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The Disembodied Voice: India SongAuthor(s): Marie-Claire Ropars-Wuilleumier and Kimberly SmithSource: Yale French Studies, No. 60, Cinema/Sound (1980), pp. 241-268Published by: Yale University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2930015 .

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7/23/2019 2930015


Marie-Claire

Ropars-Wuilleumier

The Disembodied Voice1

IndiaSong

"Reconnaitre

'dcriture

ans la parole,

c'est-A-dire

a

differancet I'absence

de parole, c'est commencer penser

e

leurre" Derrida, De la grammatologie)

It is because ofthe

privileged osition

of

sound, and particularly

f

the voice, according to

Derrida,

that

writing as become less

im-

portant: relegated to the level of graphic transcription, riting s

derivative

f vocal expression,which

n

turnprovides inguistswith

their

model

of

language

n

general.

The

result

f this

xclusion,

he

historicalmovement f which

Derrida describes t length romRous-

seau to

Levi-Strauss, clearly goes beyond

the establishment f a

relationship etween womodesof anguage;because ttouches pon

the

status

of

meaning,

t

implies

n

ontological

tand. The closeness

of

meaning

and

sound,

which the

act of

speakingbrings

nto

play,

supports

he

postulate

hat

onsciousness

as itsown

presence,

irect

and

complete;

the essential

nteriority

f

being establishes

n

anter-

iority

f

meaning

o

sign;the signifieds taken s full nd immediate

origin, erasing

the

grammatological lay

of

differance

etween the

signifiers,

hich

makes origin mere

trace, lwaysrelaying

nother

trace. In the resultant ouble reduction, ound falls back on voice

and

voice

on

meaning.

This

phono-centrism,he basis

of

logocentrism, elps

to

explain

the

history

f

sound cinema

and,

in

particular,

f

French inema: as

the

complement

of

reality,

ound could

provide

silent

film

with a

supplement

of

soul. The

apparent

submission f voice to

image,

whichthe tradition

f

verisimilitude

as

promoted,merely

overs

up

theanchoring f visualrepresentationnverbal igns:one must lim-

inate the sound,

n

French inemaof the classical

period,

n

order

o

'This

article s takenfrom

study

n the

portrayalfwriting

n

a film y

Marguerite

Duras (India Song). The study s part

of a work

n

progresswhich nalyzes heconcept

of

film

writing

nd its relation o

montage.

241





7/23/2019 2930015


Yale FrenchStudies

liberate the formal igures

which diting

ometimes uggests.Resis-

tance to thisdomination fmeaning s based less on the rejection f

words than

on the

perverting

f their

unction. ecause of the mpor-

tant

place given o the text, he

film

workof

Marguerite uras offers

the

paradox of making he voice the

means ofwriting, husreintro-

ducing,

ccording o the Derridean project,

writingnto peech. This

operation

always depends

on

a

radical disjunctionwhich, eparating

the voice from tself,

mposes upon

it

an unending eparationfrom

the

image:

a

separationwherein the

word

is

destroyed, he

film

created-unsettlingmeaning,but at the same timestarting riting

out

on

its perilouspathofrequisitioning

eaning. et us examine he

tensionsof

this

ourney

n

the

opening

of India

Song.2

IMAGE

TRACK SOUND TRACK

INDIA

SONG

Shot 1

(5"). White etters

n

black

ground.

One

sentence

at

upper

left:

Stdphane

Tchalgaldjeff resents.

2

(3'52").

Long shot,high ngle,

no move-

ment.

Outside, day.

Blue

landscape,

blurred

and

flat,

cut

2/3

down

by

a

hor-

izontal

line; 1/3 blue land, 2/3 pale blue

and white

sky. Partially

visible to the

right,

road cuts

diagonally

o

the back-

ground.The

sun,

an

orangish-yellowall,

graduallydisappears withoutmoving, s

the

credits

appear, super-imposed

one

after he other

white etters):

India

Song

By Marguerite

Duras

A

bitter

female

voice

begins

to

sing

a

with chant

n

an

oriental

anguage:

t's

thetune

Delphine Seyrig

of

Savannakhet,

ung y

he

beggarwoman.

Michel

Lonsdale

Matthieu

arriere

Claude

Mann

21 have reproducedhere

a

tableau describing

he

first

shots f ndia Song, upon

which thisessay is based.

For the entire cript f the

film, nd of Son nom de Venise

dans Calcuttadesert, ee the

dossier

published

n

L'Avant-scene

u

cineima,

25

(April,

1979).

242






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Marie-Claire

Ropars-Wuilleumier

Vernon

Dootcheff

Didier Flamand

Claude Jean

Original

music by

Carlos

d'Alessio

The singing

tops,

the voice begins

to

Co-produced

by

Sunchild and

Armorial

laugh sharply,

hen to speak

in a synco-

Films

patedrhythm;

everal

entences

n

a

row.

S.

Damiani-A.

Vaglio-Cavaglione

Associate

Producer:

Stephane

Tchalgadjeff

The credits

end. A

bird crosses the

sky

The beggarwoman

alls silent.

A

female

from eft o right, hendisappears. voice, low, weet, ometimes bit olemn,

begins

o

speak:

V1. A

beggarwoman

Une

mendiante)

The sun

continues

to

disappear

slowly

Another

female voice,

slow and sweet,

during

he entire

hot.

younger,

bit

pretentious,

ontinues:

V2. Mad (Folle)

V1.

That's rightC'est

ga)

...

V2. Oh, yes,

remember.

he

is standing

at the

edge of

the

river. he comesfrom

Burma. Ah oui,

je

me souviens.

Elle se

tient

au

bord des

fleuves.

Elle vient

de

Birmanie.)

The singing

egins

again

for

a moment,

then tops.

V1.

She

isn't ndian.

She comes

rom

av-

vannakhet.

Born there. Elle

n'est

pas

indienne.

lle vient

e Savannakhet.

N&e

la-bas.

The singingcomes and goes, accom-

panying

oftly

he voices.

V2.

One day,

she's been

walking

or ten

years.

One day, right

n

front

f her,

the

Ganges. (Un

jour,

il

y

a dix ans

qu'elle

marche.

Un jour,devant

lle,

le Gange).

V1. Yes, she stays.

Oui.

Elle reste.)

V2. That's

right

..

(the beggarwoman

keepssinging). ll her hildren ead,while

she walks

n toward

engal. C'est

ga

...

Tous ses

enfants morts,

tandis

qu'elle

marchevers e Bengale.)

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Yale FrenchStudies

V1.

Yes. She leaves them, ells them, or-

gets hem .. TowardBengal, he becomes

sterile

.

.

(Oui. Elle les laisse, les vend

les

oublie

...

Vers le Bengale, devient

strile.

...

)

The singing lone for a

time, then with

the

voices:

V2.

Savannakhet, aos.

V1.

Yes

. ..

Seventeen ears.

She's preg-

nant and

seventeen.

Her

mothermakes

her

eave. She leaves

.

. She asks direc-

tions

or

how

to get ost

..

No one

can

tell

her.

Oui

. . .

Dix-sept ans.

Elle est

enceinte,

elle a

dix-sept

ans. Elle est

chassee par sa mere. Elle part

.

.

Elle

demande ne ndicationour

e perdre ..

Personnene sait.)

A birdcrosses theskyfrom ight o left. The singing,heard during he silences,

The

sun is three-fourths

one.

continues

lone,

then

tops.

The

beggar-

woman's voice begins again,

brusquely,

chanting,

ometimes

houting,

seriesof

sentences.Her voice falls

ilent, nd the

dialogue

of voices continues.

V1.

At Calcutta

they

were

together.A

Calcutta, elles etaient nsemble.)

V2. The white

woman nd

the

other

ne?

(La Blanche et l'autre?)

V1.

Yes. It was

during

he same

years.

(Oui.

C'etait pendant

es

memes nnees.)

By the end of the

shot,

he sun has almost

On

the

piano begins

a

1930's-style

mel-

completely disappeared.

In

the back-

ody:

sustained

ndante,

syncopated.

t's

ground,

o

the

right,

emains smallwhite the

ong

whichwill

be called

"India

Song"

patch, present

from he

beginning

f

the

(blues).

It will

continue

without

nterrup-

shot: the

only ight oint

from hen

on.

tionuntil he

beginning

f

shot

7.

