The constant gliding of desire

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Movie
German title The constant gliding of desire
Original title Glissements progressifs du plaisir
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1974
length 105 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Alain Robbe-Grillet
script Alain Robbe-Grillet
production André Cohen
Marcel Sébaoun
music Michel Fano
camera Yves Lafaye
cut Bob Wade
occupation

The constant sliding of desire (original title: Glissements progressifs du plaisir ) is a French film by writer and director Alain Robbe-Grillet from 1974. After the shooting was in France under the original title of Robbe-Grillet as Ciné-Roman designated book published in which the three essential production steps are documented with a first outline of the plot, the script commented by the director and a detailed list of the settings.

action

A teenager (Alice in the Cine novel ) is held in a nun-run prison on charges of killing her friend and roommate Nora with scissors. When she was arrested at the scene, she initially did not comment on the inspector's seemingly pointless questions. She told the examining magistrate that the murderer was an unknown man who suddenly appeared and had a key to the apartment. She gets lost more and more in fantasies in which blood, sexuality and violence play a role. The examining magistrate, the nuns and a priest follow her and neglect their duties. At some point in the course of the investigation - the timing is not entirely clear - a lawyer appears who is strangely similar to Nora and who gradually identifies herself with the murder victim. The film ends somewhat surprisingly with a renewed appearance by the inspector, who declares that the perpetrator has been captured and confessed.

background

The years from 1973 to 1976, immediately before and after the lifting of film censorship in 1974, are considered the golden age of erotic and pornographic cinema in France. Not only did foreign productions such as Deep Throat hit the French market, the French film industry also reached a large audience with erotic films such as Emmanuelle and The Story of O. The constant glide of desire can be found in a number of auteur films such as The Last Tango in Paris , The Night Porter and Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom , which benefited from this development.

In the press release on the film, Robbe-Grillet refers to the book The Witch (La sorcière) by Jules Michelet and its influence on the portrayal of the main female character. “Young and beautiful, accused of a crime in a world in which a petrified law robs all hope, she wants to break the yoke of the established order (the state power, the repressive judiciary, the Church, the Sorbonne ...) by facing the forbidden and turns towards the unnatural. "( Alain Robbe-Grillet )

An intermedia reference to painting can be found in a scene that is particularly successful from the director's point of view. The naked main actress paints her body with red paint and then presses herself against the white wall several times, so that she creates a series of prints that are strongly reminiscent of the blue anthropometries of Yves Klein .

production

The film was made within sixteen days with a budget of 500,000 French francs. Since Jean-Louis Trintignant took part without a fee, his name is not mentioned in the opening credits. The low budget resulted in some restrictions, for example shots could only be filmed once, and Robbe-Grillet dispensed with expensive decorations in favor of a simple, almost perspective-free room design with white walls. The dungeon scenes were filmed in the Donjon of Vincennes , where the Maquis de Sade, among others, was imprisoned for years.

reception

The film sparked a scandal in Italy that led to a lawsuit against the distributor. Robbe-Grillet describes the trial and his appearance as a witness in his second autobiographical text Angélique or The Enchantment . As a result, the Italian negative and copies of the film were publicly burned.

literature

  • Alain Robbe-Grillet: Glissements progressifs du plaisir, ciné-roman. Les éditions du minuit, Paris 1974, ISBN 2-7073-0002-0 .
  • Roy Armes: The Films of Alain Robbe-Grillet. John Benjamin, Amsterdam 1981, ISBN 90-272-1716-5 .
  • François Jouffa, Tony Crawley: L'Age d'or du cinéma érotique et pornographique, 1973–1976. Ramsay, 2003. ISBN 2-84114-677-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Translated from Roy Armes: The Films of Alain Robbe-Grillet. P. 138.
  2. Alain Robbe-Grillet: Angélique or The Enchantment. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1989, pp. 199-205.