Paris 2015: L'Hôtel du Nord, 10th arrondissement

'Histoire de Paris

Hôtel du Nord
––––––––––––––

L'Hôtel du Nord doit sa célébrité au roman homonyme
d'Eugène Dabit (1898–1936) : il connut dès sa
publication en 1929 un grand succès, et valut à son
auteur, dont c'était le premier œuvre, le Prix du
roman populiste. C'est plutôt un receuil de nouvelles :
un couple, les Lecouvreur parvint à acheter, grâce à
un petit héritage un hôtel dont les locataires sont
les héros d'une suite d'histoires vraisemblablement
vécues. Eugène Dabit a dépeint le Paris popu-
aire côtoyé durant son enfance dans cette
pension de mariniers tenue par ses parents.
Les héros sont des personnages déracinés,
menant une existance difficile. Le seul lien
entre eux est cet hôtel qui sert de
havre ; exproprié à la fin du livre il tombe
sous la pioche des démolisseurs. Malgré
l'absence de l'intrigue consistante, Marcel
Carné à [sic] réussi à tirer de ce roman un
film tumultueux et singulier. Sorti
en 1938, il est aujourd'hui plus
célèbre que le roman, grâce au
travail du metteur en scène,
aux dialogues d'Henri
Jeanson, aux décors de
Trauner, et à l'interpré-
tation des acteurs,
Jean Jouvet et
Arletty en tête.'

My translation: 'L'Hôtel du Nord owes its fame to the novel of the same name by Eugène Dabit (1898–1936): from its publication in 1929 it was a great success, and earned the author – of whom this was the first work – the 'Prix du roman populiste'. Rather than a novel, it is more of a collection of short stories: a couple, the Lecouvreurs – due to a small inheritance – manage to buy a hotel whose lodgers are the heroes of a series of realistic stories. Eugène Dabit depicts the working-class Paris he knew in his childhood, mixing with bargee lodgers in the hotel managed by his parents. The heroes are deracinated people leading a difficult existence. The only link between them is this hotel which serves as a haven; they are expropriated at the end of the book as the hotel falls under the demolisher's pickaxe. In spite of the absence of a consistent plot, Marcel Carné succeeded in producing a magnificent and strange film. Released in 1938, it is today more famous than the novel, thanks to the direction, Henri Jeanson's dialogues, Trauner's set, and the leading roles by Jean Jouvet and Arletty.'

 

 

The contemporary exterior looks much the same as in the 1938 film.

 

Passerelle de la Grange-aux-Belles, the same bridge over Canal Saint-Martin that the suicidal lovers used at the beginning of the film, and that the Jean Jouvel character walked towards his death over very near the end.

 

The footpath over the bridge.

 

And the Canal Saint-Martin itself.

My other posts on Eugène Dabit:

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Eugène Dabit, Cimetière du Père-Lachaise
L'Hôtel du Nord, 10th arrondissement

Paris 2015: Yves Robert, Cimetière du Montparnasse #26

'YVES ROBERT
1920 – 2002
UN HOMME DE JOIE...'

 

The above reference is to actor and film director Robert's book: Un homme de joie: Dialogue avec Jérôme Tonnerre (1998). And the buttons on his grave are references to his highly successful film La Guerre des boutons (1962), an adaptation of Louis Pergaud's novel of the same name. Robert also very successfully adapted Marcel Pagnol's novels La Gloire de mon père (1990) and Le Château de ma mère (1992). Other films he is noted for are: Ni vu, ni connu (1958), Alexandre le bienheureux (1968), Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire (1972), Le Retour du grand blond (1974), Un éléphant ça trompe énormément (1976) and Nous irons tous au paradis (1977).

This is the final of my posts on graves in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, and again I thank Joseph very much for his hospitality in helping us to find some pretty elusive graves. There are a large number of other graves in this blog, which can be located by keying 'Cimetière du Montparnasse' in the Google slug to the top left of the page.

Paris 2015: Jean-François Revel, Cimetière du Montparnasse #25

Jean-François

Revel

1924 – 2006'

 

Jean-François Revel was a philosopher and the writer of many books. His partner Claude Sarraute, who is still living, is the daughter of Nathalie Sarraute (1900–99).

Paris 2015: Olga Guzman, Cimetière du Montparnasse #24

'OLGA LYROUDIAS GUZMAN
ÉCRIVAIN
1924 – 1992'

 

This is baffling: Olga Lyroudias Guzman is described as a 'writer', yet Google refuses to  recognise her full name, and Googling "Olga Guzman" hardly comes up with much more information. A complete mystery this one.

