Word: swann
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Just what kind of man would fall in love with a woman he knows he doesn't love? A masochist perhaps. Yet Swann's personality isn't reduced to such a simple formula. He is a Jewish assimile whose family's conversion to Christianity is fuel for the gossips of 19th century Paris. He is a talented dilettante always working on an unseen book, an aesthete always surrounded by beautiful objects. Yet any possible cinematic beauty is subdued in Swann's apartments. His rooms look musty, they invite select rays of sun; in short, his enviroment reflects his thoughts...
...first, Swann is unstirred by Odette's sensuousness--until she appeals to his aesthetic tastes. He is reminded of Botticelli's painting of Zipporah, and the resemblance grips his imagination. Obsessed, Swann jeopardizes his own position among the aristocracy to pursue the young woman...
...this means little to Odette, who is indifferent to Botticelli and weary of Swann's possessiveness. She resists being owned, unless of course it can be used to some advantage...
Schlondorf handles the evolution of the romance skillfully, by using the associations of present to past in Swann's mind. A carriage ride hurtles his thoughts to a passionate tryst with Odette in the same carriage. The technique is confusing at first, since Schlondorf forswears the traditional wavering picture and weepy music school of flashback, but highly effective once the viewer becomes accustomed to the abrupt shifts from past to present...
...substance of the romance is thus intimated through Swann's memory, and a series of visual clues. As the patterns become apparent, Swann smelling an orchid cradled between Odette's breasts, for example, takes on heavy sexual significance; the code words 'doing an orchid' mean making love for the pair. At this stage of the game, Odette is "always available...