bookshelves: debut, autumn-2013, published-2013, fradio, france, art-forms, radio-4, period-piece, glbt
Read from October 26 to November 08, 2013


R4 Drama

BBC BLURB: Honor Blackman, Shelley Conn, Mariah Gale and Samantha Spiro star in Beatrice Hitchman's thrilling debut, adapted by Miranda Davies. A 1914 silent film called Petite Mort holds the key to an infamous murder trial.

1967, Paris. A young journalist, Juliette Blanc (Shelley Conn) investigates the mystery of a missing section of film from a recently rediscovered silent film print from 1914 - Petite Mort. She is contacted by an elderly woman, Adele Roux (Honor Blackman), the star of that infamous film, who seems keen to tell her story.

1913, Paris. The young Adele Roux (Mariah Gale) arrives at the gates of the Pathe film studios, determined to fulfil her ambition to become a screen actress, like her heroine 'Terpsichore' - the beautiful actress, Luce Durand (Samantha Spiro). But her path to fame is not straightforward.

Produced and directed by Emma Harding.

1. 1967, Paris. Young journalist Juliette Blanc investigates the mystery of a missing section of film from a recently rediscovered silent film print from 1914 called Petite Mort.

2. 1913, Paris: The young Adele Roux attends an audition at the Pathe film studios. Paris, 1967: Journalist Juliette Blanc continues her interview with the enigmatic Adele Roux.

3. 1913, Paris: The young Adele Roux is taken by surprise, when her younger sister Camille turns up at her door.

4. Adele is now working as assistant to her screen heroine Luce Durand but betraying her with her husband Andre. However Adele's attraction to Luce grows ever stronger.

5. Adele and her mistress Luce begin a dizzying affair.

6. New Year 1914. Hurt and confused by Luce's treatment of her, Adele succumbs to temptation and betrays her lover.

7. The lovers plan to run away, but Luce doesn't yet know that Adele has taken a film part that she had been expecting to play.

8. Andre discovers Adele and Luce's affair - with violent consequences.

9. The young Adele Roux arrives in court to watch the trial of her former employers and lovers, producer Andre Durand and his beautiful screenstar wife Luce.

10. 1967, Paris. Juliette finally discovers the truth about the film of Petite Mort and the enigmatic Madame Roux.

Greek Mythology The Muse of dancing and choral singing.

Two timelines, fast pace, and if you think that waiting until next year for the next Sarah Waters is distressing then I suggest you may really enjoy this one for the interim. Excellent debut. 3.5*

Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring ( )

Recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of cinema, this is a fascinating reflection on the early days of the French Film industry: the book takes the form of an interview and switches between 1967 and 1913 as an elderly actress tells her story to a journalist.

Petit Mort is an erotic thriller, stylish and multilayered, focused around a rediscovered silent film: the mystery is unraveled slowly and with a wealth of subplots and distractions before hitting the reader with a sudden and unexpected twist. Written with delicate assurance, this debut novel marks Hitchman as an author to watch

Be warned however, none of the characters is particuarly likeable - especially not Adele Roux, around whom the tale revolves. The appeal she holds for the legendary [and secretly lesbian] actress Terpichore is unfathomable... ( )

Moody and atmospheric. This is an interesting exploration of the history of early cinema.

http://wp.me/p20PAS-ia ( )

It is 1913, and Adèle Roux is a provincial girl with ambition, who dreams of the glittering world of film and becoming an actress. Determined to escape her abusive father and make her mark, she departs for Paris, but the closest she can get to fulfilling her dream is accepting a job as a costumière at the Pathé factory. When one of the directors, André Durand, sets his sights on her, she doesn’t hesitate to use her affair with him to improve her position, even when he moves her into the house he shares with his actress wife, Terpsichore. As time progresses, suppressed passions are brought to the surface and escalate in an act of violence, that has life-changing consequences for all the participants.

Oh dear, it looks like I’m going to be the odd one out again with a more critical review. I liked it, for the most part, but wouldn’t rave about it like the other reviewers did, there were just too many inconsistencies in it for that, which continue to niggle even now I’ve finished the book. This is not what I have in mind when I write in a review that a novel stayed with me long after the last page has been turned.

It's a slow starter and remains more of a character study until approximately two-thirds of the way through, but the promise of murder and mystery kept me going, even though I often felt my thoughts drifting off towards the next book I've got lined up. The novel is told from Adèle's point of view, in flashback, to an investigative reporter, who has been given an exclusive after a film from 1914, thought to have been lost in a devastating fire that destroyed the Pathé factory, has turned up unexpectedly. Without warning, the perspective of the first-person narrator changed to that of the journalist, and I was left confused for a minute until I had worked out what had happened, and from then on I was forewarned whenever the timeframe switched to 1967. Adèle starts to tell her tale in the present tense, then jumps to the past tense and back again, often in the same chapter, without any apparent reason, occasionally relating events out of order, which was simply puzzling at first and then became distracting and irritating. The reader is subjected to very intricate background stories for the principal characters, told in third person, that were not all necessary to understand their personalities and motivations, especially as it turns out that those stories were also related by Adèle, who cannot possibly have known all the details. On the plus side, Beatrice Hitchman's writing is lovely, and she handles her characters confidently and evokes the atmosphere of Paris before the First World War and the strained relations in the Durand household beautifully. The nature of the final twist did indeed come as a surprise but did not have me convinced for one minute. A shame, I had expected more, but I'm certain Beatrice Hitchman's name will be one to watch. A generous four stars.

(This review was written as part of Amazon's Vine programme.) ( )