![]() Cover of the 1st French edition | |
Author | Georges Simenon |
---|---|
Original title | La Mort de Belle |
Translator | Louise Varèse |
Language | French |
Publisher | Presses de la Cité |
Publication date | 1952 |
Publication place | Belgium |
Published in English | 1954 |
Media type |
Belle (La mort de Belle, 1952) is a novel by Belgian writer Georges Simenon; [1] it is one of the author's self-described roman durs or "hard novels" to distinguish it from his romans populaires or "popular novels," which are primarily mysteries that usually feature his famous Inspector Maigret character. [2]
La mort de Belle was translated into English by Louise Varèse in 1954. [3]
While residing at Shadow Rock Farm in Lakeville, Connecticut, Simenon wrote La mort de Belle over the course of ten days in December 1951. [4] In the novel, the town of Litchfield is clearly meant to represent the town of Lakeville. [5] [6] [7]
Spencer Ashby is a history teacher at Crestview School in the small town of Litchfield, New York. One snowy evening, his wife Christine goes to play bridge with friends, but Spencer decides to remain at home where he grades some students' papers and then works at his lathe in his basement workshop.
The Ashbys are a childless couple in their forties, but are temporarily allowing eighteen-year-old Belle Sherman, the troubled daughter of one of Christine's college roommates, to stay with them. Spencer almost completely ignores the girl to such an extent that she is barely even described to the reader. Belle, too, is away that evening at the movies, but arrives home early and unexpectedly, though Spencer is indifferent to her, and cannot hear what she says to him over the sound of his lathe. Christine returns home later, and everyone in the household apparently goes to bed for the night as usual.
The next morning, having just made his usual drive from his home to Crestview, Spencer receives an urgent call and is summoned back home. Belle has been found inexplicably strangled to death in her room. An investigation begins, bringing Spencer into contact with coroner Bill Ryan, his secretary Anna Moeller, and Lieutenant Averell of the State Police. Spencer is subjected to intense questioning by the authorities, and feels even more humiliated when the school principal asks him to stay home from his classes.
Information gathered by the FBI in Virginia, where Belle lived, reveals that she has had several love affairs and is far from the well-behaved young girl that the Ashbys had imagined her to be. It is also established that Belle had not been to the cinema, and that she had been seen the same evening in the company of a man. While Ryan suspects Spencer, Averell is more of a psychologist, and understands that his naiveté is the best indication of his innocence. Meanwhile, the investigation reaches a dead end. Despite Christine's sympathy, and the kindness of a policeman, Mr. Holloway, Spencer's mood begins to fray as public opinion begins to turn against him. His house is tarred with the letter "M," the neighborhood children become suspicious of him, and he feels excluded from the community. He is summoned to be re-examined by Ryan. He expects to be charged with Belle's murder, but is not, at least for the moment.
On the way home from being questioned, he stops at a bar and orders a drink. Because his father committed suicide due to alcoholism, Spencer has always considered drinking to be something forbidden to him, but succumbs to temptation and begins to unravel. Afterwards, he ends up at a cafeteria where, by chance, he runs into Ryan's secretary Anna Moeller, and a conversation with her quickly becomes intimate. The two impulsively decide to go to a bar near Hartford, and Spencer's drinking continues. They leave to have sex in Spencer's car, but there he finds himself to be impotent, and Anna ridicules him; as a result, Spencer suddenly becomes frantic and strangles her.
Returning to the bar by himself with his face smeared with Anna's lipstick, some of the bar's other patrons quickly discover that there is a dead woman in his car, and realizing what has happened, beat Spencer savagely before Lieutenant Averell arrives to arrest him. As he loses consciousness, Spencer realizes that everyone will now believe that he is Belle's killer; everyone, that is, except for the guilty man, whose identity he will never know. [4] [7] [8]
When Belle was published in English in 1954, many of the citizens of Lakeville were displeased at how they and their town had been depicted in the novel, though a few were amused to recognize themselves in some of the characters. Some of the townsfolk went so far as to let Simenon know of their displeasure, causing a rift between him and his neighbors. [7] [9]
A reviewer in The Lakeville Journal wrote “ . . . [Belle] takes place in a town so similar to Lakeville that the post office and Hugo's store are recognizable . . . But how many Americans will see themselves in these scenes?” [7]
Henry Miller found the depiction of New England in Belle to be very accurate, and added in a letter to Simenon that "New England gives me the shudders." [10]
In France, Belle was filmed twice, first as La Mort de Belle in 1961 (known as The Passion of Slow Fire in the US), [11] and then as a TV movie entitled Jusqu'à l'Enfer in 2009. [12] A TV movie was also made of the book in Germany as Bellas Tod in 1979, and was filmed in Lakeville, twenty-three years after Simenon and his family had lived there. [9] [13]
Another French adaptation of the novel, Belle , scheduled for release in 2024, is directed by Benoît Jacquot and stars Guillaume Canet and Charlotte Gainsbourg. [14] [15] [16] however due to sexual abuse allegations against Jacquot, Canet distanced from the film and remain unreleased. [17]
Judith Godrèche is a French actress and author. She has appeared in more than 30 films.
