''Swann in Love'' (french: Un amour de Swann, german: Eine Liebe von Swann) is a 1984 Franco-German film directed by

Volker Schlöndorff Volker Schlöndorff (; born 31 March 1939 Friday) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer who has worked in Germany, France and the United States. He was a prominent member of the New German Cinema of the late 1960s and early 1970s ...

. It is based on

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous ...

's seven-volume novel sequence ''

In Search of Lost Time ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

'', specifically a self-contained section of the first volume, the title of which typically translates as ''

Swann's Way ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

'' (1913). It was nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards.

Plot

The film's story follows an original treatment of Proust's story by theater and film director

Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Sha ...

, who was originally going to make the movie, setting it as a day in the life of the aging and ill Charles Swann (

Jeremy Irons Jeremy John Irons (; born 19 September 1948) is an English actor and activist. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969 and has appeared in many West End theatre ...

), who looks back on his past life in flashbacks. The young Swann is an idly wealthy eligible bachelor in the best circles of ''Belle Époque'' Paris, although he is still regarded as something of a social outsider because of his Jewish background. He has been having an affair with the Duchess de Guermantes (

Fanny Ardant Fanny Marguerite Judith Ardant (born 22 March 1949) is a French actress and film director. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two César Awards and a Lumières Award. Early life Ardant was born in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, ...

), but he soon becomes intrigued and then obsessed by the young

courtesan Courtesan, in modern usage, is a euphemism for a "kept" mistress or prostitute, particularly one with wealthy, powerful, or influential clients. The term historically referred to a courtier, a person who attended the court of a monarch or othe ...

Odette de Crecy (

Ornella Muti Ornella Muti (born Francesca Romana Rivelli; 9 March 1955) is an Italian actress. She made her film debut as Francesca Cimarosa in the 1970 film ''La moglie più bella.'' Early life Muti was born in Rome to a Neapolitan journalist father and ...

). Swann's interest in Odette is at first encouraged by Madame Verdurin (

Marie-Christine Barrault Marie-Christine Barrault (born 21 March 1944) is a French actress. She is best known for her performance in '' Cousin Cousine'' (1975) for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2010, she released her autobiography, ti ...

), a hostess who oversees a tightly-knit, exclusive, and decadent social circle. His friend, the overtly gay Baron de Charlus (Alain Delon), helps to arrange for Swann and Odette to meet. Swann's obsessive love for Odette, however, threatens Madame Verdurin's control, so she arranges other assignations for the courtesan, inflaming Swann's jealousy. Even though Swann declares himself to believe in a kind of spiritual

egalitarianism Egalitarianism (), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all h ...

, his interest in Odette is also aesthetic, as shown in references to a copy he owns of a fresco by

Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered ...

and his comparisons of Odette to the painting's figure, the Biblical character

Zipporah Zipporah, or Tzipora (; he, צִפּוֹרָה, ''Ṣīppōrā'', "bird"),, ''Sepphōra''; ar, صفورة, ''Ṣaffūrah'' is mentioned in the Book of Exodus as the wife of Moses, and the daughter of Reuel/Jethro, the priest and prince of Mid ...

. Odette, on the other hand, considers herself free to socialise and sleep where she pleases, leading Swann to visit a prostitute who might have information about whether Odette sleeps with other women as well as men. Odette does come to contemplate and then suggest marriage to Swann, not so much to "save" her from present life as to insure her future. The Duchess de Guermantes and her husband warn Swann that he and Odette can never be received in upper-class society again if he goes through with the marriage, but as the scene returns to the present, now a mechanized and modernized scene unlike the dreamlike milieu of the past. We see Swann again as an older man and Odette as his wife. Swann's passion has cooled, but he does not seem to reject his choices, even as he faces death soon.

Background

Director Volker Schlöndorff commented later about Proust's ''Swann in Love'' as follows: ::I must have been sixteen or seventeen, ..I devoured "Un amour de Swann" in one weekend, lying appropriately under the apple trees in the garden of my boarding school. ..Proust revealed three worlds to me: the French language, the corresponding society and the unknown regions of love and jealousy. ..At the time, I, like Charles Swann, had only one desire: to become assimilated in France. ..When I was offered "Un amour de Swann", I didn't hesitate for a second. I accepted without reading the book again. ..I saw images in my mind's eye: a man wandering at night across the boulevards, from one bar to the next, in a feverish state of euphoria, searching for a woman who constantly eludes him. He knocks late at night on a window which is not hers. One afternoon, he subjects her to a long session of questioning, he tortures her with his jealousy and takes enjoyment in his own suffering. Odette and Paris: a woman, larger than life, and a city, the epitome of all cities, as well as the man who tries to possess them both - that for me is "Un amour de Swann".

