French Literature Reviews - 2026
Études sartriennes, No. 11: “Cinema and the French Revolution”
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs
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Études sartriennes, No. 11: “Cinema and the French Revolution”
featuring an unpublished excerpt from the screenplay *Joseph Le Bon*
edited by Gilles Philippe and Vincent de Coorebyter
220 pp.
Brussels, Ousia (distrib. Vrin)
ISBN: 2-87060-129-8
€22
We know very well that Jean-Paul Sartre conceived a film project about the Revolutionary Reign of Terror and the National Convention deputy Joseph Le Bon. The rare allusions made to it by those close to him suggest the project dates back to the mid-1950s; furthermore, the two sets of notes available to us show that Sartre carried out extensive reading, though he abandoned the venture fairly quickly. Nevertheless, these fragmented manuscripts—often consisting simply of scholarly notes—open up fascinating perspectives, which are explored in the essays gathered here. These papers follow the recent publication of roughly a quarter of this unfinished project (“Fragments de Joseph Le Bon,” *Les Temps modernes*, nos. 632–634, July–October 2005, pp. 675–694).
The texts in this collection are the result of research conducted by the Sartre Team at the Institute for Modern Texts and Manuscripts (ITEM, CNRS-ENS).
Around the *Joseph Le Bon* Screenplay
Gilles Philippe: On an Unfinished Screenplay
Jean-Paul Sartre: “Characters.” A Few Unpublished Pages from the *Joseph Le Bon* Screenplay
Gilles Philippe and Julien Piat: The “Characters” Section of the *Joseph Le Bon* Manuscript
Michel Contat: A Note on the Film Sartre May Have Had in Mind with *Joseph Le Bon*
Jean Bourgault: “Turns against the common people: from that point on, it’s doomed.” Sources and Genesis of the *Le Bon* Screenplay
Benoît Denis: From Anatole France to Jean Paulhan: Terror and Literature
John Ireland: Another Aborted *In the Mesh* (*Engrenage*)?
Pascale Fautrier: Sartre, Love, and Revolution
Rose-Marie Gerbe: Reflections on the Genetic and Linguistic Problem of a “Screenplay of a Screenplay”
Varia
Hadi Rizk: The French Revolution in the *Critique of Dialectical Reason*: Completed Revolution, Endless Revolution?
Laurent Husson: The Spectator Sequence: Film and Cinematic Spectacle in Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre maintained a lifelong interest in the intersection of political commitment and creative expression. His engagement with the French Revolution, particularly the period of the Reign of Terror, reflects broader intellectual concerns regarding the nature of historical change and individual agency within collective movements. The essays in this collection examine the archival notes and fragments left behind by the author, documenting research conducted by the Sartre Team at the Institute for Modern Texts and Manuscripts. Readers interested in the history of mid-twentieth-century French intellectual projects may find these investigations into the genesis of his writing relevant.
The contributions explore the relationship between Sartre's literary output and his theoretical reflections on history, such as those found in the Critique of Dialectical Reason. By examining the screenplay Joseph Le Bon, the authors discuss the challenges Sartre faced when translating revolutionary politics into a visual medium. The collection focuses on the linguistic and genetic aspects of these unfinished manuscripts, which consist of scholarly notes and fragmented pages. These studies document the development of Sartre's ideas on revolution and the cinematic form through his research process.