IN THE TEMPLE OF DREAMS - The Writer on the Screen

This volume presents the complete 'Proceedings of the Oxford University Robbe-Grillet Conference 1996'. Robbe-Grillet explores themes in his work with the key world experts on his novels and feature films. Unmissable for Literary/Film Theorists!"Je regarde, donc je dérobe" ['I watch, therefore I unveil'] Alain Robbe-GrilletSUMMARY: Alain Robbe-Grillet (literary "terrorist" and film-maker extra-ordinare), alongside a panoply of international authorities on his work, discusses the course of his career and the relationship between novels and films, the conscious world we normally inhabit and the realm of the subconscious and dreams. Equal focus is placed on his literary and cinematic work, both by Robbe-Grillet himself and by those who speak about his work. The text is an unabridged transcription of the Oxford University Robbe-Grillet Conference 1996, giving an up-close encounter with the author and the contemporary appreciators of his creative output. A 'must' for readers and students of modern literature and cinema theory.CONTRIBUTIONS: 0. In the Temple of Dreams - Editor's Foreword (Edouard d'Araille) / 1. Alain Robbe-Grillet - Opening Words (Prof. Ian Christie FBA) / 2. Au Temple des Rêves: L'Ecrivain à l'Ecran - Alain Robbe-Grillet (Main Talk of the Day) / 3. Question-Time: A Brief Dialogue with Alain Robbe-Grillet / 4. Magritte, Robbe-Grillet and La Belle Captive - Prof. Ben Stoltzfus / 5. A Sojourn in the Maison de Rendez-Vous - Prof. Roch Smith / 6. Text, Film et Code: Dysnarration et Cohérence - Prof. Van den Heuvel / 7. The Blue Villa: Within the Temple of Dreams - Prof. Anthony Fragola / 8. Sado-Erotic Surfaces - Prof. Raylene Ramsay / 9. The Mirror of Meta-Fiction - Prof. Royal S. Brown / 10. Open Discussion - hosted by Dr. Ann JeffersonEXTRAS: A Bibliography and a Filmography of all Alain Robbe- Grillet's major works up to the time of the conference (1996); introductory materials; publisher's note.AN EXTRACT: Opening Words - by Ian Christie: "Certainly, for someone of my generation, the work of Alain Robbe-Grillet is absolutely central to the possibility that cinema might acquire some of the complexity and modernity of literature. I still vividly remember queuing until two in the morning to see Last Year at Marienbad as an undergraduate in 1963 in Belfast. The film was so notorious and popular that screenings were held around the clock in a cinema near the university, and I believe people were still queuing at four o'clock in the morning. It is difficult, perhaps, to imagine people queuing today, to see a film as remarkable and experimental as Last Year at Marienbad. But it did happen, I was there, and I remember also the impact made by The Immortal One and The Man Who Lies when those were also shown in Britain.Sadly, it has been increasingly difficult to see the film works of Alain Robbe-Grillet in Britain; and it says something about our draconian cinema censorship system, which has prevented some of Robbe-Grillet's work being circulated. Britain is the only country in the world which has statutory legal censorship for video, which keeps a lot of challenging and controversial work out of circulation. Unfortunately, therefore, some of his more recent work has not been seen, except in private screenings, which I think is a pity, because Robbe-Grillet has continued to make films and to push forward the boundaries of what is possible on the screen, in parallel with his literary work.So this is a double career; that of a writer who works on the screen and on the page, and who has continued to do so for an extraordinary span of time. Robbe-Grillet's example renews the hope that film can be seen as involved in a similar enterprise to writing, a hope that is often forgotten in Britain, where cinema exists in a compartment labelled 'entertainment', and too often lacks the ambition, and complexity, that literature can aspire to".Truly a special book on the relationship between novels and films.