Literature and Popular Culture
The unusual story has continued to fascinate and inspire many writers.
- Alexandre Dumas, père, included a fictional account of the events in his novel The Two Dianas, as well as in his multi-volume Celebrated Crimes (1841).
- Janet Lewis' historical novel, The Wife of Martin Guerre (1941), is a fictional exploration of Bertrande and her motives for her actions.
- The 1982 film Le Retour de Martin Guerre (The Return of Martin Guerre), directed by Daniel Vigne and starring Gérard Depardieu and Nathalie Baye, was based on the historic accounts. The screenplay added a fictional ending, including an account of Bertrande's motives. Historian Davis (see above) served as consultant for the film.
- Sommersby (1993) was an American Hollywood adaptation of the story, starring Jodie Foster and Richard Gere. It set the events in the United States, during and after the American Civil War.
- The musical The House of Martin Guerre (1993) was based on the case and first produced in Toronto.
- The musical Martin Guerre (1996), by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, premiered in London at the Prince Edward Theatre. It set the story at time of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, during the French government's persecution of the Huguenots. Its ending deviated from the historical account.
- Wiedersehen mit einem Fremden (The Return of a Stranger), a 2010 German TV film, directed by Niki Stein, sets the account in a village in the Black Forest after World War II. The end differs from the historic events.
- Another musical titled Martin Guerre, written by Laura Harrington and Roger Ames, was premiered at the Hartford Stage, 1993, directed by Mark Lamos and starred Judy Kuhn. It won the Connecticut "Best Play" award that year, and had a sold out, extended run into 1994.
Read more about this topic: Martin Guerre
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, literature, popular and/or culture:
“Popular culture entered my life as Shirley Temple, who was exactly my age and wrote a letter in the newspapers telling how her mother fixed spinach for her, with lots of butter.... I was impressed by Shirley Temple as a little girl my age who had power: she could write a piece for the newspapers and have it printed in her own handwriting.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“It is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“If our entertainment culture seems debased and unsatisfying, the hope is that our children will create something of greater worth. But it is as if we expect them to create out of nothing, like God, for the encouragement of creativity is in the popular mind, opposed to instruction. There is little sense that creativity must grow out of tradition, even when it is critical of that tradition, and children are scarcely being given the materials on which their creativity could work”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“The treatment of African and African American culture in our education was no different from their treatment in Tarzan movies.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)