Jules Maigret, or simply Maigret, is a fictional French police detective, a commissaire ("commissioner") of the Paris Brigade Criminelle, created by writer Georges Simenon. The character's full name is Jules Amédée François Maigret.
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon was a Belgian writer, most famous for his fictional detective Jules Maigret. One of the most popular authors of the 20th century, he published around 400 novels, 21 volumes of memoirs and many short stories, selling over 500 million copies.
Benoît Jacquot is a French film director and screenwriter who has had a varied career in European cinema.
Guillaume Canet is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, and show jumper.
Lakeville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States, close to Dutchess County, New York. It is within the town of Salisbury, but has its own ZIP Code (06039). As of the 2010 census, the population of Lakeville was 928, out of 3,741 in the entire town of Salisbury. The Hotchkiss School is located in Lakeville, and the Indian Mountain School is nearby.
Benoît Magimel is a French actor. He was 14 when he appeared in his first film, and has starred in a variety of roles in French cinema. At age 16, Magimel left school to pursue acting as a career. In 2001, he won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher. He also starred in Claude Chabrol's La Demoiselle d'honneur.
Jacques Doillon is a French film director and screenwriter. Some actresses to break through are Fanny Bastien, Sandrine Bonnaire, Judith Godrèche, Marianne Denicourt, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Juliette Binoche.
Isild Le Besco is a French actress and filmmaker. She is of French and Algerian descent on her mother's side, and Vietnamese and Breton on her father's.
Farewell, My Queen is a 2012 French drama film directed by Benoît Jacquot and based on the novel of the same name by Chantal Thomas, who won the Prix Femina in 2002. It gives a fictional account of the last days of Marie Antoinette in power seen through the eyes of Sidonie Laborde, a young servant who reads aloud to the queen. The film stars Diane Kruger as the Queen, Léa Seydoux, and Virginie Ledoyen. It opened the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012 and has subsequently been screened at other festivals. It was released on 21 March 2012 in France.
The Globes de Cristal Awards is a set of awards bestowed by members of the French Press Association recognizing excellence in home art and culture. The annual formal ceremony and dinner at which the awards are presented happens each February.
Three Hearts is a 2014 French drama film directed by Benoît Jacquot and co-written with Julien Boivent. The film stars Benoît Poelvoorde, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Chiara Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. In January 2015, the film received four nominations at the 20th Lumières Awards.
Diary of a Chambermaid is a 2015 French drama film directed by Benoît Jacquot, and written by Jacquot and Hélène Zimmer. It is an adaptation of Octave Mirbeau's 1900 novel of the same name and stars Léa Seydoux as Célestine, a young and ambitious woman who works as a chambermaid for a wealthy couple in France during the early twentieth century. Mirbeau's original novel was adapted into films multiple times before, notably Jean Renoir's 1946 film and Luis Buñuel's 1964 film.
The Passion of Slow Fire is a 1961 French crime film directed by Édouard Molinaro and starring Jean Desailly and based on the novel La mort de Belle by Georges Simenon.
Éric Savin is a French film and TV actor.
Eva is a 2018 romantic drama film written and directed by Benoît Jacquot, based on the 1945 novel Eve by James Hadley Chase. Starring Isabelle Huppert and Gaspard Ulliel, the film tells the story of a young fraudster who causes the death of a girl who loves him because of his obsession for an older high-class prostitute. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.
Julia Roy is a French actress and screenwriter.
Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters is a 1951 detective novel by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon, featuring the Paris police officer Jules Maigret. Simenon wrote it while living in Lakeville, Connecticut where he had moved after leaving France following the Liberation.
Maigret's Memoirs is a novel by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon. Unlike other Maigret novels, there is no plot; Jules Maigret himself writes about his life and work, and about his relation with the novelist Georges Simenon.