Duras film: India Song

Extract from India Song, a film by Marguerite Duras from 1975

— The other sleeping man?
— Someone passing through. A friend of the Stretter family. She belongs to whomever wants her. She gives to him who takes.

— Love.
— Yes. Splendor.

— “Anne-Marie Stretter” written on the grave?
— “Ana Maria Guardi”. Wiped away.

— Every night. Looks at her.
— Has never spoken to her?
— Never. Has never approached one.

— The virgin man of Lahore.
— Yes.

India Song is probably the central film in Duras’ oeuvre. In it, the story of Lol V. Stein and that of Anne-Marie Stretter come together with that of the Vice-Consul. And Stretter dies.

A lot of voices in this film. And actors. Who act. A little. But they don’t speak. The voices are already disconnected from the image. Even though, sometimes they are very close. Unlike in the later films, images that originated in the text are actually shown. A sumptuous drawing room, Stretter and her lovers, the vice-consul, people dancing, and the bicycle leaning against the deserted tennis court fence.

It’s a beautiful film that, much like the later ones, embraces the viewer in a sort of direct exchange of emotions, that surpasses any sort of story-telling. Again, the story is presumed known, and we simply dwell on it, slowly, melancholically, coming to insights in human nature and culture that we had not expected. Coming to understand ourselves, surprised by how much we are like somebody who is completely unlike us.