3

(56"). Medium close-up,

3/4-vieweft,

"India

Song"

on

the

piano.

no movement. nterior

ight.

A

lamp

with

a

pink

shade, lighted,

itting

n a black

piano. Photo of a

younggirl

n

a black

jacket

and

trousers

garden

n

the back-

ground) eaningagainst he

amp. To the

244






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Marie-Claire Ropars-Wuilleumier

right,on the closed keyboard,

a

score,

witha title.

A

servant

n

white ndiandress nters rom

the eft

ear, setsa bouquet of white low-

ers

to the

right

f the

photo, ights

can-

dle and some incense, moves toward he

darkenedrear,wherehe kneels nd lights

another

candle, then goes out left.

"India Song" on the piano.

4

(59"). Close-up. Interior.

Beginningwith a pan from ight o left,

V1.

He had followed her to India. (Ii

very low, on thewhite pangles f a black l'avaitsuivie ux Indes.)

fabric.

The camera

moves up the black fabric,

V2. Yes. .. For her he had

left very-

sprinkled

with

blueish, white,

and

gold

thing.

n one

night. Oui

... Pour elle

il

spangles.

avait tout

quitt6.

En une

nuit.)

V1. The night f theball? La nuit u bal?)

V2. Yes ... (The piano, accompanying

the

voice,

is heard alone

for

moment.)

The camera thenmoves toward he right,

V1.

Michael Richardson

was

engaged

o a

picks up the owerportion f a red gown, girl

rom aint Tahla,

Lola

Valerie

tein.

gilded jewels, red hair against the black (Michael Richardson6tait fiancea une

background.

We

go up

the

length

f the jeune fillede

S.

Tahla

...)

red dress, againstthe black fabric, elted

by

a

shining

whitechain.

V2.

The

wedding

was to take

place

in

autumn.

Then

therewas

the

ball

.

..

the

ball

of

St. Tahla.

(Le mariage

evait voir

lieu

a

l'automne.Puis ly a eu ce bal ...

ce

bal de S.

Tahla.) (The piano continues,

rather

oudly.)

Moving back to the left, we see again

the lower part of the red gown and the V1. She had

arrived ate t theball

.

.. in

gilded ewels.

the middle

of the night. . dressed in

black.

Elle

6tait

rrivee

ard

ce

bal ...

au

milieude la nuit

..

habilleede noir.)

5. 10"). Close-up, front iew, no move- "India Song" stillon the piano.

ment.

nterior.Photo of the

girl

n

black

(opposite view),

the flowers o

the left,

V1.

So

much

love

at this

ball,

so

much

three

half-filled

lasses

on the

right.

he desire.

(Que

d'amour

a

ce

bal, que

de

smoke from the incense rises. ddsir.)

6

(15").

Medium

close-up,3/4-view ight, Still "India

Song"

on

the piano.

no

movement.

nterior ight. o theright, V2. This ight? Cette lumiere?)

a

lighted

handelierreflected

n

a mirror

V1.

The

monsoon. La mousson.)

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Yale

French

Studies

behind it

on a

mantle seen

in

the back-

V2.

This

dust?

Cette

Poussiere?)

ground. n front ftherectangularmirror V1. CentralCalcutta. Calcuttacentral.)

a

small

rectangular

lock

with

ed

flowers

on

either

ide. On

the

wallat

the eft

ear,

two

small

pictures,

ne

above the

other.

Partially

isible,

front

eft,

he

railing

f a

staircase.

7

(17").

Close-up

front,

no

movement.

The

song

ends

with

n

arpeggio.

Interior

night.

Reframe

on

the

clock in

thecenter, hemirror ehind t obliquely

V2.

There's

a

kind

of

scent

of

flowers.

reflecting

nother

mirror),

nd

the

red

(Ii

y

a

comme

une

odeur

de

fleur.)

flowerson

either

ide,

reversed

by com-

Vi.

Leprosy..

(La

lepre .

.

)

(silence)

parison

with

he

previous

hot.

V2.

Where

re we ...

? (Oit

est-on..

?)

Above,

a

chandelier

hose

facets

re

multi-

plied

in

the

mirrors.

On

the

right

o

the

rear,

the

reflection

fa

sconce.

8

(1'

29").

Medium

close-up.Outside

day.

VI.

The

French

mbassy

n

India.

Against the blue sky,seen frombelow, (L'Ambassadede France, ux Indes.)

part

of the

fagade

f

a

palace

(a

window

n

V2. That

ound?

Cette

rumeur?)

classic

style,

wrought ron

balcony)which

VI.

The

Ganges.

.

.

(Le

Gange.)

the

camera

covers

slowly

during

the

(silence)

sequence. In

a

downward

movement,

we Vi.

After

er

death,

he

left

ndia?

see first

scaffolding

nder

the

window.

(Apres

sa mort l

est

parti

des

Indes?)

Then in

a

left-to-right

an,

we see a

suc-

V2.

Yes

..

(Oui

.

.

.

)

(silence)

cession

of

crumbling

alls,

round,barred

Vi. She's

buried n

the

English

emetery?

doors and

windows with

closed

shutters

(Sa

tombe

est au

cimetiere

nglais?)

and

broken

panes,

filling

he

entirefield

(green leaves in front n theground).

The

camera

moves

up

again, first

rossing

V2.

Yes

..

(Oui

. .

)

(silence)

the

pink

columns

of a

portico,

opped

by

Vi.

Died down

there,

n

the

slands

..

a

loggia.

Moving

up

still

higher oward

he

Found

dead,

one

night ..

(Morte

a-bas

second-floor

windows,

some

without

aux

les

.

..

Trouvee

morte,

ne

nuit

..

shutters,

e

come

out on

the

opposite

ide

(silence)

of

the

palace,

mirror-image

f

the

first

side,

standing

ut

against he

background

of blue sky.

Continuingfrom

eft

to

right,we reach

V2.

A

black

Lancia rolls

along

the

road

a

dark

green

forest,shot

from

below

to

Chandernagor ..

that's

where, or

he

against

very

blue

sky. The

camera

stops.

first

ime,

he

.

..

(Une

Lancia

noire

file

sur

la

route de

Chandernagor

..

C'est

la, une

premiere ois

u'elle

...

)

(pause)

Vi.

Yes.

.

.

(Oui .

.. )

(silence)

246






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9 (3' 2"). Medium shot, nterior ay. In a Continued ilence.

right-to-leftemi-circularan, the camera Then,

distant ries

repeated y

a bird

with

crosses a sitting oom, beginningn one a hoarsevoice (a crow). Muffled lows.

cornerwith red couch and arm-chairs, The

crow s heard

gain.

white nd blue porcelain amp, a portrait

of a woman done

in Second

Empire style,

Vi. What are

you afraid

of?

(De quoi

incense, and a French door, the eft ide avez-vouspeur?)

halfopened on a park bright ight);next

the camera frames blue

Chinese

lamp

Crowcalls.Other

ird ounds.

ong pause.

with pink hade sitting n thepiano next

V2.

(low and tense)

Anne-Marie tretter.

to the photo of the girl n black (lighted A long silence. Distant sounds.

candle, incense, bouquet of threepink V2. In the vening hey anced? Le soir,

roses on the eft); t sweepsoverthepiano ils dansaient?)

standing

n

front f

an

open

French

door

(dark green park

n

background), rames Vi. They

re

dancing. Ils dansent.)

a

score seen

from

he back, reaches dark The tune of "India Song" begins

on the

recess hungwith aintings), hen young piano and continuesuntilthe beginning

man in a white

uit collar open),

motion- shot

1.

less, shot n 3/4 hot, ooking o the right:

standing,

hands

in

his

pockets, leaning

against a mirror

n which

he is reflected.

Also reflectednthemirrorre twoFrench

doors and the

piano

with

the

objects

sit-

tingon

it.

The camera

stops

on the

mirror,

where

a

dancingcouple

is seen: a

young

man

in

a

grey-beige

uit

(open collar),

a

young

woman

with

red hair

in

a rose-tinted

beige dress flouncedbodice).

VI.

