Carte blanche to Anne Berest dedicated to the figure of girls in literature

Girl.

Carte blanche to

Anne Berest

See the Film

The third edition of the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon [Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon] was held in Les Baux-de-Provence in the south of France on the occasion of the CHANEL Cruise 2021/22 show.

In conversation with literary historian Fanny Arama, ambassador and spokesperson for the House Charlotte Casiraghi invited writer and friend of the House Anne Berest to examine the figure of girls in literature, through a tribute to the work of Anne Wiazemsky. Actress and CHANEL ambassador Alma Jodorowsky opened the discussion with a reading of excerpts from 'Jeune fille' by Anne Wiazemsky, and 'Sagan 1954' by Anne Berest.

Anne Berest

Anne Berest has written novels – La Fille de son père, Seuil 2010 [The Daughter of her Father], Les Patriarches, Grasset and Fasquelle 2012 [The Patriarchs], Sagan 1954, Stock 2014 [Sagan, Paris 1954, Gallic Books 2015], Recherche femme parfaite, Grasset and Fasquelle 2015 [Perfect Woman Wanted], Gabriële, co-written with her sister Claire, Stock 2017 – and plays: La Visite suivi de Les filles de nos filles [The Visit followed by The Daughters of our Daughters], Actes Sud 2020. She has also written Mytho (ARTE France and Unité de Production), a television series that has won many awards in France and abroad. She is also the co-author of the bestseller How to be Parisian wherever you are, Doubleday 2014, translated into over thirty-five languages.

Anne Wiazemsky

Anne Wiazemsky (1947-2017) was a French writer, actress and director. Her career as an actress began with Robert Bresson in 1965. She went on to collaborate with major directors including Jean-Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Marco Ferreri. From the 1980s onwards she devoted herself to writing. The finesse and elegance of her stories, which are largely autobiographical, ensured her widespread public success.

Introduction by Anne Berest

In the privacy of their bedrooms and the secret places of their hearts, young women have always written diaries, short stories and poems that later they would have to destroy or disown.

Then one day, they published novels. These fair creatures became creators. Young women committed to paper were reversing the roles to say what they thought of men.

Then society began to tremble.

At the request of Charlotte Casiraghi, I wanted to use that carte blanche to examine the way in which women have risen up against their fate as "characters" to take ownership of their stories. Whether this is with the right words, steeped in the caustic truth of their memories; or drenched in their youthful outpourings.

Our conversation will revolve around that subversive entity, the "young woman", and her shift from literary object to writing subject. Also how this transformation tells its own story about the emancipation of women.

On this occasion, I would like to pay tribute to the work of Anne Wiazemsky, whose autobiographical stories delineate the figure of a young woman determined to live freely.

Anne Berest

Listen to the full Literary rendezvous

Bibliographic
record

Sophocle, Antigone, 441 av. J.C.

Sophocle, Antigone, Translated from French [Sophocle, Antigone, 441 av. J.C.] by Sue Rose, 2021.

Anne Wiazemsky, Jeune fille, © Éditions Gallimard, " Blanche ", 2007.

Anne Wiazemsky, Young Woman, Translated from French [Anne Wiazemsky, Jeune fille, © Éditions Gallimard, " Blanche ", 2007.] by Sue Rose, 2021.

Anne Berest, Sagan 1954, © Stock, " La Bleue ", 2014.

Anne Berest, Sagan, Paris 1954, Translated by Heather Lloyd, © Gallic Books, 2015.

Jean-Luc Godard, La Chinoise,

Jean-Luc Godard, Masculin Féminin,

Simone de Beauvoir, Le deuxième sexe,

Simone de Beauvoir, Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée,

Vanessa Springora, Le consentement, © Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle, 2020.

CONSENT. Copyright © 2020 by Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle; originally published in French as Le Consentement by Vanessa Springora, translated into English by Natasha Lehrer. English text courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.

Anne et Claire Berest, Gabriële,

Anne Berest, The Daughter of her Father, Translated from French [Anne Berest, La Fille de son père, © Éditions du Seuil, 2010, Points, 2011.] by Sue Rose, 2021.

Anne Berest, Les Patriarches,

Anne Berest, Recherche femme parfaite,

Anne Berest, La Visite suivi de Les filles de nos filles,

Anne Berest, Fabrice Gobert, Mytho,

HOW TO BE PARISIAN WHEREVER YOU ARE: LOVE, STYLE, AND BAD HABITS

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