ADDENDUM: Noticing that there had been some recent activity here, I dedided to look again and found a refence to a 112-page collection of poetry: Esta Vez Decido Yo: Poesaias Desde El Encierro ('This Time I Decide: Poetry from Prison [or confinement]') published by Ediciones Polar in 2011 – almost thirty years after her death. This is mentioned in Goodreads and LibraryThing, but not in either the BNE or the BNF.

Paris 2015: Catulle Mendès, Cimetière du Montparnasse #23

'À
CATULLE MENDÈS
1841–1909'

 

Catulle Mendès was a Portuguese Jew who spent his childhood in the south-west of France. Moving to Paris, he launched La Revue fantaisiste, to which Villiers de l'Isle Adam contributed. His first collection of poems was Philoméla (1863), and he married Théophile Gautier's daughter Judith three years later – whom he left for Augusta Holmès, although his second wife was the poet Jeanne Nette, better known as Jane Catulle-Mendès.

 

Mendès moved in such circles as Louis-Xavier de Ricard, Leconte de Lisle, François Coppée, Léon Dierx, José-Maria de Heredia and Théodore de Banville: he was a Parnassian. Apart from Philomela, other important works by him include Méphistophéla (1890), Les Oiseaux bleus (1888) and Le Chercheur de tares (1898).

 

Below is a copy of the painting Les Filles de Catulle Mendès (1888) by Auguste Renoir:

 

Paris 2015: Vercors, aka Jean Bruller, Cimetière du Montparnasse #22

 

'JEAN BRULLER
VERCORS
26 FÉVRIER 1902
10 JUIN 1991
––––––'

Another post of mine on Vercors and his most famous piece of writing:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Vercors: Le Silence de la mer (1942)

Paris 2015: Félix Vallotton, Cimetière du Montparnasse #21

Self-portrait (1905)

 

 

'FÉLIX VALLOTTON
28 DÉCEMBRE 1865
29 DÉCEMBRE 1925

GABRIELLE VALLOTTON
NÉE BERNHEIM
DÉCÉDÉ LE
14 SEPTEMBRE 1932'
 

Félix Vallotton was a French painter, sculptor, art critic and novelist of Swiss origin. Octave Mirbeau enthused over him, interestingly saying in 1910: 'Comme ceux qui ont beaucoup vu, beaucoup lu, beaucoup réfléchi, il est pessimiste': 'Like those who have seen a great deal, read a great deal, thought a great deal, he is a pessimist'.

Paris 2015: Guillaume Dustan, Cimetière du Montparnasse #20

'WILLIAM BARANÈS

DIT

GUILLAUME DUSTAN

1965 – 2005

MAGISTRAT . ÉCRIVAIN . ÉDITEUR'

 

' J'AI TOUJOURS ÉTÉ POUR TOUT ÊTRE

                                                                        G . D. '

 

Although trained as a lawyer, Guillaume Dustan (born William Baranès) is far better known as a writer, particularly of autofiction, Bret Easton Ellis and Dennis Cooper being his main influences. He created 'Le Rayon gay' (later called 'Le Rayon') imprint of the Éditions Balland (late nineties–2003), the first literary French LGBT collection: in its lifetime about fifty books were published, and Dustan won the Flore prize for Nicolas Pages in 1999. Dustan's published works under this imprint also include two other books: Génie divin (2001) and LXiR ou Dédramatison La Vi Cotidièn (2002). In 2001 he famously appeared in a TV programme in a silver wig compered by Thierry Ardisson, in which he spoke about barebacking.

Paris 2015: Raymond Aron, Cimetière du Montparnasse #19

The family tomb of the philosopher Raymond Aron (1905–1983), much influenced by Alain and most noted for his book L'Opium des intellectuels (1955), which of course as the title suggests he saw as the Marxist call to communist revolution: the religion of leftist intellectuals.

Paris 2015: Gérard Lebovici, Cimetière du Montparnasse #17

'GÉRARD
LEBOVICI
NÉ LE 25 AOÛT 1932
ASSASSINÉ LE 5 MARS 1984

QUEL AMI POUR LES AMIS !
POUR SES GENS ET PARENTS,
QUEL SEIGNEUR !
QUEL ENNEMI POUR L'ENNEMI !
QUEL CHEF POUR LES INTRÉPIDES
ET CONSTANT !
QUEL JUGEMENT POUR LES SAGES !
POUR LES PLAISANTS, QUELLE GRÂCE !
QUEL GRAND SENS !
BÉNIN POUR SES DÉPENDANTS,
MAIS POUR LES MÉCHANTS HARDIS,
QUEL LION !'

Gérard Lebocici, often simply called 'Lebo', was a publisher and impresario of the far left who was friends with Guy Debord, and who was killed at point blank range in his parked car in an underground car park by a person who was probably a hired killer, although his identity was never discovered.

Paris 2015: Claude Mauriac, Cimetière du Montparnasse #16

Claude Mauriac (1914–1996) was a writer and journalist and the elder son of François Mauriac. He married Marie-Claude Mante, the great-niece of Marcel Proust and Edmond Rostand. On and off he kept a journal from the age of twelve, a number of volumes of which were published in the eighties and nineties. He also wrote essays and novels, his 1959 novel Le Dîner en ville receiving the Médicis. He had a strong interest in the nouveau roman.

Paris 2015: Jacques Vergès, Cimetière du Montparnasse #15

'MAÎTRE JACQUES VERGÈS
1925 – 2013'

 

Born in Thailand (then known as Siam) Jacques Vergès was a lawyer of French and Algerian nationality who became famous for his anticolonial stances: for instance, he defended the Algerian FNL militant Djamila Bouhired and later married her. He was also famous for defending various people accused of serious crimes, such as the Nazi Klaus Barbie and the international terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (commonly known as 'Carlos the Jackal'). Vergès published a large number of books, and this sample of a few of them over a seven-year period gives a good idea of their nature: Je défends Barbie (with a preface by Jean-Edern Hallier) (1988); La Justice est un jeu (1992); Lettre ouverte à des amis algériens devenus tortionnaires (1993), and Mon Dieu pardonnez-leur (1995).

Paris 2015: Stéphane Hessel, Cimetière du Montparnasse #14

Stéphane Hessel (1917–2013) is perhaps best known for his thirty-two page essay Indignez-vous ! (2010), which proved to be a great success near the end of his life. It denounced an economic system based on huge inequalities of wealth, and sold several million copies worldwide. He followed this up with Engagez-vous ! and Le Chemin de l'espérance (both published in 2011). There is now a Place Stéphane Hessel in the 14e arrondissement.

Stéphane Hessel's mother was Helen Hessel, who translated Nabokov's Lolita into German in 1960, but is better remembered for the representation of her played by Jeanne Moreau in Truffaut's Jules et Jim (1962). The famous triangular relationship in Jules et Jim is based on Helen's relationship with her husband Franz and their friend Henri-Pierre Roché, who wrote the novel on which Truffaut based his scenario.

Paris 2015: Alain Resnais, Cimetière du Montparnasse #13

'ALAIN RESNAIS

1922 – 2014

–––––––'

Alain Resnais is noted for directing a number of films, particularly Nuit et brouillard (1956), Hiroshima mon amour (1959), L'Année dernière à Marienbad (1961), Muriel ou le Temps d'un retour (1963), Mon oncle d'Amérique (1980), and On connaît la chanson (1997).

Next to Resnais's grave is that of Nicole Vedrès (1911–65), who briefly worked with Resnais.

(As with all the following posts of graves in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, many thanks to Joseph for locating them for us: his knowledge of the cemetery was a truly important help to us.)

Paris 2015: Georges Wolinski, Cimetière du Montparnasse #12

'GEORGES WOLINSKI
1934 – 2015
Dessinateur de presse
Editorialiste politique
Ecrivain

 

ASSASSINÉ LE 7 JANVIER
LORS DE L'ATTENTAT
CONTRE CHARLIE-HEBDO.'

Wolinski's grave. What more can be said: the world is aware of this insanity, and Charlie is stronger than ever.

Paris 2015: Lucien Bodard, Cimetière du Montparnasse #11

'Lucien BODARD

1914 – 1998

––––––'

 

Born in China (where his father was a French diplomat) and nicknamed 'Lulu le Chinois', Lucien Bodard began his career as a journalist in 1944. Many of his novels have China as the central focus of interest. His semi-autobiographical Monsieur le Consul won the Interallié prize in 1973, and he won the Goncourt for Anne Marie in 1981.

Paris 2015: Roland Topor, Cimetière du Montparnasse #10

Roland Topor (1938–1997), among many other things, was a novelist, poet, painter and actor born of Jewish Polish immigrant parents. He was one of the founders of the (anti-)movement 'Panique' named after the god Pan. His first novel, Le Locataire chimérique (1964), which is said to have been strongly influenced by Kafka, was adapted by Polanski into the film The Lodger in 1976, and Topor won the Deux Magots prize for Joko fête son anniversaire in 1969.