Why

o

you weep? Sur quoi pleurez-

In the

background,

n

the

mirror,

re re-

vous?) (Piano alone for moment)

flected

the

initial view

(couch

and first

VI. I love you to blindness, o deafness,

lamp). to death .. (Je vous aime

usqu'A

ne plus

The

couple

has

stopped ancing

nd

stands, voir,ne plusentendre,mourir .. (Again

embracing. the piano alone for moment)

The

young

man

in

white urns

is

head

to

With the piano

in

the background, he

the right. he youngwoman withdraws beggarwoman's oice is heard (one sen-

bit

and

turns round.

tence).

10 (21"). Mediumclose-up,no movement. "India Song" continues or longtime n

Outside day. The white steps, brightly the piano.

lit, of a stone staircase with railing n a

park trees

n

background).On the eft,

shadow

passes

across the

bottomof the

steps,

then

disappears, front eft.

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FrenchStudies

Barring The Sign

Alternating, nonymous, bsent, two femalevoices set up the

problematic eginning f a story n ndia Song. Through

7 shots or

nearly 0 minutes), ccompanied y disjointedmages,

where epresen-

tation trives o be born nd to survive, heirmemory lowly

weaves a

series

of

links between

a

beggarwoman- "mad"-a

woman-

"dead"-and a man who

will

be known s "the FrenchVice-Consul

to Lahore". At the end of thisprologue, s

if

the patientworkof a

hypothetical econstructionadborne tsfruit, hey isappear,giving

way to the scene of a receptionwhere,during bout 30 shots shots

28-58, 57 minutes), the characters,pulled fromthe shadows and

doubled by

a mirrorwhichreflects

hem,

will

evolve.

The

narration

reappears, however,for

he

film's pilogue,where,

hrough

6

shots,

lasting approximately

3

minutes,3 gain

two

voices, anonymous

and absent, this imemale and female,replace

the

figures reviously

evoked, bringing

he

story

o themortal

nd ndicated

y

the

opening.

Such a description evealsfirst f all thepredominantole ofthe

sound

track

n

the

structuring

f

the

film.The

direct,

f

not

contin-

uous,

reconstruction

f

one

episode-the

central

eception-is,

so to

speak, embedded between

two

currents

f narration

directedby

voice, by the voices. Given their tatus

of

origin

n

relation o the

image,

their

functioning

n

the

prologue

nevertheless

elies this

pos-

sibility

f an

originating ole,

and

thus turns he

origin

nto a

ques-

tion. Speaking ndialogue nd thereforeual,the wovoices ntroduce

from he outset the conceptof division: he approach of

the story s

dispersed

n

the

circuitous oute

of the words. Different

n

timbre,

one

low,

theother

higher,

ften

istinguishable-one an,

for

xample,

call

themV1 and

V2

in

order to

recognize hem-they

nonetheless

duplicate

each other

t

times, xchanging

ones

as well as

lines; they

are

thus aughtup

in

a

dizzying

esemblance

here

ny

table

dentity

is destroyed.Who

is

speaking?

he

voice,

when

t

s

invisible,nspires

this question. But can this "who" be discoveredwhenit becomes

plural, unable to

be

reduced

to the mere addition

of two stable

3Shots 59-72.

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entities?Narration s said to be at the origin

f the

story.

But at

the

origin of the

narration s

the fissure

reated

by

a

dual discourse,

where the unityas well as the oneness of the subject vacillates.

Montage

is

already present

n

the voice.

"A

beggar- Mad-That's right."Actually, hetwofemale oices,

whose dialogue beginsthe narrative pening f ndia Song

in

shot2,

are not at the originof the film's ound statements. efore them,

another voice, female as well, is heard, its foreign inging, ts dis-

quieting laughter,

ts

unintelligiblewords, demonstrate

he three

substantive omponents f a sound track,as recognizedby semio-

logical analysis.But themusicality f thechanting ecomesopaque

in

the presence

of

signs which require deciphering,while the signs

themselves,

heir

inguistic

ode blocked

out

for he Occidental ud-

ience, lose theirmeaningvalue, becomingmere sounds, ust ike the

music or the background oises. Blurring he codic distinction

stab-

lished at the level of substance, he elements f the sound track re

thus shownto belong

to

a singleweb

of

sound,

theweb

wovenbythe

very realityof the track.4Throughout he film,

he

bird calls, the

rhythm f waves, are anchored

in the

rhythmic

tructures

et

in

motionby the music. The musical irs, doubled on the piano like the

voices

in

the story, ntwine heir hemes

n

the manner f the pro-

tagonists,

whom

they apper

to

motivate.

As

for the

spoken lines,

their

musical

phrasing

trikes s

first,

he

timbre,ntonation, hythm:

stops become silences,restsbecome intervals, nd the spacing

f

the

sounds, ncludinghefamiliarpeechofvoices, uspends hepossibility

of

recognizingigns, esignated riginallys foreignanguage, anguage

as

foreigner.

The

intervention f

the

beggar

n the

opening

f ndia

Song

thus

sets the tone:

the

dominance

of the

enunciating oice,

to be

sure,

made

all

the

stronger y

its

nvisibility;

ot

ust

a

voice,

but

voices,

gliding ver one another; nd not ust enunciated hrases, utopaque

4We gree n this ointwithhe onclusionsfDominique hateau "Projet our

une dmiologie

es

relationsudio-visuelles

ans es

films," usique

en

eu,

23,April,

1976),who tresseshat he rio

word-noise-musicepresentsfunctional

rganization

rather han material ivision f the signifiersf the ound rack. ur goal

s to

examine ere he

means f

writinghich, ydisruptinghe unctions,

educes

earing

to themateriality

f

sound.

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sonorities,

n whichwe can read the traceof a kindof

writing,

hich

draws ts first mpulsefrom ound.

The privileged osition iven

o

thevoice-over music nd speech

comes from systematic rejudice n the challenging f theaudience.

It is reinforced y the parallel tatus ssigned o the mage. The vocal

chain continues n a

single hot,

for

particularlyongperiod

of time

(3' 52"), thus establishing link between the sonic intrusion f the

beggar and the narration y the two voices,which lternate, voking

the narrated tory nd addingto it the story f anotherwoman "At

Calcutta theywere together").Spanning he whole shot, ometimes

accompanied y

the

original hanting

nd

cutby silences, heir ialogue

commands

all the

more attentionbecause visual parameters re

noticeably educed here; the absence of humanfigures, he rejection

of

perspective, he progressive limination f color are characteristic

of this

flat,pale, undecipherable andscape: perhaps road,

washed

out

beyond recognition.Meanwhile,

he

only pot

of

color-the

red-

orange sun-seems to disappearwhere t s, rather han inkingnto

the

horizon.

The

stronger he voices,

the weaker the

mage.

At the

end

of

the

shot, the piano replaces the dialogue, accompanying uring he next

shot

(shot 3) the entrance f

a

character-a Hindu servant

who

has

come to

light

a

lamp.

Thus with the silence

of

the voices,

human

representation egins, annihilated y the return f words n shot 4,

replaced by objects which support he return f the voices from

distance. t is not until hot9, drawn ut like shot2 (3' 2"), that he

protagonists inally ppear. But their ntrance auses the voices

to

slow

down, nterrupted,paced

out and

alternating

rom his

oint

n

with

the cries

of

birds.

In

its cut-up tate, verbal expression

indsno

diegetic upport

n

the

mage.

The

prolonged

bsence

of

visual

form

ives

dded

support

to the

sonic

forms, long

with

the

risk that

theymay change

from

sound tomeaning.However musical heymaybe, phonetic missions

cannot

completely scape

their

elationship

o words.

The weaker he

image-let us reverseour previous tatement-the more our atten-

tion s

centered

n what

the voices

say,

our

only

emantic

asis n

the

absence of visual

representation.

t

would

be

very empting

o

conclude

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from histhatthere s a possibility

f disjunction, nd thusto

follow

Duras's own statement oncerning he Woman of the Ganges,

that

"first raft" f ndia Song, insistingn the necessityfestablishing

separation between

the

"filmof

voices"

and the

"film f

images.

S

This declarationof independence

eems to be

firmly

stablished

n

India Song, which ppeared

as a book beforebeingmade

into film,

and whose sound trackDuras

used almostwithout

modificationto

make another ilm,

on nom de Venise ans Calcutta esert. owever,

this s preciselywhere this eparatism eaches

ts

imits: he fact hat

the same sound track ould giverise to tworadically ifferentilms

shows not

only

that t

is

polysemous,

ble

to

support

wo

types

of

reading; such an adaptation ndicateseven more strongly

hat the

writing f

a film

destroys

he identity

f

the sound

track: as the

writing rogresses, he structuring

f the film omes more

and more

from he

articulation, rescribed

y

the

editing,

etween

visual ex-

pression

nd sound

expression;

nce

a sound track s

integrated

nto

film, t

no

longerexistson its

own.

