C Mansfield. Sunday, 20 June By Georges! Simenon on film. It was published by Penguin in Britain under the mundane title Newhaven-Dieppe. A famously prolific author for four decades from the early s, Simenon's work is still a favourite for adaptation to the big and small screens, not least thanks to his magnificent Maigret books. Bertrand Tavernier chose to take his first film, The Watchmaker of St Paul , from a Simenon novel and is still a fan: 'I love Simenon, I think he's one of the greatest writers.
A version of one of Simenon's most famous novels, Stain in the Snow , is said to be in production. The book it's based on The Blue Room begins with the image of a man contemplating his mistress, 'naked still on the ravaged bed, her legs apart, a few drops of semen clinging to the dark hair, shadowy between her thighs. One of my favourite adaptations from a Simenon book of the last generation is 's Monsieur Hire , starring a typically mournful Michel Blanc alongside the beautiful Sandrine Bonnaire.
Though Simenon boasted he'd boiled his vocabulary down to 2, words he's surprisingly difficult to read for the non-native French fan in the original as he's all about atmosphere, and Patrice Leconte's stylish film reflects that.
Having scripted all six of his tremendous films thus far, Ceylan is open to taking on an adapted script. I couldn't make an adaptation yet but I want to do it some day. He could do worse than looking at the work of someone with whom he shares many concerns and conceits. A tasty early novel, The Window over the Way , features a Turkish diplomat caught in a possible honeytrap in the Black Sea port of Batumi. Feeling under the weather, Adil Bey demands to see a doctor.
Related: how Jean Gabin starred in many Simenon film adaptations. Posted by Omer Ali at Labels: books , film , Nuri Bilge Ceylan , Simenon.
