Lot n° 172
Estimation :
2000 - 2500
EUR
QUENEAU Raymond (1903-1976).
AUTOGRAPHIC... - Lot 172 - Drouot Estimations
QUENEAU Raymond (1903-1976).
AUTOGRAPHIC MANUSCRIT, Mon associé, Monsieur Davis (1962); 90 pages in-4; plus typescripts and documents attached.
Complete file of this unpublished screenplay for a film intended for Bourvil, but not made.
With the filmmaker Yves CIAMPI (1921-1982), Queneau prepared this adaptation of the novel El Socio by the Chilean Jenaro Prieto, and he wrote the dialogues. BOURVIL was approached to play the lead role, but when he withdrew, the producers abandoned the project and the film was never shot.
It is the story of Viscount Louis de Léon, eccentric and lover of jokes, who runs a small advertising business, the A.P.F. (Agence de Publicité Familiale). Christian Pratter d'Armon, his ex-wife's new husband, a prosperous and ambitious businessman, also in advertising, offers to buy the A.P.F., which is floundering. Louis de Léon refuses, under the pretext that a wealthy South American, Mr. Davis, is going to join him. He admits to his ex-wife that it is a joke. But in the meantime, he has met a journalist, Florence, who to complete the joke writes an article on the mysterious Mr. Davis. The affair takes such proportions that Louis de Léon will win back clients and impose all his ideas, even the most zany ones, such as postage stamp advertisements or inaudible advertising. The success is such that Pratter d'Armon finds itself on the verge of bankruptcy. But Louis de Léon is more and more uncomfortable with this double so far from his simple and joyful personality. The mystification turns into a nightmare, and when he confesses the truth, he is not believed. In the end, wanting to kill Mr. Davis, Louis de Léon commits suicide.
Queneau's dialogues are brilliant, full of jokes required by the character and explicitly intended for Bourvil, as when he tries to say "soutien gorge mes pommes", or to speak with an American accent. As the action progresses, the tone becomes grating, and Louis de Léon sinks into madness. The writer renders this descent into hell without pathos or grandiloquence, and the final suicide appears as Luis de Léon's best joke, making Davis look like his killer.
The working manuscript has two versions, one in and has 38 autographed pages, 42 partly typed pages with check marks and several autographed pages, plus 10 autographed pages. It has 107 sequences
Added to this is a folder of autograph plans and working notes (11 p. in-4), with cutting and timing.
"Notes Davis" by Yves CIAMPI (10 p. in-4), remarks on the characters, modifications to be made to the script, etc.
Typescripts: the synopsis (22 p.), plus a corrected version by Yves Ciampi with blanks and additions (29 p.); the list of sequences (4 p., lacking the 1st); working script (about 130 p. in disorder with some corrections by Queneau); cutting (133 p.).
Typed or mimeographed Compère copies (cloth-backed): typescript of the synopsis (double carbon, 51 p.); mimeographed synopsis (39 p.); screenplay (115 p., covered on the back with autograph mathematical notes by Queneau); another mimeographed version of the screenplay (152 p.); English version of the screenplay (163 p. mimeographed, spiral-bound).
File of correspondence and contract, 19 letters by Jean Rossignol (in charge of film rights at Gallimard) and producer Jacques Simonnet (Sorafilms), 1961-1962.
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