Image/Sound:

Modalities

of

a

Disagreement

The first

ymptom

f this engendering yntaxappears

in

the

unlinking

f

the voices

in

relationto the

image,

and

the

semiotic

status ttributed

o

them

y

their onstant ff-screen

osition.

Unseen,

the

two narrators

f the

prologue

are nonetheless

mplicated

n the

story hey

voke. These

two

daughters

f

memory the

Frenchword

"Memoire" containsboth"meme"-same-and "mere"-mother)

reactivate trace wakened ythebeggar's ong: Oh yes, remember."

But

theyreturn s well-the

voices acting s a mirror, eflecting

he

fiction

nd

thuscompromising

heirnarrative utonomy. hey

speak

of

a

desire

"So

much ove

at this

ball, so muchdesire"-the sentence

is

accompanied

in

shot

5

by

the photograph f a younggirl)

which

seems to

be

suddenly

eflected

n

a desire

rising etween hem

t

the

momentwhen the

protagonists

f theball

appear, embracing:

I love

you to blindness, o deafness, o death," saysone voice to the other

5MargueriteDuras, Nathalie

Granger, ollowed

by La femmedu Gange (Paris:

Gallimard,

1973), p. 102.

6See the

film cript ublished n L'Avant-scene u

cinema,

op. cit., p. 63.

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at

the end of shot

9,

as Anne-Marie tretter

nd Michael Richardson

appear, dancing,

n

the depthsof a mirror. ll narrations dual, yet

all

narration

s

also menaced by the very act of narrating. hus

absorbed by the fictionwhich hey hemselves elate, hesevoices cry

out to

be on-screen.Yet

farfrom

atisfyinghe desirethey rouse n

the audience, the desireto see

them, hey raw ll thefictional oices

into theirweb, even when supporting odies appear on the screen:

the words

f

theprotagonists

uring hereception,poken yunmoving

lips, unsettle he distinctionetweenon-screen nd off-screenn that

they bring into play a hypothetical ff-screen pace at the very

moment when the presence of

bodies on-screen alls for a similar

incorporation

f

theirvoices.

The distinction etween

on-screen ound,whichmarks he mage

as

the

source

of

sound, and off-screenound, which ndicates he

opposite,

has often

been interpreted

n

the basis

of a

semantic

postulate

which assumes the existence

of

a fixed ine

between

the

on-the

image-and

the

off-another place

not

represented

n

the

image, but renderedbelievable

by

the

llusion

f fictional

eality: ff

is therefore ither reated by

diegetization-past

or

future-repre-

sented

n

its most elementary

orm

y

a

shot/counter-shotequence,

or else

it

is

part

of

an

impersonal

narration, elegateddefinitively

o

the exterior y the conventions

f

the

story.

he

variation

resented

by

interior

monologue

n

no

way

contradicts hisclassification:

nly

isolated characters re

accompaniedby

the

voice,

off,

of

their

med-

itations-a surplusof fictionwhichrespects he distinctionetween

fiction, ven interiorized, nd

narration,

whose

originalposition

s

guaranteed by

its absence.

In

order

to

understand

he

displacement

created

by

the

constantuse

of

off-screen

ound in

India

Song,

one

must

separate

the semiotic

facts

nd their

narratologicalnterpreta-

tion.

Far

from bolishing

he

distinction etween

n and

off,

the

film

activates t, preventinghe attribution

f stablefunctions

o either: he

off

osition

f

all voices-fictional r narrative-causes contamination

of the

fiction nd of the

narration, iving

he tension

etween

ff

nd

on

all itscorrosive

orce,

which

revents

hedefinitionf

the

nteriority

of the fiction nd the

exteriority

f

the narration

n

specific

erms.

Both

voices, having

the

same

positionoff,

re

in a

shiftingtatus,

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Ropars-Wuilleumier

confusing he andmarks f the storywithout ntirely ejecting hem.

Narrative n origin,

V1

and

V2

might t anymoment ecomefictional;

and the voices of the fiction re, in turn, hakenbecause of their

distance, as though ossed in the wake of a narrationwhich s itself

vacillating, nd which cannot absorb them completely

n

any case.

Exclusive though

t

may be,

the

category ff

does not weaken the

statusof the on category; nstead t emphasizesboth tsnecessity nd

its mpossibility. he excluded on becomes an object of desire and

a

factor f

negation:

desire

for

presence,

he

equivalence

of the voice

heard

and

the person seen; negation t the veryheart

of

this

desire,

forpresence,modulatedbitby bit,

s

alwayspenetrated y

an "other

place" whichkeeps it from ulfillment.he conjunction

f voice and

image, drawingnearer and nearer, s never accomplished-thus we

find in the middle of

the

film that the two off-screen

ialogues

accompany

the

dance

of

Anne-Marie Stretter

irstwith

the

young

Attache, then

with heVice-Consul:

the

gulf,

ever

bridged,

etween

word and body, announces

that which

separates sign

from

being,

separationof selffrom meaningwhich annotbe expressed yself.

Apart

fromone

another,

the

voices of the

beginning

ntroduce

apartness

in

voice-and division

n

presence. The withdrawal

f

sound,

in

relation o image,

n

no way signifieseparation, ut rather

enunciation constantly eferred.

n

addition,the opening of India

Song,

in

the silence imposed

on

the image, indicatesthe type of

relationwhichunites t to the sound track.Let us go back to shot2,

preceded only by the producer'sname: from he beginning, he title

text is printed over the flat expanse of scenery, ne of the most

common

practices.

What

is less

conventional,

n

the other

hand,

s

that the

appearance

of

the title foreign) ndia Song, comes right

beforethe first

ntervention

f

thebeggar's inging; et hevoices tell

us

during

he

shot thatthebeggar s not ndian. The titlemakesthe

written ign visible; but by the montageof text nd sound it makes

writing

n

the

sign visible, the connection equired nd denied

of

a

song bearingthe title India" and a non-Indian oice. As the surface

on which

this

text

s

inscribed,

he

mage prolongs

ts

mpulse.

Once

the

writtenwords have

faded,

the

verygesture f writing

ecomes

visible, legible,

with

the line drawn twice

by

the

passing

of a bird

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across

the

screen.

n thismovement ack and forth, he

ight eemsto

trace something

which, n the sign, rises from he trace-a

form n

flight,eceding,lusive, xcept y later eturnn which t s nverted-

the trace of a trace.

The image s thus n a way delegated

o take up

where the writing eft off, not by

taking charge of signs,

but by

revealing he disappearance

of legibility

herethe signwas written:

as the

bird

traces invisible ines,

the setting un blurscolors and

contours.Here thewriting,hroughhe mage, peaksof obliteration-

the slow obliteration

f the text nd

the apparition f a tracewhich

begins again immediately ach time t is abolished.

The

titles

must be deciphered

iterally: he written ines of the

lettersdemand

the

retention

f

their

meaning, arried

hrough he

whole shot by the scoring

f

the

voices

and the moving

clipse of the

picture.They symbolize

writing,

hichmust e considered

n

tsmost

radical sense: the

dismantling f the sign, to

which

end

the very

montage

of the

signs

and the

staggered

movementof

the

visual

signals

and the sound emissions

work.

Leaving shot2, letusmoveonto theendof shot , ourprovisional

goal,

which

s of almost

qual

duration.

The

setting

f the sun

causes

the

progressive

isappearance

f the

only pot

of color n the

picture:

in this manner,

the visual

representation

eems to

contribute o the

invasion

of whiteness,

which t

the

end of the

shot,

s reflected

y

the

voices

in

speaking

of a "white

woman,"

associated

with

he

beggar

who is

now referred o

as "the

other."

Once

spoken

of,

the white

woman disappears: as the voices fall silent nd thepiano beginsto

play

in

shot 3, a man enters,

dressed

in

white,

a

servant-a

man

rather hanthe expectedwoman;

where

s

thewhite

woman? "White

voices" (=toneless voices),

"whitenights" = sleeplessnights),

white

India"-the

textof ndia

Song

weaves

throughout

he

film he

figur-

ative

approach

of whiteness.But

aren't white notes the double

of

black

notes-the

measures

of

the

musicheardon the

piano?

A

piano

plays

"India

Song"-the measured,

yncopated

otes

fall ike

eaves;

and for he entrance f theservant,hot3 presents swith he closed

keyboard

of

the

piano

on which

he

places

whiteroses.

The

piano

is

black,

the servant

s male.

In

shot

4,

the

voices start

up again

with

a "he"-"He

had followedher

to India"-unnamed

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Marie-ClaireRopars-Wuilleumier

until a bit later:

"Michael Richardson;" the camera, seeming to

imitate he pace of

the "suite," passes over

a drape of black fabric,

the voices, weaving hereproductionf theball, bring orth woman,

"she,"

but she

is "dressed

n black." It would

be tedious o enumerate

all the signsof thispursuit. ollowing

double

route,

hesound track

and the mage

track lternatelycho each other,

nable

to come to an

agreement, to make their statements oincide:

White has

moved

from ound to

image-and fromfemale

to

male; male

has

passed

fromvisual representation

o sound enunciation, nd the return

f

the femaleelement nthe voice's discourse orrows rom he magea

black

coloring

which he

passage

of thecamera

replaces

with ed.

The

diachronic

montage

eemsto aim at an

impossible ynchronic

ccord-

and the mage corresponds

o the

signonly

to

turn

t

away,

to

push

t

aside.

Slipping

under one another

n this

way,

each of the

two tracks

seems

to

follow n

autonomous

tinerary:

he voices move

from he

present ense of the beggar "She

stands t theedge of the rivers")

o

the imperfectf the two women "at Calcutta, heyweretogether")

then to the

pluperfect

f the ball

("she

had arrived

ate at the

ball")

then

returnto the

present

for their

only

enunciation "so

much

love

. . .

"), while themontageof images

tightens he spatial area,

moving from

an

overall

shot to a

close-up,

but projects onto

it

a

radicaldiscontinuitylandscape,man,objects

with

nothing

n

common)

undoing

the mechanisms

f

the narrative ntroduction

hichworks

by concentrating

he

point

of

view

on a singleelement.The space-

time

of

the

mage

s

suspended, hat f thevoices

surrounds n absent

center. But the unevenness f the

gaits,

on the evel of synchrony,s

part of each of these gaits,whichproceed diachronically

y desire

for

and

denial

of

agreement:

he voices call up

the mage, ry o take root

in

it,

and

the image

reflects he spoken wordsonlyto subvert hem,

reducing hem

n the end

to the mere

process

of

their

nunciation.

This separation reaches its maximum

ntensity hen,

n

shots

6

and 7, thevoicessuddenly eem to see rather hanhear:"thisdust?"

"this ight?"one of the voices

asks

briefly;

there's

kindof

scent

f

flowers."The use

of

deictics, howing

he

assignation

f

the

signs

t

the

momentof

speaking,

urns he discourse oward he function f

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reference: the objects are

designated, not merely denoted; their

designation s

supported

or

he first imeby

simultaneouslymitted

visual

signals: shot

6

showsthe reflection f a

lighted amp "light")

in a

ratherdim

mirror

"dust"), framed y faded

"flowers." t's as if

the voices had

stopped

telling

n

order

to

look around. But the

response

of

the othervoice

puts an end to this

oncordance: he ight

is

from

the monsoon," the

dust comes from

centralCalcutta," the

scent

of

flowers

ndicates

leprosy"-the anonymous nterior ramed

in shot

6

is

thus propelledtoward named

exterior, eographically

situated,butnotshown.Farfrom he mageatthemoment tappears

in the

image, the reference

disarms the act of language-which

attempts

o

harmonize he

two

paths of signification

y a common

function

of enunciation,

wherein speaking oins

with

seeing: the

namingof

the

location-Calcutta-brings intoplay a cultural efer-

ent, external,

which

s

belied

by

the

constant

resence

f the

nternal

mirror, oubled

in

the

following hot, upon

which

he

visual

repre-

sentation eems

to

focus.

The

referent

lways remains

lsewhere

outsidethe mage which timulates nd deters he need for he voices

to

be

present.

The more this

anchoring

s

desired

and

the nearer

t

draws,

the

more it

s

distanced.The visual and sound statements

meet only

n a

repeated

approximation,

hose text hen

formulateshe

original

en-

sion:

between the flower

as

represented, een,

smelled,

and

the

linguistic amingof it,

stretches he metaphoric pace of "kind of"

(comme)-"there is a kindof scent of flowers."No agreements

possible

between he

ignaling

nd

the

ignificance,nd,

n

the

extreme,

no significancet all is

possible; since

t is

impossible

o

connect he

sign

to

representation,

he

sign

tself

s infected

y

a

metaphorwhich,

like

"leprosy,"

ats

away

at all

transparency.

metaphor

ot

tabilized

in

a

figure,

ather

metaphoric

movement, racedbythecomparison,

revealingboth the approach and

the separation

of

its

own/proper

meaning:

far

from

ubstitutingne term

for

nother, he nsinuation

of

the

term

"kind

of"

causes the extinction

f both

terms-and

the

downfall

of

terminology.

o

flowers,

no

leprosy.

The

criticismf

enunciation

undertaken

by

the

montage

of

the visual and sound

statements hus

falls

back on

the

inguistic

tatement aken

by

tself:

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Ropars-Wuilleumier

the mpossible

eference ven

upsets he

possibilityf the ign,

whose

inappropriateness s

unmasked; set

in

motion

by the

montage,

he

writingiscloses hework fthemetaphornthe ign,which

eparatest

from

tself.

"Where are

we?"

In

shot 7,

the doubling

of

the

mirrors, ach

framing

he other,

reversing he points

of

referencend

multiplying

the

reflections f

the lamps,

corresponds o

the "Comme"

("kind

of").

Double, like the

voices,

doubled ike the sign,

he

mirrors

ring

into

play,

in the reflected

eflections,

he return

rom

he

beginning

to the path: everyoriginating ign s erodedby a metaphor; very

image is

always already, from

he

start, reflection:

where s

the

image and

where

s

the reflection

hen,

n two

successive

hots

the

distribution

f

space

is

reversed?

he play

with

mirrors, hererepre-

sentation

vacillates,doubles the

unsettling

f

meaning y portraying

it. The

voice's

question-"Where

are we?"-can

only

reflect he

disorientation

reated

by

the

montage.

Yet

it also

reinforces desire

for

dentification-thwarted ntilnow-which shots and

9

progres-

sively satisfyby

sustaining

n

appropriation

f

the name

in two

instances.

Without being

united

n

a space-time

ontinuum,

hots

8

and

9

nonetheless

multiply he signs of

articulation-and

the

reference

points: both

scenes

take

place in

daytime-while

the

framing hots

have not, until

now,

permitted hedistinction

etweennight nd

day;

both

shots

are

of

an

ensemble-one exterior

a

facade), theother,

interiora sitting oom); they re finallyinkedby thepassageofthe

camera,

whose

direction

s

reversed

rom

ne

shot o

the

next.

Shot

8

begins

after

the

voice's

question,prolonged

until

that

moment

by

silence.

By

offering discernable

ite, the

image

brings

n

answer,

immediately aken

up by

the othervoice,

which

dentifiesthe French

Embassy

in

India."

The

naming

f

the place

seems

to

coincide

with

the visual

pronouncement-even

if

this

name

introduces,

n

the

territory

roper, the

mark of

a

de-territorialization.

ut

while the

image thus falls in the realm of the sign, the sound refusesthe

agreement ttempted nd woven

by the

voices:

"That

sound?" asks

one,

following hrough

n

the

gesture

f

referentialndication-and

the other

gives

a

name-

"the

Ganges"-but the identified ound

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does not break

the silence. Although

the image yields, the sound

resists.The continuationfthedialoguebringsmore ndetermination

by removing

t from

spatial

to a temporal lane: the same tense-

the present-creates

an association

etween hetime f thenarration,

subsequentto

the story "her tomb

s in the English emetery"), nd

the time

of

the

story tself "a

black Lancia rolls along the road

to

Chandernagor").

