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Jean-Paul Sartre (France, 1905)
"La Nausee" (1938) +
is both an artistic psychological analysis of
a man who has lost meaning in life and
a much less artistic lecture on existential philosophy.
The pretext is a delirious journal written by a suicidal
scholar. Its stream-of-consciousness format and its documentary-style
representation of ordinary life creates a hybrid of Joyce's "Ulysses" and
Proust's "In Search of Lost Time". Unfortunately, the soliloquies eventually
become too academic and the dialogues begin to sound artificial to say the least.
The first page is an introduction by the publishers: this book is the journal
of 30-year-old Antoine Roquentin, written in the small seaside town of Bouville
after returning from his world-wide trips and while researching
the life of an obscure politician of the past who was possibly involved in
some international intrigue. The journal begins as Antoine,
living mostly a lonely life, is suddenly assailed by a "nausea". He mostly
waits for night to come.
His trips started when an archeologist invited him to Asia, but he soon lost
interest in traveling.
Now he only speaks with the Self-Taught Man, a man who admires him and for seven
years has been spending
hours in in same local library reading all its books in alphabetical order,
and Francoise, the owner of a cafe (her cousin Adolphe runs it when she's out).
Antoine wishes that Anny, an old flame, was there.
The Self-Taught Man wants to see the photos of Antoine's trips, jealous of his
"adventures", but Antoine realizes that there has never been "adventure" in
his life.
Antoine walks around town and describes each street in minute detail.
He takes refuge into the pub "Vezelise" where he begins to read
"Eugenie Grandet", not because he wants to but because "we have to do something".
He listens to the conversation between a husband and a wife at a nearby table
and thinks that their normal state is silence. He walks to the sea promenade
and finally feels a sense of adventure when looking at the lighthouse that
mesmerized a child.
He wants to believe that something is about to happen at the end of the street,
something that will mark the real start of his life.
He meditates that time is supposed to flow, but he doesn't feel that way:
things are always the same.
Anny, his old flame, writes for the first time after five years. She's going
to Paris and invites him to meet her there. They were lovers in Morocco,
a relationship that lasted three years. He still loves her,
He continues to roam the town, from cafe to cafe, observing
a doctor who does not look in good health and might be dying soon,
a guest of the hotel who gives no signs of life,
a pervert molesting a little girl...
He wanders from the library to the museum that contains 150 portraits of
dignitaries, each of them a life.
He decides to quit writing his book. He has lost interest in the politician.
He realizes that they were necessary to each other: Rolleton (the politician)
needed his biographer Antoine in order to keep existing, and Antoine needed
to write about Rolletone in order to fulfill his existence.
He decides to visit Anny in Paris. He has breakfast in a restaurant with
the Self-Taught Man who has been writing his own diary of meditations, but
Antoine is not interested in hearing them. In fact, he doesn't even listen
to him. He is distracted by other guests in the restaurant and by his own
delirious stream of consciousness to pay attention to this admirer of his
who spent two years in a prison camp and now is a member of the socialist
party, this man who has found his mission in the world. The effect on Antoine
is exactly the opposite: he feels like throwing up. He is invaded by the nausea
again and has to rush out of the restaurant, scaring his admirer and the other
guests with his gloomy look. He resumes his journey through the city like a
zombie but finally he is enlightened: he understands what it means to exist.
Life is absurdity. He decides to leave town and move to Paris with Anny.
He meets with Anny and is disappointed to find a fat mature woman instead of the
slim romantic girl he remembered. She is not even particularly friendly:
she makes fun of his stupidity and even of his sincerity.
She is now the lover of an older man who
pays her bills. They are about to leave on an exotic trip. It is not clear
why she wanted to see him since she seems to have nothing to tell him and
doesn't even seem to like him anymore.
She talks of her fascination for people who lived "special situations" but
then reaches the conclusion that special situations don't exist, which might
explain why she is just drifting through life, indifferent to what she's doing.
On his last day in town, Antoine witnesses the disgrace of the Self-Taught Man,
caught molesting two high-school kids and banned from the place
he liked the most. Antoine feels sorry for him: all his dreams of absolute
knowledge forever destroyed, his project to absorb all the books in the world
left incomplete. The Self-Taught Man does not want Antoine's sympathy, and
Antoine leaves him to his loneliness. Antoine bids goodbye to the people
of his inn and takes the train towards an unknown future.
