Silvia Monfort - The Fall That Made Her An Author

The Fall That Made Her An Author

In 1946, her first novel appeared. She later explained that what had determined her to write was her seven-meter fall through the glass roof of the Studio des Champs-Élysées. She played in Federico García Lorca's La casa de Bernarda Alba and Maurice Clavel, disdaining her philosophy books, wrote for her first play, The Love Letters. :

"The day when I was to abandon one play for the other, my colleagues from the Studio offered me champagne on the roof of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. I had never drunk wine or champagne. I passed through a skylight and found myself in the hospital, my head shattered. Three weeks in a coma, during which Maurice's play was prepared without me.
When I was back on my feet, sad and without a role to play, I sat down at my work table. Without this accident, maybe I would never have taken the time to write. For later, in order to write, I had to take away time from the theatre."

When a journalist asked her why the actress which she had never ceased to be had never been tempted to write a play, or a film script, she replied: "Writing for the theatre is a very special gift. Even some great novelists don't have it. The dramatic author breathes into his characters a life that he doesn't control.
But what interests me above all in writing is analysis. To know, to explain the reason for things, to follow step by step the actions of my characters.
And then, I couldn't stand seeing them with another face than that which I had in my mind!"