What's more, the image yields

only partially.

ar

frombeing perceived n its entirety,

he residence

depends, for ts

appearance,

on

a descriptive an,

which anreveal ach new fragment

only by abolishingthe precedingone, which the subsequent one

nonetheless

recalls: at the far nds of the facade,

thepan thus etsup

two wingsresembling ach other,

choing

nd

apart

from ach other;

never seen at

the same time, hey re separatedfrom

ne another y

the verymovement

which

unites

hem.

The

distant

epetition

onfirms

doubling

ctivity, resent

rom

the opening,

t the evel of

representation-in

he ubjects f

enuncia-

tion V1 andV2), as inthosewhich re enunciated,where he"she,"

of shot 2-the

beggarwoman-melts

nto another

she,'

mentioned

and

not

named

in

shot

4.

Precipitated y the metaphor,

rystallized

by

the

mirror,

he

double runs

ecretly hrough

he

entire

ext;

hiding

similarity nder difference,

therness

n

sameness,

it

brings nto

question,

at the evel of stated

figures

s well as at that f

enunciating

forms,

he

identityf

the

being

conjured up by

the voices.

The Letter n theName

Having

been avoided

n

shot

8,

the

process

f

naming egins gain

in

shot 9,

this time ntroducinghe uniquenessof

the propername.

While

a

very

low

pan passes

over

a

sitting

oom

to

reveal,

t

theend

of the

shot,

the

large standing

mirror

n

which

he

protagonists

re

later reflected,

he voices remain

ilent

for

long moment, elieved

by

the intrusion

f

exterior

igns:

the same

intrusion alled for nd

reflectedn thepreceding hot,an intrusionwhich uddenly,n this

interior hot,brings ack the

memory f

an

intruding

utsideworld,

barely filtering

n

through

he

windows

before

which the

camera

passes.

Now there s

anxiety

n

thevoices

"What

are

you

afraid

f?")

and,

for

the

first

ime,

with

the name "Anne-Marie Stretter,"

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photograph, lready een

in

two previous hots, s thefocalpoint f a

definitive dentification,f

an

accord reached between he mage

the photographof a young girl-and the sign-a proper name,

a

woman's

name-perhaps

the name of

a

meaning

t last

established.

And

this

operation

s

not

without

onsequence:

the

voices

accelerate

the re-enactment "They danced-they are dancing"),

the camera

touches on the characters, nd the story-the development

f a

transformation

n

an established

nd

ordered pace

and

time-begins

to take over the montage:thereturn,

n

thefollowing hots,

of the

samecharacters, hosegesturesutline hedevelopmentf anaction-

an

outing

n

thepark shots11, 12, 14); theanchoring f

this

ction

n

auditory erception, wordfrom hebeggar, voked

butnot situated

by

the

voices

in shot

2, and,

at

the end of shot

9, seeming

o take her

place in the diegesis-in the park towardwhich he characters

urn

when theyhear her.

It

is

as

if

the

discovery

f the

proper

name

had

triggered, long

with he stabilization f the

sign,

he

possibility

f a

storyblocked

until

now by the writing ame. Engaged

in

the

sound

space

of the

beggar, he

drift

f thevoices

comes up

short

gainst

he

visual space of Anne-Marie Stretter;

nd

the speaking

of the name

seems to stop the movement f separation egunby the sonorization

of

the voice and prolonged y

the

out-of-phase eflectionf represen-

tation and significance.

However,

the

trace

undermines ven the

proper

name. Once

more, let

us

put together he chain begun

in

shot

2.

"A beggar."

Althoughunable to nameher,thevoicesattempt o identifyerby

tracing

the

limits

of her

geographic ourney, using a network

f

names. First of all, the point of origindraws near littleby little

"Birmanie" ("She comes fromBurma"), Savannakhet "She comes

from avannakhet"), Laos )"Savannakhet,Laos"): each pronounce-

ment

pushes

back

the point f departure; nd when,

n

the ast hot f

the film, he camera retraces he itinerary n a map, the shot ends

with

thecamerastill

moving ast

Laos and

toward

he East. But

the

movement owards he originmeets a contradictory ovement, lso

traced by the voices, evokinga westwardmovement-the Ganges,

Bengal. The beggar "comes from" nd "walks toward"at the same

time; the oscillating ature f the ourney hwarts hefixed eference

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point

of the

poles; gravitating

bout

an

absent

enter, nnameduntil

later, when twill be doubled like the mirrors"centralCalcutta")-

the tinerary,

hroughtsnames,constitutes place of tension,where

the point oforigin s penetrated y ts negation, y constantly ecal-

ling the ending

point. The textual outeof the names organizes oth

the

search for

and the rejectionof the origin: s the text ays, the

beggar, "forced o leave

by

her

mother," enies nyplace

of

origin-

"She

is not

Indian."

Let me

interpretiterally he movement

f

negation,

which

might

insinuatethenegationof the proper Frenchpropre= literal, wn,

clean, proper], even

of

the

proper

name.

Repeated

several

times,

associated

with

Laos,

the

name

Savannakhet ounds

even stranger

since t contains, n

the center hefirst ame anna, and, at either nd,

the two initial etters f Stretter; ith hese two etters one, what s

left s

rZier,

the

reduced mark

of the

double, infinitely

urned

n on

itself-and

we

might

ven

say

the

sign

of

fear,

which auses one

to

burrow se terrer). avannakhet,the hidden name of thepointof

origin,provides,

while

holding

t

back,

the name of

Anne-(Marie)-

St(retter),

which

"Bir/manie"might omplete,

f r is

substituted

or

n to

make marie.

The

dismantling

f

the name seems all the more

present here because the text

as a

whole

workstowardthe

under-

mining f the

sign:

"C'est

pa,"

the

first

ine

of

V2,

is

the

phonetic

equivalent

of the

beginning

f

Savannakhet;

Je me

souviens,"

"elle

vient,"

"elle

devient" shot 2) preview

he

v

of

Sa/vannakhet,

hich

sets us on the trace ofanotherpropername-"Lola ValerieStein,"

named

in

shot

4

with the

appearance of

the red hair that

will

be

Anne-Marie Stretter's

tarting

n

shot

9.

Stein

begins

the same

as

Stretter

nd

also

as

"sterile;"

and

the

beggar, "folle,"

"nee

la'-bas,"

in

"Laos," multiplies

he letters f

Lo/la;

as does the network f l's

built

up

around

Bengal ("Elle

les

laisse,

les

vend,

es

oublie")

and

punctuated y

Calcutta.

n

Calcutta

we find lso, as in Bengale and Blanche,the reminder f the

"bal"

which,

n

shot

4,

associates

the

name

of Lola

with

he remains f a

still

anonymous

"elle."

Thus the text eliminates he letters

of

a

hidden

name

and

brings

ntofocus

hose

of

a

substitute ame.

f

more

is necessary,

here

s

still

the g

in

the middleof

Bengal,

doubled

in

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Ganges: the firstetter

f the

maidenname

G/uardi,

hename of her

mother,which

Anne-Marie

tretterater

ays

he has

kept "garde"),

the g

turns

up again

in

the

last

shot, among

the

separate

etters

f

CAMBODGE (Cambodia),

spelled out by

the camera on the

map.

With

the

help

of the

beggar

and

the

story

f

her

journey,

the

letters break up the

text, generating wo

names with double

first

names, which duplicate each other, even while differing. he

net-

workof resemblances hus et

n

motion

s not imited o

thenamesof

women; startingwith La/os

and

passing

through o/la,

it reaches

La/hore, n shot 13, ustwhen the Vice-Consul s, inturn, dentified.

In

Lahore, a name

of absent presence, the

very principal f

dis-

functioning

s

present, from

which

the

montage derives the very

resources

of filmwriting.his writing, hich eparates

hevoice from

itself, nd the sound

from he picture, lso works,

et t be said from

the

start,

n

the

graphic

racing

f the

etters, hysicallyortrayed

n

the titles f the

beginning

f

shot

2.

Authorized

y

the declineof

the

visual image

and the nvasionof

the

sound track,

he etterswork

o

open

the

film; they

open up

the

dismantling

f the

sign

and

the

slipping

f the names.

It

is

hardly urprising

hat,

n

a shot

where

he

image is silent, evealing ts obliterationn the presence

f voice, the

writing peration

s

primarilyoncerned

with he inguisticmaterial:

the

supposed unity of

signification xplodes

in

the separation

of

meaning

and

sound; slippingbeneath the signified,

he signifier

s

reduced

to

fragments

which can be released, available for other

combinations,which nscriben the signthe call for nd the traceof

other signs.

