*The Green Eyes* by Marguerite Duras, published by Democracy and Construction Publishing House

Author of "The Lover" and "Hiroshima Mon Amour," French national treasure, and winner of the Prix Goncourt

Duras's only representative work dedicated to her personal views on cinema, introduced for the first time to the Chinese-speaking world

A classic special issue produced by "Cahiers du Cinéma," planned in collaboration with Duras, authorized by her family, and released to commemorate her centenary

Conversations about film, literature, politics, and private memories, popular culture and social hot topics of a radical era, dialogues with European and American directors, poets, and thinkers

Includes precious personal family photographs, on-set stills, and handwritten manuscripts

Directly and立体ly presents Duras's life marks and inner world

One-to-one replica of the original French edition's size, high-quality cloth-bound hardcover with black hot stamping, highly collectible

📖 Editor's Recommendation

Marguerite Duras, one of the most influential and distinctive French writers of the twentieth century, was also a filmmaker known for her subversive cinematic practices. In June 1980, Duras was invited by the editorial department of "Cahiers du Cinéma," the cradle of the "New Wave" and a world-renowned magazine, to launch "Green Eyes," a special issue on cinema.

In this book, Duras shares her personal journey and thoughts during the filmmaking process, as well as her views on the surrounding world and various controversies. The collected articles include exclusive interviews with Duras by the editors of "Cahiers du Cinéma," as well as dialogues between Duras and contemporary newsmakers, writers, and directors of public interest. They are interspersed with related letters, essays, manifestos, or polemics.

As a collection of aphorisms on artistic creation and reflections on contemporary society, "Green Eyes" retains Duras's consistent writing style: fragmented, collage-like, non-linear text organization, high-density textual flow with a disruptive and oppressive feel, and the powerful spiritual charisma of the author permeating every line—aloof, insightful, cynical, with an almost childlike wildness and curiosity.

These texts create a dialogue space where passion and tenderness coexist, while the newly added 60+ photographs construct an interactive game space based on "looking," requiring readers to search for the hidden truths in the intertwined gazes: about film, about writing, about the world, about oneself.

◎ Duras's only monograph expounding her unique cinematic concepts, an exclusive commemorative special issue by "Cahiers du Cinéma":

On questions such as "What constitutes ideal imagery," "The relationship between film, writing, and reading," "What kind of audience do niche art films and commercial films each attract," and "The impact of media proliferation," Duras offers sharp and profound insights, in an extremely honest prose that will draw you into a whirlpool of fascinating cinematic ideas.

◎ As a cross-disciplinary "writer-director," she complained about producers, mocked critics, and ardently championed creators who inspired empathy:

Duras "caustically" commented on contemporary famous directors such as Godard, Bergman, Chaplin, Woody Allen, and Elia Kazan, hitting the nail on the head with clear likes and dislikes. Various anecdotes and precious conversations outline a picture of artistic masters appreciating each other, their genius shining brightly and captivatingly.

◎ A micro-history of private literature, in the diverse narratives, Duras's recurring themes are readily apparent:

Childhood narratives hidden in a series of photographs, war trauma memories in the style of "Hiroshima Mon Amour," Jewish metaphors as symbols of wandering, Russian doll-like layered female images, continuous attention to marginalized groups, subjective news commentary with distinctive imprints... connecting Duras's universe and providing rich clues for interpreting her works.

◎ High-quality cloth-bound hardcover with black hot stamping and square spine, one-to-one replica of the original edition's size and layout, highly collectible:

Selected fine plain cotton cloth, high-quality ivory white paper, advanced glossy hot stamping material for black hot stamping across different textures. The cover photo features a work by Bruno Barbey, a renowned French photographer and former president of Magnum Photos, whose master lens and brilliant composition capture the demeanor of a literary giant. The original French book strictly adhered to the layout personally authorized by the author, and the Chinese version is a one-to-one replica, reproducing the author's strong presence.