The sculpture on Topor's grave, showing a man walking on cobble stones with a suitcase from which all kinds of strange things are escaping.

Below is a link to my other post on Topor:

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Roland Roland Topor: Le Locataire chimérique | The Tenant

Paris 2015: Françoise Verny, Cimetière du Montparnasse #9

Françoise Verny (1928–2004) – née Françoise Delthil – was an editor from a family of medical doctors. She was a practising Catholic who wrote several religious books: Le plus beau métier du monde (1990), Dieu existe, je l'ai toujours trahi (1992), Dieu n'a pas fait la mort (1994), Mais si, messieurs, les femmes ont une âme (1995), Pourquoi m'as-tu abandonnée ? (1998) and Serons-nous vivantes le 2 janvier 1950 ? (with a Preface by Patrick Modiano) (2005). I have mentioned elsewhere that Daniel Pennac satirised her as 'la reine Zabo' in La Fée carabine.

Paris 2015: Marcel Schwob and Léon Cahun, Cimetière du Montparnasse #8

Marcel Schwob by Félix Valotton

 

Léon Cahun

 

 

The grave of Marcel Schwob (1867–1905) isn't easy to find, and my thanks go to 'le promeneur' on Philippe Landru's excellent 'Cimetières de France et d'ailleurs' website for posting clear directions very soon after my enquiry as to its exact whereabouts. Schwob's name and dates are now scarcely visible on the tomb. He was the son of the publisher George Schwob and Mathilde (née Cahun): Mathilde was the sister of the orientalist and aventure novelist Léon Cahun (1841–1900), and Cahun is also buried here. Cahun's most successful novels were his first two: Les Aventures du capitaine Magon, ou Une exploration phénicienne mille ans avant l'ère chrétienne (1875) and La Bannière bleue: Aventures d'un musulman, d'un chrétien et d'un païen à l'époque des croisades et de la conquête mongole (1877).

Marcel Schwob was a friend of Théodore de Banville and Théophile Gautier. The works he is most noted for (in chronological order) are Cœur double (1891), Le Roi au masque d’or (1892), Mimes (1893), Le Livre de Monelle (1894), La Croisade des enfants (1896) and Vies imaginaires (1896). He died of flu at the age of thirty-seven.

Paris 2015: Ariane Grimm, Cimetière du Montparnasse #7

Ariane Grimm (born Annick Martigny) died in 1985 at the age of eighteen in a motorcycle accident. Two years later her divorced mother Gisèle Grimm published La Flambe: Journal intime d'une jeune fille, which consisted of the last four of seventeen private diaries which Ariane had been writing for a number of years. In the diaries she included drawings, various photos, holidays, films seen, clothes, different foods, attached locks of her hair after sessions at the hair dresser's, filled margins with lipstick kisses, etc. Philippe Lejeune, the founder of L'Association pour l'Autobiographie, has written a number of papers on Ariane Grimm and believes that she was not only exploring the nature of and reinventing the form of the journal, but also exploring the nature of the letter, autobiography, and the novel.

Paris 2015: Andrée Chedid, Cimetière du Montparnasse #6

'Andrée CHEDID
née SAAB
1920 – 2011
––––––––'

 

Andrée Chedid was born in Cairo of Libano-Egyptian origin. She was educated in Egyptian and then French schools, and was awarded a degree in journalism in 1942. Although her first collection of poems – On the Trails of My Fancy – was in English, following her permanent move to France with her husband in 1946 all of her many subsequent books were written in French. She won the Goncourt for the short story in 1979 (Le Corps et le Temps) and the Goncourt for poetry in 2002.

 

The quotation 'Le corps s'en va, le cœur séjourne' by Chrétien de Troyes on Chedid's grave was at the beginning of her final novel: Les Quatre Morts de Jean de Dieu (2010).

Paris 2015: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Cimetière du Montparnasse #5

 

'FAMILLE
P. J. PROUDHON

––––––––
PIERRE JOSEPH
PROUDHON

BESANÇON, 15 JANVIER 1809
PARIS, 19 JANVIER 1865
––––––––
STÉPHANIE PROUDHON
PARIS, 14 SEPT. 1855
PARIS, 27 SEPT. 1875'

 

In an age of violent, brain-dead capitalist excesses, it is heartening to see that people have taken the trouble to pay their respects to the (none too easy to find) burial site of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, a very great figure in the history of anarchism, but in particular of the non-violent, or pacifist, variety.