Cast

as Charles Swann *

as Odette de Crecy *

Alain Delon Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (; born 8 November 1935) is a French actor and filmmaker. He was one of Europe's most prominent actors and screen sex symbols in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, he won the César Award for Best Actor for h ...

as Palamède de Guermantes, Baron de Charlus *

as Duchesse de Guermantes *

as Madame Verdurin * Anne Bennent as Chloé * Nathalie Juvet as Madame Cottard *

Philippine Pascal The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

as Madame Gallardon *

Charlotte de Turckheim Anne-Charlotte de Turckheim (born 5 April 1955) is a French actress, screenwriter, comedian and film producer. Born in Montereau-Fault-Yonne, Seine-et-Marne, France, the daughter of Françoise Husson and Arnaud de Turckheim, a member of a noble ...

as Madame de Cambremer *

Jean-François Balmer Jean-François Balmer (born April 18, 1946 in Valangin) is a Swiss actor. He has worked extensively in French cinema, television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sou ...

as Dr. Cottard *

Jacques Boudet Jacques Boudet (born 29 December 1939) is a French stage and screen actor. He had great success in the 1980s with his appearance in ''Exercises in Style'', and is featured in the film ''The Names of Love'' (2010). In cinema, he frequently app ...

as Duke de Guermantes * Nicolas Baby as the young Jew *

Charlotte Kerr Charlotte Kerr (29 May 1927 – 28 December 2011) was a German director, film producer, actress, writer and journalist. She first performed on stage in Fritz Kortner’s version of Schiller’s ''Don Carlos'' in 1951. She became well known fo ...

as sous-maîtresse *

Catherine Lachens Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

as la tante * Jean-Pierre Coffe as Aimé *

Jean-Louis Richard Jean-Louis Richard (17 May 1927 – 3 June 2012) was a French actor, film director and scriptwriter. Biography Born as Jean Marius Richard in Paris, Richard was Jeanne Moreau's first husband from 1949 to 1951. Partial filmography *1960: ''À ...

as Monsieur Verdurin * Bruno Thost as Saniette *

Geoffroy Tory Geoffroy Tory (also Geofroy, Latin "Godofredus Torinus") was born in Bourges around 1480 and died in Paris before 14 October 1533. He was a French humanist and an engraver, best known for adding accents on letters in French. His life's work ha ...

as Forcheville *

Roland Topor Roland Topor (7 January 1938 – 16 April 1997) was a French illustrator, cartoonist, comics artist, painter, novelist, playwright, film and TV writer, filmmaker and actor, who was known for the surreal nature of his work. He was of Polish-Jewish ...

as Biche * Vincent Martin as Remi * Arc Adrian as Swann's Valet * Pierre Celeyron as Valet Pif * Romain Brémond as Protocole Guermantes * Véronique Dietschy as Madame Vinteuil * Ivry Gitlis violinist * François Weigel pianist * Catherine Jacob

Reception

Critical reception

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film a positive review and wrote that "Jeremy Irons is perfect as Charles Swann, pale, deep-eyed, feverish with passion." Other critics tended to praise the film's period detail and other technical aspects, but complained that the film did not—and possibly could not—do justice to Proust's literary work.

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', for example, remarked that "I suspect that it's not even interesting enough to persuade people to search out the original. If you haven't read ''Remembrance of Things Past'', it doesn't make a great deal of sense, but, if you have, it doesn't make enough."

Awards

*Nominee Best Costume Design - BAFTA (Yvonne Sassinot de Nesle) *Nominee Best Foreign Language Film - BAFTA (Volker Schlöndorff, Magaret Menegoz) *Winner Best Production Design -

Cesar Awards Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol * ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt * César Award, a French film award Places * Cesar, Portugal * Ce ...

(Jacques Saulnier) *Winner Best Costume Design - Cesar Awards (Yvonne Sassinot de Nesle)

References

External links

* * * *
Swann in Love
' at

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

Summary
{{Volker Schlöndorff 1984 films Films about prostitution in Paris Films based on works by Marcel Proust Films based on French novels Films set in Paris Films set in the 1880s West German films 1980s French-language films English-language French films English-language German films Films directed by Volker Schlöndorff Films with screenplays by Jean-Claude Carrière German historical films French historical films 1980s historical films 1980s French films 1980s German films