This

phenomenon

s

hardly are

n

tself. t is the density

of

signs

which

s important

n

this ase-making

themperceptible n

a

phonic

chain-as well as their condensatin

round the proper

names, which re actually he iteralnames, n

which he dentity f

the

subject

is affirmed; he underminingf thepropername under-

mines

the

subject tself.

As generator f sound,bearer

of theforeign-

ness

of

anguage,nameless, ven "mad," the

beggar paresno name,

no subject. Eeryone,even Michael Richardson,named n shot4, is

caught up

in

the

wake. "Forced to leave by her mother," eeking

directions

n

orderto

get

ost

"se peridre"),

the beggarwoman ides

the

name

of

the

father

Pere):

"no one (per/sonne) nows." This is

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the absent name brought ack by Michael Richard/son- on of both

Richard and of per/son/ne, ince he also bears the traces of the

title-the Son/g fromwhich the g, the letter f Guardi, has fallen.

Bearing the name of his father,having ost the letter ignifyingis

mother, t is Michael Richardsonwho remains ilent hroughouthe

film.

We

will

come back to the

readings

n

each

figure,which

are

suggestedby

the

way

n which

he trace splits he name.

What will

emphasize

first

ere s the cripturalpecificationf thebeggar's ole,

which can be read even in thesigns hat ustainher.Always spoken

of, yet

blocked from

peaking, she appears to be the engineerof

writing-like the girlof The Womanof theGanges, also mute,mad,

whose first ppearance on the screen auses theactive nterventionf

the montage. Far from esignating stateof being, kindof deper-

sonalization,madness

n

this

ase indicates he ymbolic esire

o

ose

one's being,

to

become

a

non-being:

f

he

beggar peaks,

her

speech,

with

its

hidden

meaning, ies; the beggar

can but haunt the text

vocally,dismissing

ll

pretention

o

truth

n the

part

of

the

ign.

Thus

the only sign decipherable

n

her text

s

"Savannakhet,"

the

name

incarnating he splitting f the name:

"there

s

no

name for

that."7

The

Writing f

the

Film,

or

the

Suspended

Vocative

By reading

Duras

throughDerrida,

it is not

my intention o

"guarantee'

he text-whichwould

be

perfectly

seless-nor to

furnish

a sterile verification f his theory.Derrida's reflectionsannotbe

reduced to a seriesof

conceptual ecipes.Negative

n

the

whole,they

serve

less to show the

truth

bout

writing

han

to reveal the ncom-

patibility

of

writing

nd

truth

on the same level: for

Derrida,

a

propositionrings

rue

only

when

t is

announced

with

uthority.8

n

this

perspective,

he

exploration

f

writing,

onducted

n

philosophic

terms

n

Grammatology,

an lead to a new

type

of

reading,

bent on

determining

he

semiotic onditions

f the

writing

f the

texts, ues-

tioning

lso

what

there

s

in

the

texts hat

contradicts

riting. y

its

development

of

an

endless

negating rocess,

the

textual

practice

f

'Jacques Derrida, Marges de la philosophie Paris: Minuit,

1972).

'According to the title f the articlepublishedby Derrida n Communications,1

(1975): "Le Facteur de la veritd."

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Marguerite uras parallels heclearing-awayperation

n the heoretic

field, ed by Derrida: thus,whenLol V. Stein speaks,"thesentence

explodes,

it

burstsmeaning

..

emptiness

s a statue.

ts

base: the

sentence."9 The conjunction

f the two

is

not

in

itself ingular;

ts

interest

ies

in

the

reflection

n

it,

which

xplicitly

arks he entence

as a machine to create emptiness,

nd

Lol

as

the seeker

of a

"word-

absence," a "word-hole,"

a

"gong-void."10

t is

this gong

which

s

sounded by India Song; the exasperated slowness

of the

text,

the

prolonged resistance f the materials, he extreme ecompositionf

each emergence, all organize the film nto a "scene of writing,"

particularly

uited

to

provoking

n

investigation

which returns o

theory

tself.

We

are

now faced

with

double-barreled

uestion.

First f all-

and this

s

what

have

tried o do

up

till now-it was

necessary

o

establish

the notion of film

writing,

o check out

its

pertinence,

o

examine

its

mannerof

functioning.

he

linguistic

ctivity

f

letters,

where the analysisended up, does notweaken,butstrengthenshe

specific

tatus f the forms

y

which

he

separation

f the

montage

sound, iconic,

audio-visual-conducts the

scriptural

movement

f

the

film;

t

merely mphasizes

hefact hat t s

truly

round he stake

of

meaning-and

thus

round that

of

the subject-that

all

writing

s

bound; and the inguistic ismantling

f

the ignifier,

aving pread

o

the phonic chain in shot 2, precedes-and generates-the

endless

filmic liding fthe signifieds, hich, rom hot

2

to shot9, separates

sound from mage,and the voice from ll stable enunciation. et at

the

same

time-and

this s

the second barrelof

the question-the

specifically inematographic

orm f

the montage

n (a) synchrony

reveals,

in

the

writing, hat the means of its movement

an also

become

the source of its

failure.

From

the beginning,

he writing f

the film

proceeds

from

desire for tability hich

he voices, always

foiled, always

refer o

the image-until the very

momentwhen the

success of

this

peration

s on

theverge f precipitating

hefilmic ext

into a narrativity hichwould end the tracing ame:

in shot 9, the

name of Anne-Marie Stretter inally ncounters er

mage; the fact

9Le ravissement

e Lol

V.

Stein,

op. cit., p.

135.

I'lbid., p.

54.

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FrenchStudies

that this name bears the infectious race of other names, that the

image s, inthe beginning, nly photograph lready een nprevious

shots-the traceof a trace, herefore,nd not a

full-fledgedmage-

is not enough to prevent he arresting low dealt to

the writing y

this onjunction f representationnd sign,desired,

pproached, nd

finally ffirmed:t s at the end of this hot, s we have

seen, that he

narrativemechanism s set

in

motionby the apperanceof the person

conjured up by her name and image. The fear xpressed

ythevoices

before she

is

named seems to evoke the riskof death runby writing

when it attains he object of its desire.

This

risk is called up by the activationof the mirror,which,

beginning

n

shot 9, brings nto the image itself,nowdoubled and

divided

by

ts

reflection,he movement f separation,

ormerly

raced

by

the

phonic

chain. The

device

of

specular eflectionhen

epresents

the arrangement

f

the voices,which eflect ach other

ike a mirror;

by duplicating tself, he representationakes upon

itself he

original

tension ofV1 and V2.

It is

symptomatic hat

in

the epilogue, the death

of

writing,

touched on during he prologue,materializes

irst

n

the

stabilization

of the voices.

Beginning

with

hot

59,

the

nsistent,

inear,

narrative

evocation

of

Anne-Marie

Stretter's ast

days begins;

the

storypro-

ceeds

by

the continued

inking

f

episodes-the trip

o the

slands,

day

at the "Prince

of

Wales,"

an

evening

t

the

Residence,

nd

traces

of suicide. Now the vocal chain

has

changed; he liding

f the double

and the

circulation

f

exchanges

s

ended

by

thedivision f

thevoices

intoMale and Female, clearlydistinguishedrom ne

another,

ach

fixed in its role: the Male

asks

questions,

and

the

Female,

which

knows, answers, nforms,onfirms. he images

hemselves, lthough

they rarely uggestfigurativenterpretations,1

tend more

and

more

to the

symbolic

llustrationf the

pronouncements,

hich

ave become

narrative:Anne-Marie

Stretter

eaning

on

a window

s

accompanied

by the line "She is lookingoutside" (shot 62); two trees leaning

towardeach otherby"It's as

if

theyweretalking

o each

other,"

the

commentary

n

a

meeting

etweenAnne-Marie

tretter nd the two

"IBy this,

let

us

understand,

n

a

very

restricted

ense,

the

obliteration f

the

human figure.

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Marie-Claire

Ropars-Wuilleumier

men

who

accompany

her

shot 66);

the

successive limination

f

the

music, the light

and a fan, imitating he rhythm f

Anne-Marie

Stretter's ast gestures

efore

her definitive

xit

from he

scene

shot

71). In addition,

edundancyets n,

with

heterm revenu" returned)

constantly ropping

up.