* * *

■ Duras Quotes: On Film and Writing

✍ To make a film also means wanting to step out of the role of a capitalist film consumer, to break free from it, and to interrupt this conditioned reflex of consumption. Clearly, this conditioned reflex of consumption is the most perfect link in the vicious circle of all consumption. We protest by making films.

✍ My relationship with film is one of murder. Initially, I made films to gain the creative experience of destroying text. Now, I make films to reach the image and condense it.

✍ For me, the success of film is rooted in the defeat of writing. The main and decisive charm of film lies in its slaughter of writing. This slaughter, like a bridge, leads us to reading itself.

✍ I am talking about writing. Even when I seem to be talking about film, I am still talking about writing. Film writing, for me, is cinema.

✍ A book that keeps moving forward is like a potential life. Like life, a book also needs various resistances, suffocation, and pain; it needs a slower pace, suffering, various constraints, as well as quiet and night.

✍ When no one makes films, film does not exist, film has never existed. But when no one writes, writing still exists, and has always existed. When everything ends, on a dying grey earth, writing will still be everywhere. It is in the air, in the sea.

■ Duras Quotes: On World Film Masters

★ Charlie Chaplin: He was a disabled genius, a legendary accident in the history of human spirit, and a huge fissure in cinema. No one has ever reached the silent realm of Chaplin's films in talkies.

★ Woody Allen: Must be a terrible person; he surely never loved anything in life. His works are pieced together from fragments and scraps, and the seams are visible.

★ Jean Renoir: In Renoir's films, love is overdone, overflowing with goodwill everywhere. But I particularly love his "The River"; he might be my favorite among deceased filmmakers.

★ Jacques Tati: I love him too much; he might be the greatest filmmaker in the world. "Playtime" is a monumental film, the only time we can say "the people are truly acting."

★ Robert Bresson: A giant of existence. He is the founder of all cinema. "Pickpocket" and "Au Hasard Balthazar" alone can represent all cinema.

★ Jean-Luc Godard: He is one of the greatest directors. The most important catalyst for world cinema. When feeling lonely, when thinking of other filmmakers, I think of Godard.

★ Ingmar Bergman: I never liked Bergman, although I used to think I did. "Persona" and "The Silence" are fleeting. Bergman and Dreyer, we cannot like both at the same time.

★ Elia Kazan: Perhaps the only American filmmaker with an international dimension. His work area has an international character. A great "Jew" who covered the entire globe with his films.

★ Marguerite Duras herself: I don't like anything by Duras, but I like "India Song," "Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert," "The Truck," "Aurelia Steiner." They can be listed among the most important works in film history to date.

📖 Media Recommendation

To fully appreciate the conversations and texts in this book (originally published in a special issue of Cahiers du Cinéma), familiarity with Duras's films, novels, plays, and screenplays is a prerequisite. These conversations reflect Duras's views on herself and many film directors and their works. Duras, born in Vietnam in 1914, first appeared on the literary scene in Paris with her novel "Les Impudents" (1943). She is known as an experimental writer and filmmaker, whose works are characterized by a "radical poetics," dominated by metadiscourse and hypertext (e.g., "The Ravishing of Lol V. Stein," "Hiroshima Mon Amour," "The Lover"). In the informal, "fireside chat" style of this book, readers will find a wealth of information: Duras's personal views on politics, media, literature, and filmmaking. The numerous photographs and film stills are also a valuable addition.

—"Library Journal"

📖 Content Overview

This book is the only representative work by the world-renowned writer and director Marguerite Duras exclusively dedicated to her personal views on cinema. In June 1980, Duras was invited by the editorial department of the famous magazine "Cahiers du Cinéma" to participate in their special issue "Green Eyes," which was subsequently compiled into a book and officially published. In this book, she reviews the many difficulties and thoughts that emerged during her scriptwriting and directing process, and also comments on the creative styles of directors such as Chaplin, Godard, Woody Allen, and Kazan, as well as discussing her literary and political views and private life. The book also includes over 60 photographs, some from the private collections of Duras's son Jean Mascolo and herself, serving as historical testimonies of Duras's work and life.