Why Hitchcock himself hunted the detectives of the literary tandem Boileau-Narsejak

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

These two writers, even before joining forces, achieved some success - in any case, they were known and published in France. But it was the Boileau-Narsejac duo who made a breakthrough in the detective novel genre - such that Hitchcock himself hunted for the rights to the film adaptation of their books.

Two Pierre - Boileau and Ayrault

Pierre Boileau and his namesake Pierre Eyraud, who later took the pseudonym Tom Narsejak, and before the start of their joint activities, achieved some success in the literary field, both were awarded a national French prize.

Pierre Louis Boileau was born in Paris in 1906. An employee of a felt factory, he was very interested in everything related to detective stories, he read the works of then popular writers - Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Gilbert Chesterton, Rex Stout. Having tried himself in the role of the author of detective stories, he began to publish in the magazine "Reading for All", where his stories with the hero-detective Andre Brunel were published. This character appeared in 1934 in Boileau's novel titled Pierre Trembling.

In 1938, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, The Rest of Bacchus won the Best Detective of the Year prize at the Adventure Story Competition in France. The following year, the writer was drafted into the army and soon found himself in German captivity. Two years later, the seriously ill Boileau was released at the request of the Red Cross. After the war, the writer returned to literature, creating more and more detective stories.

Pierre Robert Eyraud was born in Rochefort-sur-Mer in western France. Philosophy became his vocation - Ayrault taught at the university and was very interested in the psychological component of detective stories. He writes about the theory of a detective, and in the second half of the forties, he himself tries his hand as an author of a work of fiction - already under the pseudonym Tom Narsezhak. In 1947 he published his "Aesthetics of the detective genre", which, among other things, examines the work of Boileau. And “Death is a Journey,” a work by Narsejak, in 1948 also received the same prize as Boileau ten years ago - for the best French adventure novel. At a gala dinner dedicated to the victory, the two writers met, who immediately found interesting interlocutors and like-minded people in each other.

Narsejak, in a conversation with Boileau, insisted that "English" detective prose was hopelessly outdated, and it was no longer possible to continue writing in the same style. The detective novel was supposed to be different, and the best way to create something that you want to read, they both considered starting to work together on a novel.

New detective novel and imitations of old

The first novel of the tandem was written in 1951, and was published only seven years later under the pseudonym Alain Bukcarzhe - anagrams to the names of two authors. In total, over forty years of joint work, they have written more than fifty detective novels and stories, as well as works in other literary genres. One of them was the pastiches (imitations) - as in the collection “Imitation of Personalities”. The book published "sequels" of the works of recognized masters of the pen - the same Conan Doyle, Ellery Queen, detective queen Agatha Christie and others. They did not forget about the development of guidelines for the development of their main direction - Narsezhak periodically published articles and essays on the theory of the detective genre and the police novel.

Great success brought the writers the publication of the "continuation" of the adventures of the noble thief Arsene Lupine, the hero of a series of books by Maurice Leblanc. By the way, in addition to the French duet, other novelists were also inspired by this mysterious character, including Boris Akunin, who wrote "The Prisoner of the Tower, or The Short But Beautiful Path of the Three Wise". Boileau and Narsejak published five such novels-pastiches about Arsene Lupine.

The writers themselves talked about how the work was structured as follows. Boileau - by nature a dreamer - was responsible for the idea, intrigue, invented plot moves, Narsezhak, in turn, was engaged in deducing the characters of the characters, checking the reliability of what was happening in terms of personality traits. Sometimes it happened that the plot invented by Boileau could not, from Narsejak's point of view, be realized, because it did not agree with the psychological portrait of any of the characters - they had to look for new options. victim, these two roles are often interchangeable, and as the reader moves deeper into the plot, more and more unexpected turns await. It is not surprising, therefore, that the work of Boileau-Narsejak attracted a keen interest of cinematographers - including real luminaries - like Alfred Hitchcock.

Screen adaptations of the books of Boileau-Narsejak

The novel "The One Who Has Done", written after the tandem's debut work, seemed promising for two directors at once - Henri-Georges Clouzot and Hitchcock. The first turned out to be faster and bought the rights to film adaptation from the authors. The film was released in 1954 under the title "The Devils". The two main characters of the film - the mistress and wife of the director of a private school and the mistress abandoned by him - decide to take revenge and kill their common abuser, however, subsequent events show that the real picture of what is happening eludes all participants in the events. Clouseau tweaked the plot while retaining the book's idea of confusing both characters and readers about the classic roles of victim and perpetrator. Changes were necessary - the plot of the novel revolved around the theme of a lesbian connection between heroines, and in the fifties it was unrealistic to release a film with such overtones.

Since the denouement was very unexpected, the shooting was carried out in an atmosphere of secrecy, and after the release of the film, viewers in cinemas were asked not to reveal the answer in conversations with those who had not yet seen the picture. The director gave the main role to his wife Vera Amada, who, by a fateful coincidence, died a few years later from heart failure.

A remake of the film was filmed in 1996, starring Isabelle Adjani and Sharon Stone. And in the USSR there was a film adaptation of the novel - called "The Circle of the Doomed", with Igor Bochkin and Anna Kamenkova in the lead roles.

And Alfred Hitchcock, "missing" one of the writers' works, nevertheless made a film - based on the next novel by Boileau-Narsejak, "From the World of the Dead." The film, released under the title "Vertigo", has collected many awards, received various interpretations and rightfully became one of the best works of cinema. The story begins with the involvement of a former police officer in spying on the allegedly insane wife of the customer, who is in a strange relationship with her long-dead relative. The finale, in the tradition of the authors, turns out to be discouraging - both for the hero and for the audience.

"Dizziness" is a case when not only the director of the film, but also the authors of the original work, which became the basis of the film, turns out to be the masters of thriller and suspense. Towards the end of their careers, in 1986, Boileau and Narsejac will publish a book titled Tandem, or Thirty-five Years of "Anxious Tension" - about their creative paths and the guidelines that guided both over their decades of collaboration.

In 1989, Boileau died, until the end of his life he lived in a happy marriage with a former secretary from the magazine "Reading for All". After his death, Narsezhak wrote and published several works. He himself passed away in 1998.

Cases when, joining forces, two writers become a genius literary duet, are also known in Russian culture - like Ilf and Petrov - however, it is possible that in this collaboration everything was completely different.