Anchored in the

story, upportedby

the

image, meaning

saturates the

spoken

words, puts

an end to

the

writing; nd the slipping

n

of

scriptural

ifference

s

fixed

n

the

differencenstituted

etween he sexes. The mirror, hen,

has ceased

to function: t is stillpresent

n

the

mage shots67, 69,

and 71),

but

itspolished,cloudy surfacenowreflectsnlyvague forms;whilethe

heterosexuality

f the voices

seems to reflect he

penetration

nto

he

original

role of feminine

ameness,

of

a

masculine

ther,

which he

functioning

f

the

mirror oth warded

off nd

urged

on.

With the mirror herebegins

a new

analysis,

which

would put

a

limitation n the psychoanalytic

actors mplied by

this

passage

to

representation,

ven

if

it

were doubled.

Before we

begin,

let

us

returnfor a moment

to the

production

nd destruction f

writing

created

by

the

film. t is

hardly riginal

or

he

opening

of a text

o

show clearlythe

failure

f

meaningby

revealing

ts

continuing

eed

to constitute

he rules

of

meaning:

for hat

matter,

he

gears

of

a

text

are

always

set

n

motion

by

a

systematically

xercised

writingctivity.

What is interesting

bout Duras' film, s is the case with any

text

which

questions he

very

onditions f

ts

enterprise,s, naturally,he

insistent, rolonged

unveiling

f

the

contradictionstablished

n

the

beginning etweenthewriting rocess nd the demandsof thestory;

however, uch nsistence nly serves o

emphasize ension's tatus s

origin, gain

challenging he pretention

hat ransparencys an origin

and

that modernitymight be defined

by

its

reaction against,

ts

straying

rom

he "norm" of transparency.

We must learly

keep in

mind

that,

n

any

semiotic

ractice, eparation

s

a

component

f the

movement itself, and realistic codes

constitute nly one

formula

among others, eeking

o reduce

or

hold

back

the

rate of

separation.

The

modalities

governing he setting

p of the text s a film re

more

nteresting

ere: it

s, paradoxically,

n excessof textual

ndica-

tions,

the

obvious

designation f the linguistic

lay on the signifier,

that

brings

bout the

actual filmicmovement

f writing: longwith

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the divisibility f the sign,the reciprocal ejection f the visual and

sound statementss engaged;themontage-untuned ikethepiano of

shot 29-responds to the signalfrom he text,first y thwartinghe

chances

of

articulation y

the

voices:

the

unsynchronizedeflectionf

image and sound explodesthe articulativetructure hich, n cinema,

activatesboth visual

and linguistic omponents; nd therestitutionf

harmony-of harmonies-so undermines he scriptural nergy hat

the filmends, havingprojected on one of the characters he death

thus recognizedby the text.

It is in thisrelationship etweenwriting nd enunciation hat he

film

xperiment onductedby Duras is mostclearly n extension f

Derrida's

theoretical

nvestigation.

he

writing ctivity,

hich elies

in the film n the heterogeneous ature f the two pathsof meaning

jointlydeveloped, reveals the structural eterogeneityf the act of

language; as the desired horizonof the voice, representation efers

(difftre)

peech; and when

t

suddenlymakes speech

a

reality, peech

in turn becomes a place of difference. nreconciled nd separated

from ne another, mage and sound present rupture

n

the middle

of

the articulationwhich

imultaneously

mobilizes

hem

both; or,

to

be

more

precise, they

reveal

in

the enunciation faultwhich

purely

linguistic ustomusuallyhides.

Concerning

he

nature f

this

ault,

he

pecificityf

the

film,

uch

as

Duras uses

it,

allows

us

to formulate

everal hypotheses.

The

discursive

xacerbation f

the off-screen

oices

brings p

the

question

of referencewithpeculiar sharpness, hediscourse aking hargeof

reality, according

to

Benveniste:

listening, ommenting, voking,

telling, dentifying,howing,

he

voices

multiply

hereferential

ppeals

to an

exterior

world,

which

the

animated

mage,

characteristic f

cinema,

seems

clearly

suited

to

handle;

and

the

spectator,having

entered the film

by

the

vocal

door,

follows

the

viewpoint

f

the

sounds

in

order to

recognize

the forms.

Now it

is

the referential

capacityof visionthat s found,because oftheasynchronic ontage,

to

be both

exasperated

nd thwarted: he

picture

eads to

referentiality

by

its

analogical status,

nd

escapes

from

t

by

the

autonomy

f its

statements.What is said

cannot

coincide with what

is

shown.

By

refusing

o

bring

the referentialllusion

nto

play,

the

opening

of

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India Song unmasks n illusionwhichpresides ver themovement f

referentiality,lways turned owardthe world,yet contained n the

heart

of the

text.

What does the undermining f the sign contribute

o the dis-

mantling

f the

articulative ystem?By actualizing

fissure n the

propername, the dissemination f

ts etters rings s to

the

supreme

referential uestion, that of

identification, hich would allow

the

union of

person

and

name,

of word and

thing.

The fact that

the

meaning

of

a name is distinct rom

ts

reference

s

amply

tressed

y

the clash betweenverbal tatementnd representation:nce named,

the

figures lude the signs

which express them. They

set

another

enunciation

n

motion,

f which

he

voices do not

take account-thus

making

it

useless

in

turn.

However,

the

suspension

of

reference

reflects n

the

meaning

tself: he statement oses

its

transparency

when the enunciative pproach, unacknowledged y

the visual

pre-

sentation,

s referred

ack

to themere

play

of

signs,

aken ver

by

the

writing.No meaningcan be expressed n itself.Althoughmeaning

and reference

re

necessarily

ifferentiated

y analysis, hey

annot

possibly

be dissociated

n

their

ctualization.Caught

n

the

trap

of a

plural semiotic ystem, rticulation

inds tself-in the filmic rocess

of

writing-confronted y

the nternal ifficultyf a

definition hich

separates reference nd meaning,

whereas

the

former annot

be

suspended without

he

latterbeing shaken.

Tension is shownhere

n

thedivision f thereferential ovement,

split by the synchronicmontage between the two voices (which

designate)

and the

picture which ejects

hisdesignation).

n

therest

of the

film, thermeans are used to mobilize nly hevisualmontage

in

orderto establish nce again the distance

rom heworld.Thus the

contradiction etween

voice and image

strives

orresolution, hat s,

in

fact,

for he abolition f

writing.Writing, hen,

s

developed

n

the

failure of

enunciation,

n

the

inability

f the word to appropriate

being:this s whatcinema s bestable to show,when t s submitted o

a

marked textual

activity.

ut the

blocking

f the

scripturalmove-

ment s

inherent

n

the movement

tself,which roceedsfrom word

bent on the

accomplishmentf discourse,

hesuccessful

inning ver

of

a universeexternal o the discourse,yet formedby it. A single

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Yale

FrenchStudies

movement ulls the writinglong and threatens o

hold t up: death s

the instigator f the text, he death of the text tself-drawn toward

its own end. In this, Duras, being too much in

agreementwith

Derrida's conceptualization, ets-a imit,not so much

for nalysis s

for

the concept tself.

By the embodiment f the voices n the

elimination f the bodies,

by deferringheorigin hrough multitudefploys

based on presence-

absence, by

the

breaking p of propernames, and by

the metaphor-

ization, from he beginning, f signs,we can markout a Derridean

path through

he

film

ndia Song. By

its

excess,the voice adds sound

to the signs; by its lack, the image marks,but does not designate.

Thus

speech, oscillating etweenmeaning nd music,moldsthetext,

disfiguring

he

image, which

n

turnmakes speech a figure:

his

s

a

never-ending oute, where each leel of relevance

vacillates.

But this

imbalance is fragile, nd one can just as easily

multiply

he

signs

showing

reduction

f

separation,

he

founding

f a unanimist

ig-

uration. The extreme ensionof thisdouble system etermineshe

nature

of the

opening

of India

Song, which, by

emphasizing

he

conditions

or he

emergence

f

writing-the

withdrawalf

the

mage

in order to allow for he ntensificationf

the

voice

which

ollows

t-

also

initiates

the conditions of

its

disappearance-the

desire for

representation hich he mirror nd

the

montage

annot

ndefinitely

defer.

translated yKimberly mith

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