Catherine
Robbe-Grillet (née
Rstakian; born in Paris, 1930) is a French theatre and cinema actress
and photographer who has published BDSM-related writings under the pseudonyms
Jean de Berg and Jeanne de Berg.
L'Image,
a sadomasochistic novel published in 1956 by éditions de Minuit,
was written under the pseudonym Jean de Berg. Radley Metzger made the
novel into a 1974 film, The Image, also known as The Punishment of Anne.
She
is also the author of Cérémonies de femmes (ed. Grasset)
(1985) written under the pseudonym Jeanne de Berg and "Entretien
avec Jeanne de Berg" (ed. Les Impressions Nouvelles) (2002) under
the name Catherine Robbe-Grillet. In 2004, she wrote, under her own name,
Jeune mariée: Journal, 1957-1962 (ed. Fayard), an account of the
early years of her marriage. Her most recent publication is "Le Petit
Carnet Perdu" (March 2007, ed. Fayard) under the name of Jeanne de
Berg.
She
had a small part in L'Immortelle (1963) as Catherine Sarayan. Her last
appearance as an actress was on stage in 2006 in Une Belle Enfant Blonde
a play based on the writings of Dennis Cooper.
She
married Alain Robbe-Grillet in Paris on 23 October 1957 (he died in February
2008).
ALAIN ROBBE GRILLET :
Alain
Robbe-Grillet (18 August 1922 –
18 February 2008), was a French writer and filmmaker. He was, along with
Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon, one of the figures most
associated with the Nouveau Roman (new novel) trend. Alain Robbe-Grillet
was elected a member of the Académie française on March
25, 2004.
Robbe-Grillet also wrote screenplays, notably for Alain Resnais' 1961
film Last Year at Marienbad, a critical success that
is considered to be one of the finest French films of the 1960s. It was
followed by a number of films written and directed by Robbe-Grillet himself:
Trans-Europ-Express (1966), his two French-Slovak films L'homme qui ment
(The Man Who Lies) (1968), L'Eden et après (Eden and After) (1970),
Glissements progressifs du plaisir (The Slow Slidings of Pleasure) (1974),
Le jeu avec le feu (Playing with Fire) (1975), La belle captive (The Beautiful
Captive) (1983), C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle (Gradiva)
(2006), and many others.
GRADIVA
> now on dvd <
"Completed two years before his death, Robbe-Grillet’s
final film, Gradiva (full title: C’est Gradiva qui vous appelle),
works quite nicely as a cinematic swan song, even smoothly integrated
startling slices of footage from his past films like L'éden
et après and Glissements progressifs du plaisir (neither
of which have received English-friendly releases in any format to date).
Elliptical, sometimes confusing, and always visually ravishing, Gradiva
features the usual Robbe-Grillet staples like unexplained segues into
fantasy sequences and static tableaux of women in bondage (but with nothing
resembling a standard sex scene in sight). The film credits its source
as the influential 1903 Wilhelm Jensen novel (a psychoanalytical favorite)
but is really more of a playground for the director’s obsessions
and ruminations on aesthetics, which can be frustrating for the uninitiated
but fascinating for anyone willing wander through his dark filmic alleys."
"For years Robbe-Grillet refused to allow his films to be released
on home video, arguing that they could only be appreciated in a cinema.
That situation began to change with the official release of his excellent
La belle captive, and this marks the second sanctioned DVD of
one of his titles. Mondo Macabro’s gorgeous anamorphic transfer
is a stunner from start to finish, filled with burnished gold and brown
hues with startling red accents in numerous scenes. It’s easily
one of the most beautiful discs they’ve released to date, and the
French soundtrack (with optional English subtitles) is pristine as well.
Along with a text bio for the director and cast, the disc includes a wonderful
half-hour interview with the bearded filmmaker who talks about his work
and the often taboo subject matter which landed him in trouble for decades."
(Mondo Digital)
Salvador Dali's GRADIVA steps into the dreams of the Surrealists.
< $ GRADIVA on dvd > £
>
"If
we avow that the senses' joy is always dependent upon the imagination,
always regulated by the imagination, one must not be amazed by the
numerous variations the imagination is apt to suggest during the
pleasurable episode, by the infinite multitude of different tastes
and passions the imagination's various extravagances will bring
to light.
However luxurious these tastes, they ought not appear more remarkable
than those of an ordinary species; there is no reason to find a
meal-time eccentricity less extraordinary than a bedroom whim...Three
quarters of the universe may find the rose's scent delicious without
that serving either as evidence upon which to condemn the remaining
quarter which might find the smell offensive, or as proof that this
odor is truly agreeable." - de Sade