{"id":2255,"date":"2012-09-09T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/?p=2255"},"modified":"2012-09-09T22:32:19","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T20:32:19","slug":"in-duras-footsteps-the-seaside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/in-duras-footsteps-the-seaside\/","title":{"rendered":"In Duras’ footsteps. The seaside."},"content":{"rendered":"

The seaside scene in Bient\u00f4t l’\u00e9t\u00e9<\/em> is based on a mix of influences. The dike is a typical element from the Belgian coast line that I’m very familiar with. But Trouville-sur-Mer, the French coastal home town of the writer whose work inspired the game, Marguerite Duras, doesn’t have a dike. Instead, a row of buildings is planted straight on the beach, including Duras’ residence, the majestic former hotel, Les Roches Noires<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This building was the direct inspiration for one of the exteriors of the caf\u00e9 on the dike in Bient\u00f4t l’\u00e9t\u00e9<\/em>. In front of Les Roches Noires is a boardwalk, referred to on several occasions in Duras’ novels and also present in the game.<\/p>\n

Another building typical of the Belle Epoque coastal towns is the casino. There’s a casino in Trouville and one of the buildings in Bient\u00f4t l’\u00e9t\u00e9<\/em> was inspired by it.<\/p>\n

A coastal casino is a recurring feature in Duras’ novels. It hosts the ball room where Anne-Marie Stretter breaks Lol V. Stein’s spirit by seducing her financ\u00e9. And the caf\u00e9 in Bient\u00f4t l’\u00e9t\u00e9<\/em>, sometimes.<\/p>\n

As a seaside resident, Duras often refers to the ocean in her novels. Seldom as the typical romantic environment, though. And having spent two nights in Trouville, I understand. The sea is a violent monster, as mysterious as it is indifferent.<\/p>\n

One of her novels, L’amour<\/em> takes place almost entirely on the beach. It’s about a confused love triangle. And of course there’s Moderato Cantabile<\/em>, written long before Duras lived at the seaside -it’s one of her early successes- that takes place in a small industrial harbor town at the Atlantic coast. The character design and the entire talking at a caf\u00e9 table come straight out of that book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The seaside scene in Bient\u00f4t l’\u00e9t\u00e9 is based on a mix of influences. The dike is a typical element from the Belgian coast line that I’m very familiar with. But Trouville-sur-Mer, the French coastal home town of the writer whose work inspired the game, Marguerite Duras, doesn’t have a dike. Instead, a row of buildings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2255"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2260,"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions\/2260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tale-of-tales.com\/bientotlete\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}