Some authors seem immortal, others sink into oblivion. After a while, what remains? In his monthly series Should I re-read…?, The duty revisits one of these writers with the help of admirers and attentive observers. Today, the one that François Mauriac described as a “charming little monster” after the publication of his first novel, Hello Sadness (1954), which seduced millions of readers: Françoise Sagan.
In May 1968, after more than 10 years of literary success and sensationalist headlines, Françoise Sagan took part in a fiery assembly of students at the Odéon theater in Paris. We then joke about the fact that this “comrade” would have come in a Ferrari, to which she replies: “False. It’s a Maserati! »
The anecdote says a lot about the sense of self-mockery of the one who was nicknamed “the last of the existentialists”, a friend of Jean-Paul Sartre in the evening of his life. According to Valérie Mirarchi, author of Françoise Sagan or the intoxication of writing, this bravado well symbolizes that which “makes people discover the perfume of another era”, but which also displays an avant-gardism much greater than the aggressiveness of its detractors. “May 68, she did it in 1954 with the publication of Hello Sadness “says this doctor of philosophy and professor.
If France has its share of admirers of Sagan, Valérie Mirarchi is among the most devoted. She has traveled to many European countries to present a conference on the woman she has admired since she discovered Diane Kurys’ film, Sagan (2008), and especially since she read this masterstroke written by a teenager who was both shy and rebellious, a skilful student who was already reading — intensely — Proust, Stendhal, Gide and Camus.
A new female identity
In addition to possessing an elegant style and a lightning mastery of the French language at such a young age, Sagan also amazed by his maturity; Hello Sadness had nothing of the diary or the autobiographical narrative, common failings among the authors of first novels. Cécile, the central and amoral figure of the book, embodied a thirst for freedom that the 1950s badly needed. “Her work constitutes the expression of a new feminine identity,” emphasizes Valérie Mirarchi. Let’s not forget that at the time, a woman could not open a bank account without the authorization of her husband. Her heroines are free to sleep with whoever they want, and that was before abortion and the pill. Sagan contributes to the emancipation of French women, and represents a genius of freedom of spirit. »
First paragraph of Hello sadness
Lyricist (notably for her friend Juliette Gréco and for Johnny Hallyday), screenwriter (with Claude Chabrol in Landru), reporter, film critic, prolific author (more than 20 novels, not to mention plays, biographies, etc.), Françoise Sagan displays a disconcerting eclecticism and leads a casual existence at the same time, money burning her without stop fingers. Between car accidents, detoxification cures, constant presence in casinos, legal troubles and health concerns, some of which travel around the world (as in Bogotá, Colombia, alongside President François Mitterrand, in 1985), Paris Match feasts. And many French people think they know her without ever having opened her books. Her frail appearance, her hair hiding her face, her feeble tone of voice and her most often mumbled words become another signature.
After a last novel in 1996 (The lost mirror) and a lucid return to his novels in 1998 (Behind the shoulder), Sagan, plagued by disease, isolated and ruined, disappears from public space. Her legend was still very much alive when she died in 2004, but her writings could have fallen into oblivion had it not been for the determination of her son, Denis Westhoff, faced with a double challenge: repaying his huge tax debts and repatriating titles. scattered to the four winds, from Julliard to Gallimard via Plon and Flammarion. Valérie Mirarchi, involved in the Françoise-Sagan Association, knows Westhoff well: “He was very proud to tell me that he had finally finished paying the debt. This is a great relief for him. »
Wishing to make his mother’s work known and recognized, he thus put back into circulation titles that had long since disappeared from bookstores, even pushing the audacity so far as to allow the publication of an unfinished manuscript, The four corners of the heartin 2019. But nothing comparable to Hello Sadnessa book that Dominique Lebel, literary columnist at News, who shared his enthusiasm in a recent text. “From his books emanates both a form of simplicity, but also of urgency: that of living, and of writing, underlines the author of And me, I always read. I also see influences from F. Scott Fitzgerald, because like him, she is interested in an idle generation, and in Ernest Hemingway, for his use of dialogue. Moreover, the very beautiful book With my best memory looks a bit like Paris is a party. »
“And in addition, she knows how to write plays”
In With my best memory, Sagan not only pays homage to illustrious figures who crossed her tumultuous life, but describes the passions that made her famous, such as gambling or cars. Beautiful pages are devoted to his love of the theater, recounting each of his forays into the 1960s, starting with the first (still and always his greatest success): Castle in Sweden. At the time when Philippe Noiret – who was not yet a great movie star – and Claude Rich made it a Parisian triumph, Sagan reveled in “public rumor”, which was summed up by “and what’s more, she knows how to write rooms “.
The playwright did not experience the same fortune in Quebec. Apart from a production of Passed out horse at the Rideau Vert in 1968 and a reading of his works by Françoise Faucher in 2005, there have been few incursions on our stages. Interest was by no means revived after Josée Dayan’s television film, produced in Quebec in 2008 starring Jeanne Moreau and Guillaume Depardieu, freely inspired by Castle in Sweden.
A few good words from Françoise Sagan
This adaptation had not at all attracted the attention of Chantal Hellou at the time, involved for several years in the amateur theater troupe Les Exclamateurs, as an actress and then as a director. She, who had edited Eugène Labiche and Sacha Guitry, scoured the Grande Bibliothèque in search of new pieces. Unaware until then of Sagan’s theatrical past, his reading of Castle in Sweden convinced her to stage it, which she will do in 2013. “I was immediately seduced by her writing, remembers the one who is also a conference organizer. It flows naturally, the repartee is lively, and it approaches love, adultery and complicated family relationships in a very realistic way. »
An analysis shared by Dominique Lebel, who underlines how much Sagan loves behind closed doors, and not only in his theatrical work. “Each of them goes straight to the heart, because they address one thing that does not change: human relationships. This is why his approach is still very modern. »
But does this modernity make Sagan relevant for a young readership? On this point, opinions are divided. Valérie Mirarchi notes that outside of France, the interest is very real: thanks to her dedication as a lecturer, the author ofSome smile figure in the school curricula of the Principality of Monaco. Moreover, his books are used for learning French in Poland, “as well as in Russia, where his plays are still staged in the smallest regions of the country”. Dominique Lebel is not so convinced, despite the intrinsic value of the work. “Even if we approach it with lessa priori, that her escapades are no longer on the screen and that she touches on gender issues, young Quebecers today no longer have this fascination for France. »
The fact remains that the character, he still fascinates as much. The subject of many biographies, he inspired singer and actress Caroline Loeb in a hit show, Francoise by Saganconstructed from a book of interviews, I deny nothing. Interviews, 1954-1992. Nearly 20 years after Sagan’s death, Valérie Mirarchi remains categorical: “His capital of sympathy is intact. »