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Chapters (21)
  1. Cover
  2. Landing Page
  3. A Private Function
  4. CONTENTS
  5. INTRODUCTION
  6. The Old Crowd
  7. CAST
  8. A Private Function
  9. PREFACE
  10. CAST AND CREDITS
  11. Prick Up Your Ears
  12. PREFACE
  13. CAST AND CREDITS
  14. 102 Boulevard Haussmann
  15. CAST AND CREDITS
  16. The Madness of King George
  17. PREFACE
  18. CAST AND CREDITS
  19. About the Author
  20. Also by the Author
  21. Copyright

PROUST   Every reader, while he is reading, is a reader of his own self. A book is merely an optical instrument, a lens which the author offers the reader to enable him or her to discern what, without the book, they would never have perceived in themselves.
Pause.

CÉLESTE   Am I in the book, monsieur?

PROUST   Would you want to be?

CÉLESTE   If it is of any help to monsieur.

PROUST   There is a servant certainly. But you are not she and I am not he. You can say anything, you see, as long as you don’t say I. You are reading a book, a novel say, and you come across something familiar. It is a thought or an emotion you yourself have had but thought secret, even shameful, but peculiar to you. And here it is, set down in the book. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.
Proust holds out his hand. Céleste takes it between hers.

CÉLESTE   Is your book like that, monsieur?

PROUST   To write like that takes courage, Céleste. Nerve. Everything one has.

CÉLESTE   (seeing his ink-stained fingers) Look at Monsieur’s fingers.

PROUST   And that’s another thing about writing.
She is wiping his fingers.

PROUST   It’s a dirty business.

INT. 102 BOULEVARD HAUSSMANN. LIFT/LANDING/DOOR OF PROUST’S APARTMENT/HALL. NIGHT.

Massis bounds out of the lift and across the landing. He rings the bell. Céleste opens the door.

MASSIS   Is Monsieur Proust at home?

CÉLESTE   No, monsieur.
Céleste tries to shut the door, but Massis manages to stop her.

MASSIS   Will you please go and enquire? It’s Monsieur Massis.

CÉLESTE   I know who it is, monsieur. He is not at home.
Looking past her, Massis sees on a table in the hall an open violin case.
Céleste, following his look, glances back but does not explain.
Massis goes away.
Céleste closes the door.

INT. PROUST’S BEDROOM. NIGHT.

Céleste enters the room with a tray of refreshments.

A young soldier (Petain) is playing the violin.

Proust watches her put down the tray and indicates she should go, as the soldier goes on playing.

Céleste leaves.

INT. PROUST’S APARTMENT. KITCHEN. NIGHT.

Céleste sitting at the kitchen table.

It would be hard to tell what she is thinking.

Mix to:

Closing roller.

The Madness of King George

PREFACE

The first draft of The Madness of King George (then called The Madness of George III) was prefaced with this note: