QUENEAU Raymond (1903-1976). - Lot 171

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  3. QUENEAU Raymond (1903-1976). - Lot 171
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Lot n° 171
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QUENEAU Raymond (1903-1976). - Lot 171
QUENEAU Raymond (1903-1976). CORRECTED TAPS, Un couple, [1960]. Important set on the collaboration of Jean-Pierre Mocky and Raymond Queneau on their first film. Un couple is the second film directed by Jean-Pierre MOCKY (1929-2019), already author of Dragueurs (1959). Mocky's script was adapted with the help of Queneau, who wrote the dialogues. The two spouses in question, Anne and Pierre (Jean Kosta and Juliette Mayniel), have been married for three years and, although they continue to love each other, physically they no longer get along as they used to. They decide to separate. Pierre, who works in a toy factory, is lured by his boss Mr. Gratteloup (Francis Blanche) into an evening with prostitutes, but does not succumb to temptation. Nor can he cheat on his wife with Véronique (Véronique Nordey), a work colleague. Pierre and Anne meet at a party, where they realize that other couples are more ill-matched than themselves. They give each other a second chance and go to the mountains. But despite this happy interlude, a flaw remains. Pierre flirts with Véronique, while Anne becomes aware that she can love another man than Pierre by letting herself be seduced by her next-door neighbor. She decides to leave her husband, who lets her go. Such is at least what was filmed. But this voluminous set of sheets shows that the scenario has constantly evolved, and that Queneau and Mocky have long groped. Of this collaboration, the director said: "Raymond Queneau suggested that I should not stay with a serious tone but introduce bizarre and eccentric characters and spice up this loving introspection with derision. "Otherwise, you'll piss off the audience". In an early version, the film ended with the marriage of Pierre and Véronique (still called Brigitte). Similarly, they imagine multiple ways for Anne to meet another man: at the cinema, on the bus, in an elevator. Queneau's dialogues are brief, precise, without pathos This rather dark film, daring for its time, caused a scandal at its release. However, it was hailed by Jean Cocteau: "This terrible portrait of vulgarity will shock those who believe the film to be vulgar and those who will see their own portrait in it. One of the great beauties of this film is that the written language (said) and the visual language are equivalent in style and of the same weight (which is rare). And Louis-René des Forêts wrote: "I consider Un couple to be the newest and most unusual film I have seen in a long time. It breaks with all the conventions of French cinema. The file includes: * the first state of the typescript (241 pages in-4, including 17 in the hand of Jean-Pierre Mocky), with numerous autograph corrections by Raymond Queneau. * the second state of the script (176 typed pages) with some autograph corrections by Raymond Queneau. * the third state of the script (258 pages) with many cribs and autograph corrections by Raymond Queneau. * the first screenplay by Jean-Pierre Mocky (37 p. in-4 dactyl.), dated "Malaga, June 1959". * typescript of the script, with provisional dialogues (192 p.). * typescript of the script with dialogues by R. Queneau (163 p.). * letters from the production, contracts, regulations (14 documents). This very complete file also includes several interesting documents. For example, the "sketches" of the main characters, which were used to recruit the actors; or an advertisement for the film, written in the form of a letter from a spectator to his wife, to tell her that the work made her understand what was happening between them. Attached is the autograph manuscript of a humorous note on the film Snobs! by Jean-Pierre MOCKY (1961; half page in-4 with corrections).
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