Clémence Pouletty 5:02 p.m., February 5, 2024
How did our favorite writers become successful authors? Clémence Pouletty, literary columnist notably present on Nicolas Carreau's show, "La voix est livre", tells you a little more about those who wrote your favorite masterpieces.
Learning more about our favorite writers also means trying to understand how they became such successful authors. It's also trying to unravel the secret: if they did it like that, maybe if I did too...! Clémence Pouletty, literary columnist notably present in Nicolas Carreau's show, "La voix est livre", tells you a little more.
“To begin, let’s look (literally) at the lives of Emily Brontë, David Foster Wallace, and Mary Shelley.
1- Emily Brontë
By: Frances O'Connor
Starring: Emma Mackey
Date: 2023
Emily Brontë, the "weird" of the family, has a gift: that of writing, that of acting and handling words. This is an undeniable fact. But his somewhat erotic writings inflame the cheeks of his sisters and rare readers. Convinced because of a vicar (not so naughty, since they fall in love) that she must abandon this anti-sacred act. The young woman, however rebellious, yet surly, yet stubborn, stops writing for love. Yes, love doesn't just make you do beautiful things. Finally, let's continue.
Emily therefore lives with Charlotte, Anne, their brother Branwell (with whom she has a very… deeply loving relationship – brotherly of course) and their widowed father. Charlotte and Jane you say? Nothing to do with Gainsbourg and Birkin. Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre and it was an immediate success.
In 1847 Emily published her one and only novel, the great and famous Wuthering Heights. And immediately comes Kate Bush's song, "Heathcliff, it's me, it's Catherine, I cooooome hooooome". A book of incredible emotional power but which is rarely discussed in the film.
Because here Emily is played by the beauty of the Netflix series Sex Education, Emma Mackey. But the registry is not as fun and light-hearted as it seems after reading this information. If sisters remain sisters: between jealousy, perfidy and a few moments of support and love, everything, even though located in a beautiful green countryside, remains very melancholy. Almost harsh. A bit like something written by the Brontë sisters. A successful film, then.
2 – The End of the Tour
By: James Ponsoldt
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg & Jason Segel
Date: 2016
David FosterWallace. One of the most prolific writers of his generation – and very probably of subsequent ones. Born in and died in (he committed suicide)
Considerations on the lobster (Volume 1, Volume 2), The Pale King, The depressive subject... The infinite comedy: more than 1700 pages which tackles a royal subject: loneliness and the way in which we will all sink because of it of the mockery of life. Innovative, daring, almost prophetic, Wallace has nothing of the writers of yesteryear, he does not drink, does not smoke, does not do drugs but he has an addiction: television.
The film is based on a story that is very much anchored in reality: young David Lipsky (now current director of Rolling Stone magazine in the United States) has just arrived at the editorial office. He's a little jealous: his girlfriend praises DFW*, and then the whole literary world does too. So he wants to know more: who is this man? What's so special about it? David Lipsky is all the more embittered because he has just released a book that went unnoticed by him.
So he asked Rolling Stone Magazine to follow the sensation of the literary season during its promotional tour. And this is how this absolutely brilliant film begins (and I weigh my words, they are not heavy): the two Davids will learn slowly and over a very short time to know each other. And in fact, we know them. All their conversations, from the most profound to the trivial, are recorded on Lipsky's dictaphone.
To write it all down for you, he made it a sensational book. We read there of exchanges of great intellectual enjoyment. In English the title is: Although you end up becoming yourself. Which can be translated as: And of course you end up becoming yourself/
Jesse Eiseneberg (Lipsky) and Jason Segal (Wallace) form a remarkable duo of Davids, endearing even if sometimes annoying, but what do we want? They are writers.
*Ah yes when we know (read: read a short story) by David Foster Wallace, we call him "DFW" say it out loud it sounds classy.
3 – Mary Shelley
By: Haifaa Al Mansour
Starring: Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth
Date: 2018
Oh here's a scoundrel. The young Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is lively, orphaned by a mother whose high temperament and fiery character she has kept, she is full of an exaltation which in women is frightening. Still and always.
Mary falls in love with a radical poet but without money – imagine that this would almost be an anaphora. The handsome Percy Shelley. But now, it turns out that the man is certainly very much in love with her but is already married (to a woman he no longer loves). Here is what is not done; and even less at the time. But no matter, their love is stronger than reality, it will be able to resist poverty and resentment. Yes, there is always resentment between writers. It is a fact.
Mary reads, a lot. She writes even more. She takes care of her younger half-sister, Claire. Tragically innocent frivolous little girl who will fall into the clutches of Lord Byron (not a nice boy, at all, despite the talent. As it turns out.)
One nightmarish evening as the rain continues to beat down and lightning strikes Byron's home, Mary has a hallucination. Or rather. ; a dose of inspiration. A dose such that she began to write, write, write and create Frankenstein. To see, for their love, their writing session and their enthusiasm as charming as it is shared.
Here no film is told or revealed (after all it is reality), they are simply summarized. In their own way each is joyful. For those who want to become a writer, for those who would like to know more about their favorite writer and finally, for those who want to watch an exhilarating film – both in terms of verve and story. It is therefore tempting to give you their tone in order to discover the true lives of those who wrote our favorite masterpieces."