Marguerite Duras

French writer and film director (1914-1996) · France · Writers · Died at 81

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She wrote the script for Hiroshima mon amour and turned grief into a language that cinema had never spoken before - spare, haunted, built from silences as much as words.

Writers Writer / Author Literature Television Screenwriting Fiction Theatre Stand Up

A life in dates

1996Died3 March 19961993“Writing is not speaking. It's silencing yourself. It's screaming without noise.”In their wordsfrom Ecrire (1993)Read the whole statement

1990“Acting doesn't bring anything to a text. On the contrary, it detracts from it.”In their words28 March 1990International Herald Tribune (28 March 1990).Read the whole statement

1989Austrian State Prize for European LiteratureAward1987“It was the men I deceived the most that I loved the most.”In their wordsThe Chimneys of India Song, from Practicalities (1987, trans. 1990).Read the whole statement

“I see journalists as the manual workers, the laborers of the word. Journalism can only be literature when it is passionate.”In their wordsWalesa's Wife, from Practicalities (1987, trans. 1990).Read the whole statement

1984“Paradoxically, the freedom of Paris is associated with a persistent belief that nothing ever changes. Paris, they say, is the city that changes least.”In their wordsTourists in Paris, from Outside: Selected Writings (1984).Read the whole statement

Prix GoncourtAward1983Grand prix du théâtreAward1953“There is no vacation from love, it doesn't exist. Love, you must live it fully, with its boredom and all, there is no possible vacation from that.”In their wordsfrom Les petits chevaux de Tarquinia (16 octobre 1953)Read the whole statement

1914Born4 April 1914

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

DURAS

Identite-Duras-1960-Sacem (cropped)

Manta con frase de Marguerite Duras, 8º Gran Remate de libros

Marguerite Duras 1993

Marguerite Duras en 1952

P1240237 Paris VI rue St-Benoit n5 Duras rwk

Pardaillan Commémo Marguerite Duras

In their own words 8

Marguerite Duras

8 statements, newest first

Writing is not speaking. It's silencing yourself. It's screaming without noise.
1993, from Ecrire (1993), Own words
Acting doesn't bring anything to a text. On the contrary, it detracts from it.
Mar 28, 1990, International Herald Tribune (28 March 1990)., Own words
It's afterwards you realize that the feeling of happiness you had with a man didn't necessarily prove that you loved him.
1987, The Chimneys of India Song, from Practicalities (1987, trans. 1990)., Own words

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Awards

Austrian State Prize for European Literature1989

Prix Goncourt1984

Grand prix du théâtre1983

Family

Mother Marie Donnadieu-Legrand

Marguerite Duras

Partners

Child Jean Mascolo

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About this person

Born Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu on 4 April 1914, she became Marguerite Duras and spent decades working across forms most writers keep separate: novels, plays, essays, experimental films. The script for Hiroshima mon amour in 1959 brought her an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and marked her as someone who understood how memory breaks and reassembles on screen. She kept pushing into stranger territory as a filmmaker in her own right, making work that refused easy comfort. She died on 3 March 1996, leaving behind a body of writing that still reads like a dare.

Country

France

In common with Marguerite

Jeanne MoreauAlso in The Lover (1992)

Tony RichardsonAlso in Mademoiselle (1966)

Peter FinchAlso in 10:30 P.M. Summer (1966)

Delphine SeyrigAlso in La Musica (1967)

Melina MercouriAlso in 10:30 P.M. Summer (1966)

Silvana ManganoAlso in This Angry Age (1957)

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