Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers the intriguing and resonant space for contemporary adaptations of Marcel Proust. It addresses the links between Proust and the cinema, tracing the author's exposure and ambiguous reactions to the new medium, and analyses the specifically cinematic quality of Proust's writing. The book discusses the problems inherent in adapting Proust to the screen and re-examines theoretical debates about the problem of literary adaptation. It examines the two screenplays for A la recherche du temps perdu by Luchino Visconti and Harold Pinter, analysing their widely divergent approaches in the context of the directors' and screenwriters' wider oeuvre and its thematic and aesthetic preoccupations. The book looks at forms of 'Proustian cinema', and focuses on a sample of films that engage with the legacy of Proust's work in their approach and aesthetic, even though they may not all directly refer to Proust's fiction.