity Fair, January 22nd, 2014
  16. ↑ La cérémonie , 2014. Director: Lina Mannheimer, 78 min. Original language: French. IMDB.com: La cérémonie (2014)
  17. ↑ Tagesspiegel: The victims of the victims , January 10, 2018
  18. ↑ Jürg Altwegg : The small difference . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 13, 2018
  19. ^ L'express: Catherine Robbe-Grillet, la veuve cinglante , December 10, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Robbe-Grillet, Catherine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rstakian, Catherine; de Berg, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French writer, film actress and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris