La Musica

“Love affairs can end in the space of an hour, marriages (La Musica) in the space of three years. And, within these endless ends, there is space for endless revival.” — Marguerite Duras

In 1966, Marguerite Duras – already established as a prolific writer, but looking for an escape from the world of publishing – made her debut as a filmmaker with La Musica, based on a short play she had written a year earlier. Co-directed with Paul Seban – with whom she had made television – La Musica is a psychological three-hander that delicately dissects love after separation. It features the radiant Delphine Seyrig as the ex-wife of the dapper Robert Hossein, as well as a young American woman (Julie Dassin, who, for Duras, possessed “a kind of wildness combined with a certain purity”).