Céleste

“One of the most profound tributes one art form has ever paid to another.” (VILLAGE VOICE)

CELESTE (1981)

A film by Percy Adlon

Eva Mattes...................................Céleste Albaret

Juergen Arndt...............................Monsieur Proust

Norbert Wartha.............................Odilon

Wolf Euba....................................Robert Proust

The Bartholdy String Quartet

From 1912 to 1922, while Marcel Proust lay in his bedroom, scribbling out his masterpiece…

… about lost time on frayed pieces of loose-leaf paper, a young French housekeeper, Céleste Albaret, waited patiently in the kitchen for “Monsieur” to ring. She was the wife of Proust’s chauffeur, and waited fifty years before telling her story. Céleste understood Proust as few others did, and over the years slowly took over the running of his life. The film is simultaneously a convincing depiction of the artist at work and a study of master and servant, feudally free with each other within the limits both accept. We see the writer in all his childish posturing and dedicated flory through Céleste’s loving eyes. As Céleste says, looking at us calmly, “Monsieur is looking for truth. I act as his hound.” Alexander Walker of The Standard says, “It must be the finest literary movie, in the best sense of the term, ever made.”

Directed by Percy Adlon

Written by Percy Adlon, adapted from the memoir, “Monsieur Proust” by Céleste Albaret.

Director of Photography - Jürgen Martin

Editor - Clara Fabry

Production design - Hans Gailling

TV Executive - Benigna von Keyserlingk

Music by Cesar Franck played by the Bartholdy-Quartet.

Produced by Eleonore Adlon

A pelemele Film production with BR

Shot on 35mm Kodak in Munich, Cabourg, Auxillac (Massif Central, France), and Paris in January / February 1981

In German with English subtitles, 107 min.

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