"L'Age de Raison" (1945)
Matteo Delarne è un insegnante di liceo afflitto da crisi esistenziale:
vorrebbe essere libero, ma non capisce come possa fare; la sua amante Marcella
è rimasta incinta, ed ora bisogna trovare i soldi per pagare un aborto
clandestino, ma lui è senza una lira. L’alternativa è tenere il
figlio e sposarla, ma Matteo la scarta subito, proprio perché
significherebbe rinunciare alla sua libertà; e poi Marcella comincia a
disgustarlo un po’, ora che ha preso a frequentare una sua ex studentessa, Ivic,
bella, giovane, cinica e disponibile. A sua volta Ivic sta per dare gli esami e
teme d’essere bocciata, e Matteo ha paura che in tal caso lei possa fare una
sciocchezza, pur di non tornare dai genitori al paese. Suo fratello Boris, non
meno scavezzacollo e per di più tubercolotico, ha per amante la cantante
di cabaret Lola Montero, che potrebbe essere sua madre. Boris è
affascinato dalla personalità di Matteo.
Matteo chiede prima al fratello Giacomo (famoso avvocato) e poi all’amico
Daniele i soldi per l’aborto, ma entrambi glieli negano: disperato, inizia una
corsa contro il tempo per procurarsi quel denaro. Daniele, omosessuale,
intrattiene, di nascosto a Matteo, una sincera amicizia con Marcella, per la
quale lui è una sorta di angelo custode, ed ha rifiutato il denaro a
Matteo perché sa che, in cuor suo, Marcella vorrebbe tenere il bambino, e
si propone d’aiutarla.
Boris vuole, invece, aiutare Lola, e le chiede il denaro che serve a Matteo, ma
lei rifiuta: tossicodipendente, Lola sente di stare invecchiando, e ha il
terrore di perdere il ragazzo. Intanto, Matteo ha perso il controllo della sua
vita, risucchiato nel vortice delle follie di Ivic, che, spesso, s’ubriaca.
Boris crede che Lola sia morta di droga, e chiede a Matteo d’andare a casa sua a
prendere le lettere d’amore che potrebbero comprometterlo: nel farlo, Matteo
vede dove Lola teneva il denaro, ma non ha il coraggio d’approfittarne;
d’altronde, Lola non è morta, e chiede subito di Boris, che, però,
non vuole vederla.
Daniele parla con Matteo, e crede d’averlo convinto a sposare Marcella: in
effetti, Matteo è incerto su dove sia la sua libertà, e continua
ad oscillare fra il sì ed il no; riceve un telegramma da Ivic, che
è stata bocciata, e, temendo il peggio, si precipita alla sua ricerca. La
trova in un locale notturno, ubriaca, e prova un forte desiderio di restare con
lei, ma quando lei viene a sapere di Marcella prova repulsione per lui e se ne
va.
Disperato, Matteo decide di rubare i soldi a Lola, e ci riesce: li porta a
Marcella, che, invece, s’aspettava una proposta di matrimonio, e glieli tira
dietro. Scoperto il furto, Lola crede che sia stato Boris, e non dà retta
neanche alla confessione di Matteo, pensando che stia cercando di proteggere il
giovane; è Daniele a risolvere il problema, restituendo la somma a Lola
ed annunciando a Matteo la decisione di sposare Marcella. Disgustato di
sé stesso, Daniele ha meditato a lungo se evirarsi, e, alla fine, ha
deciso di sacrificarsi per il bene della sua amica segreta, così che lei
possa tenere il bambino.
Ben congegnato: panorama della crisi morale, del bisogno di certezze,
dell’angoscia, della solitudine, della confusione in cui tutti vivono. L’unico
gesto eroico viene dal più emarginato; fino all’ultimo Matteo non riesce
ad essere credibile, né con Marcella, né con Ivic. Tutti tendono a
cacciarsi in situazioni ingestibili.
"Le Sursis/ The Reprieve/ Il Rinvio" (1945) +
Tecnica sperimentale, come un flusso di coscienza collettivo. Le varie voci
s’accavallano (senza alcun rispetto della continuità di tempo e di
luogo), confondendo storia (Hitler, Chamberlain, ecc.) e finzione. L’azione si
svolge nell’arco d’una settimana, mentre i grandi negoziano la pace: in questo
modo si mostra il formarsi della coscienza popolare di fronte
all’ineluttabilità della tragedia. Il vero protagonista è il clima
angosciante della guerra.
"La Mort Dans l'Ame" (1949)
synopsis forthcoming
"Huis-clos/ No Exit" (1945) [t] +
synopsis forthcoming
"Les Mains Sales" (1948) [t]
synopsis forthcoming
"Le Diable et le Bon Dieu" (1951) [t]
synopsis forthcoming
"Les Sequestres d'Altona" (1959) [t] +
synopsis forthcoming
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